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Africa: eLearning Africa
AfricaFocus Bulletin
May 29, 2007 (070529)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
Over 1200 eLearning enthusiasts from 85 countries are attending the
annual eLearning Africa conference in Nairobi this week. The
countries with the largest participation are the host, Kenya,
followed by Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda.
The event, taking place from May 28 to 30, attracts top
policymakers as well as African and international specialists who
are actively engaged in a host of innovative initiations to make
use of technology for African education at all levels. Last year's
conference, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, attracted 832 participants
from 80 countries, 70% of them from Africa.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains interviews by the eLearning
Africa press team with two participants: Dr. Tunde Adegbola, who is
working on applying speech recognition technology to African tone
languages such as Yoruba, and Dr. Elijah Omwenga, director of ICT
Services at the University of Nairobi, speaking about the African
Network of Scientific and Technological Institutions (ANSTI), which
groups 99 member institutions.
Additional background information and interviews are available on
the eLearning Africa website at:
http://www.elearning-africa.com/press_kit.php
Interviewees include Ms. Aida Opoku-Mensah, of the Economic
Commission for Africa, Ms. Shafika Isaacs of Schoolnet Africa,
Kuzvinetse Peter Dzvimbo of the African Virtual University, and Ms.
Faith Macharia, of the Forum for African Women Educationalists
(FAWE).
For earlier AfricaFocus Bulletins on ICT and Africa, see
http://www.africafocus.org/ictexp.php
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Interview with Dr. Tunde Adegbola, African Languages Technology
Initiative (Alt-i)
Tunde Adegbola is Executive Director of African Languages
Technology Initiative, a research organisation with a mandate of
making modern ICTs relevant to African languages. A person with a
dual career - he is both a research scientist and a consulting
engineer. Mr. Adegbola was involved in investigating the
application of Cellular Automata Transforms (CAT) to psychoacoustic
theory for the compression of digital audio.
His current research interests lie primarily in ICT for development
and speech technologies, with particular interests in the Automatic
Speech Recognition (ASR) of African tone languages. Among his
achievements as a consulting engineer is the design, supply, and
installation of Africa Independent Television (AIT), as well as the
design of Channels Television and MITV, all in Lagos, Nigeria.
As Executive Director of Alt-i, he is actively involved in
promoting multidisciplinary and inter-disciplinary cooperation
between the sciences and the arts in Nigerian universities and
research centers. Tunde has extensive teaching experience, having
taught at the tertiary level from 1981 to the present. He taught
Telecommunications for many years at the Ogun State Polytechnic
(now Moshood Abiola Polytechnic) Abeokuta, Nigeria and has been
teaching Artificial Intelligence and Information Networking at the
post-graduate level in the Africa Regional Center for Information
Science at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria since 1991.
For more information: http://www.alt-i.org
QUeLa: Dr. Adegbola, the African Languages Technology Initiative is
working both in the fields of computational linguistics and
literacy improvement. How do you link these activities together?
Dr. Tunde Adegbola: As an organisation, the aim and core objectives
of the African Languages Technology Initiative (Alt-i) encompass
the need to make modern ICTs relevant to African Languages. As we
go further into the information age, more and more human
communication will be mediated by machines, and this will raise the
demand, not only for humans to communicate through machines but
also to communicate with machines. There is no reason whatsoever
why we should be made to do this in English. In order to achieve
these modes of communication in African languages however, there is
a need to supplement the present objectives of the study of
linguistics in African universities. Within the contexts of the
linguistics of African languages, we need to develop frameworks and
theories that can be passed on to and used by practitioners in
Human Language Technology (HLT). To this end, Alt-i is involved in
developing the relevant human and other intellectual resources to
facilitate this process.
