Week 7 Africa

Africa is an example of a country that is using E-learning to educate its students. E learning in Africa on this site is emphasising it as a positive thing because of the boundaries it breaks down in Africa’s education system. For example, there is an example written about yellow fever and how e learning allows students to learn even when there is an outbreak of this disease, how women are able to learn on the computer when they are usually over looked in the education system and also people in rural areas are still able to learn. This emphasises the idea of techno-determinism and the way that technology has advanced in order to shape people’s needs. In this case, the women and children needed a better way of learning and so E-learning was formed in order to compensate it. The idea of E learning despite its positives in this particular country, like the post before, raises questions about the quality of the education that the students are receiving. The internet throughout this course has been described as an open architecture, with the produser being able to build on the subjects as they wish. The idea of E- learning criticises this because the mass media are just being sent messages to do with education and are expected to learn them in order to pass a qualification. It questions like other internet websites, whether the user is able to criticise or add to the information being given or whether they just have to accept it in order to pass the course.

The idea of the internet being non-linear also questions the E-Learning subject. If students have to follow a guideline or search for their own information online, they will all perceive the information differently. As there is no ‘meat space’ arrangements all students could be following the rules differently and resulting in different work, which could question to what extent they audience are completely the course correctly?
Despite these criticisms E-Learning for a country like Africa is allowing some people to have a quality learning which may not have been possible before. Women and people in rural areas are now able to connect to the internet and widen their knowledge when before they have been over looked by the education system. So, because of this do you think that it matters that these students could be accepting messages and unable to ask questions, or do you think the fact that these people have the opportunity to widen their understanding and potentially change their career over rides this?