Be that as it may however, we recognise the fact that modern ICTs
are almost infinitely modifiable. This is by virtue of the fact
that the hardware and software components are separate and can
therefore be appropriated to specific needs. For Africa and the
rest of the developing world, this is a fundamental capacity that
must be properly exploited. The possibility of adapting modern ICT
to our specific and unique needs puts great responsibility on us to
address our problems ourselves. Hence, in the process of developing
the resources that are needed to make modern ICTs relevant to
African languages, we also recognise, as a by-product, the capacity
to address some of the debilitating problems of African societies,
one of them being illiteracy. Because modern ICTs are inherently
multimedia in their manipulation of information, they hold great
possibilities for rejuvenating orality in Africa. We think the time
for "oral literacy" has come!
QUeLa. Could you tell us more about the particular linguistic needs
of Africans?
TA: Africans need to be able to live their lives in the 21st
century and profit from the information age within the context of
their local languages. They should not have to be able to speak
English, French, or Portuguese in order to profit from the
information age. There is an interesting and significant
correlation between the use of a community's mother tongue in the
learning of science and technology and the capacity to achieve
industrial breakthrough. We cannot ignore the manifestation of this
correlation in the success of the so-called Asian Tigers. If we
also observe the low state of industrialisation in African
countries in which people are still struggling to learn science and
technology in foreign languages, we should begin to make some
salutary conclusions. Because language is the fundamental vehicle
of information, the information age will surely demand a lot more
from language than the industrial age did. Hence, the impediments
of using foreign languages in our everyday lives is bound be more
serious in the information age.
Secondly, even though one third of the languages spoken in the
world are African languages, many of these languages do not have
writing systems. Many of those that are written have writing
systems that were not taken into consideration when the operating
systems for various computer platforms were developed. Hence, apart
of the traditional levels of endangerment that these languages
contend with - the inability to use them on modern ICTs - imposes
new levels of endangerment. The endangerment of a language also
implies endangerment of the cultures they bear and by extension,
the social, as well as the economic livelihoods of the people who
speak them.
At yet another level, due to the multiplicity of African languages,
there is usually a need for a third language (English, French, or
Portuguese) before two Africans from two different linguistic
realities can understand each other. This definitely will have some
effect on their ability to engage synergistically.
QUeLa: In what ways do your ongoing projects address these issues?
TA: Many African languages are tone languages, and these tones are
usually indicated by diacritical signs. Based on the design of most
computer operating systems, it is easy to place characters next to
each other but extremely difficult to place diacritical marks on
top of or under characters. Some African languages even use unique
letter forms that are not available in traditional computer
character sets. The UNICODE consortium is working on some of these
problems, but the onus still rest on the users of a language to
make UNICODE work for them. These are some of the challenges of
African languages that we address. We develop efficient and
ergonomic computer keyboard layouts and mapping software that make
it possible to type in African languages on the common desktop
computer.
In addition, we believe that one of the ways that modern ICTs can
benefit African languages is in machine translation. This will
obviate the need for a third language when two Africans from
different linguistic realities need to communicate and thereby
promote and enhance mutual understanding.
Above all, we are committed to developing speech recognition and
speech synthesis software for African languages. With speech
recognition, an illiterate person can speak to the computer, and
the computer will produce a written version of the speech. With
speech synthesis software on the other hand, a computer can turn
written text into speech. This holds the potentiality of redefining
literacy for us.
Even though these are still largely infant technologies, we must
ensure that African languages can benefit from them as soon as they
mature.
QUeLa: Your idea is to reinforce peoples' "capacity to interact
with literature" to enable them to do more than just concentrate
on reading and writing abilities. What is the philosophy behind
this approach?
TA: First, I must acknowledge the power of literacy. It takes
information and knowledge from the aural domain to the visual
domain. Certainly it does something good to the mind in that it
paints pictures. However, it presents a steep learning curve to the
learner, particularly to adult illiterates and thus weakens their
capacity to participate in development processes. The end result is
that these illiterates are excluded from the things that vitally
concern them regardless of the volume of information and knowledge
that they may have. The end result is that their already
impoverished communities are further deprived of the wealth of
their experiences just because these otherwise wise people cannot
write down their experiences or read the experiences of others.
Our goal, therefore, is to include such people in development
processes by providing them with alternative technologies to
pen-and-paper information technology. It should be possible to
provide them with computer-based systems equipped with
touch-sensitive CRT, LCD, or TFT screens with attached
loudspeakers, instead of the popular but exclusionary ink-stained
paper. Our ambition (among many other things) is to redefine
literacy, changing it from the "ability to read and write" to the
"capacity to interact with literature" and thereby change the
condition of African adult illiterates "from illiteracy to
e-literacy".
QUeLa: Could you give us any illustrative examples?
TA: For example, we have developed interactive information kiosks
that can be used to pass important information to illiterates in
their local languages. One of the most pressing information
dissemination demands in Africa today relates to the need for
heightened awareness of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. For many people
without the ability to read and write, word of mouth - with its
attendant risks of inaccurate reproduction - is about the only
option. Of course radio can and has been very well used in this
regard, but radio is essentially a one-way communication medium.
The broadcaster usually assumes she has been heard, understood, and
agreed with. With radio, useful as it is, the capacity for feedback
is limited. But these interactive information kiosks not only pass
vital information to their users, they also collect useful feedback
information from the users for the information providers. The
possibilities are almost limitless!
QUeLa: How far have you got with "Redefining Literacy"?
TA: We have obtained very useful research results in the process of
laying down a strong theoretical basis for the project. We are
collaborating with the Africa Regional Centre for Information
Science (ARCIS) and the Department of Linguistics and African
Languages, both in the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. To this end,
we have been engaging post-graduate students of the University in
aspects of the project and our research work is advancing,
particularly in Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) of Yoruba. In
addition, one of our associates, Dr. Tunji Odejobi, of the
Department of Computer Engineering at the Obafemi Awolowo
University, Ile Ife, Nigeria (just about an hour's drive away from
us in Ibadan) is also working on Text-To-Speech (TTS) Synthesis of
Yoruba, and we are sharing research results. With functional ASR
and TTS systems, we can redefine literacy.
Even though we conceived the "Redefining Literacy" project about
two years ago, we have been merely nibbling at the edges in the
first two years due to lack of funding for the project. But these
two years of nibbling have produced significant research results.
The encouraging research results have, therefore, emboldened us to
go out and seek funding for the project. Hence, we developed a
five-year plan for the first phase of the project, and we have
received some funding for the first year of the five-year plan from
the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA). We are now
working full blast on the ASR of Yoruba and are in the process of
developing a set of good practices for the ASR of other African
tone languages. Based on available research results, we expect to
deliver a functional speech recogniser for Yoruba by late 2007 or
early 2008.
Interview with Dr. Elija Omwenga, Director of ICT Services at the
University of Nairobi, Kenya
For more information: http://www.ansti.org
ANSTI, the African Network of Scientific and Technological
Institutions, is an organ of cooperation that embraces African
institutions engaged in university-level training and research in
the fields of science and technology. Founded in January 1980
through the financial support of the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Government of Germany, the
network has grown over the years to become an effective institution
for the development of human resource capacity in the fields of
Basic and Engineering Sciences. To date it has 99 member
institutions in 33 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
eLearning Africa: Could you explain the main focus of the UNESCO /
ANSTI ICT project?
Dr. Elija Omwenga: The central activity of the African Network for
Scientific and Technological Institutions is to train university
staff to enable them to convert lecture notes to eLearning format
and hence improve on the quality of science and engineering
education. In this connection, UNESCO has adopted a multi-stage
approach in which a needs assessment covering five East African
universities was done and areas that needed attention were
identified - chief of these being training in e-content
development.
Various e-content training programme approaches have been mounted.
First, a detailed e-content training curriculum was developed and
used during training-of-trainers workshops. Other activities
include assisting the trained staff to organise national training
programmes and providing some of them with grants to develop
eLearning materials in various subjects in science and engineering.
The original aim of ANSTI, which has remained unchanged over the
years, is to develop active collaboration among African scientific
institutions to promote research and development in areas of
relevance to the development of the region. ANSTI emphasizes the
pooling of resources available in the region to provide quality
training and research in various scientific disciplines. In order
to achieve this objective, ANSTI is engaged in numerous activities
that can be grouped into four programme areas: training, seminars,
and workshops; publications; the promotion of research and the
dissemination of information on issues relating to capacity
building in science and technology.
eLA: Is there a special need for teacher training in the
engineering and science education sector or is this a rather
general problem?
EO: There is a scarcity of engineering and science books in our
higher learning institutions, and it is imperative that we address
this problem with supplementary instructional materials. There is
also a dearth of qualified science and engineering lecturers, and
the few who are available should be complemented with
technology-mediated methods such as eLearning . In this connection,
UNESCO, working through its project (The African Network African
Network of Scientific and Technological Institutions - ANSTI)
embarked on a project to promote the use of ICT in science and
engineering courses eLA: Can you give some figures or practical
examples on the outcome of the UNESCO / ANSTI ICT project until
now?
EO: In order to address the problems of scarcity of books and
skilled manpower in the area of science and engineering fields, the
UNESCO office in Nairobi, which has regional responsibility for
science in Africa, has been pursuing a project to promote the use
of ICT in teaching and learning of science and engineering courses.
The main activity of this project is the training of university
staff to enable them to convert lecture notes into an interactive
eLearning format. In this connection, a multi-stage approach was
adopted. First, a self-learning course entitled "How to develop
e-content" was developed and distributed on CD to staff members
from several universities in the region. This CD served as a
catalyst to sensitize science and engineering academics in the
region to engage in the process of e-content development. A
regional e-content training and development workshop was then
conducted in Kigali, Rwanda, where 22 participants from twelve
African universities from eleven countries were trained and
mandated to organise national e-content development workshops in
their respective countries.
Three such workshops have been held, and seventy participants drawn
from universities in the host countries Ethiopia, Ghana, and Zambia
have been trained, with over thirty quality interactive course
modules developed. Other major outputs of this project have been
the engagement of other trained participants in developing more
eLearning modules on CDs; the development and deployment of tools
and Internet-based resources to assist in the e-content development
process; dissemination of the e-content products through the ANSTI
Virtual Learning Center; and the promotion of the of use
self-learning courses in getting acclimatized to the process of
e-content development. To date over 700 copies of the CD have been
distributed to staff from several African countries. Many more
staff members have received copies from friends.
eLA: The workshop is designed to explain the principles of creating
eLearning content for science and engineering education. Will it be
applicable for other subjects of study as well?
EO: Yes! The general principles of e-content development and
structuring are the same irrespective of the subject area.
eLA: What do you personally think are the main benefits of
technology-enhanced learning and teaching for Africa? What are the
critical points?
EO: There are many challenges facing Africa in terms of the quality
provision of courseware besides qualified manpower to teach and
conduct research. Technology-enhanced learning not only enables
scarce staff to teach large numbers, but it also provides an
enabling environment for sharing experiences, expertise and
possibly expensive equipment and resources through e-laboratories,
which otherwise are not within the reach of many universities.
Technology for its own sake is not meaningful for educational use;
it must be tailored and be as all-inclusive as possible. In this
respect, Africa must be ready to embrace ICTs by developing
strategic plans that are realisable. It is feared that with low
budgetary allocations for science, technology and related
disciplines, the benefits that are likely to occur will not be
obvious. The critical issue, therefore, is the need for policy
makers and decision makers to awaken to the call for greater
emphasis on technology-enhanced education. They then have to
improve budgetary allocations for it, enhance the skills of the
staff through training and increase access to the computing
resources for both staff and students.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with
a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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