The recent move by the network provider Cell C (one of the largest network providers) in South Africa to provide free access (no data charges) to social media platforms such as Whatsapp and Facebook was not only a well thought marketing plan but also meant more connectivity for students across the country. With many existing examples of how social media can be used to support learning, amongst other platforms, Whatsapp as a platform has been used by innovative educators to provide learning information. This also considering the mobile device as a complimentary platform with an ever growing penetration rate across the world with the mobile phone as the highest used device accessing the Internet, this according to the recent ITU report.

This also follows the much petitioned request also by children in South African schools to have Wikipedia freely accessible. Wikipedia is now also freely accessible to children in South Africa, opening up a world of knowledge. These initiatives were not the first initiatives of freely available resources with other leading companies such as Vodacom and MTN (also a network provider) having also enabled its users to access applications such as MoMaths freely, enabling more access to learning while increasing mobile learning platforms for students across the country.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Jun 17, 2017 Michael Gallagher Comment

Surveillance and silence: the rise of curbs on communication

Surveillance and the lack of security are two of the larger issues in the world of ICT4D precisely because they attack the very trust and openness that predicates much of what makes the internet a potentially valuable tool for development. Imagine for a moment how much of what we do online is predicated on trust. From online banking or shopping, to mobile or eHealth initiatives, to basic education and communication. All of it is predicated to some degree on the belief that I am safe, I am secure, and I am being left alone. Surveillance and the lack of security attack all of these.

Jun 5, 2017 News Panoply Digital, Associates, ICT4D Michael Gallagher Comment

Panoply Digital and new directions: introducing our new Associates

We are expanding a bit, so I wanted to take a brief moment to introduce the newest additions to Panoply Digital. The Panoply Digital Associates joined us in 2017 and represent some of the brightest lights in the field bringing with them considerable capacity for knowledge management, for programming, evaluation, informatics, and more. Truly an exceptional bunch.

May 8, 2017 Education, News edtech, education, elearning, mobile learning Michael Gallagher Comment

The Myopia of Student Surveillance: Lazy Edtech and Lax Data Protection

The world of educational technology is clearly a favorite subject of mine, particularly as it applies to developing contexts. We have seen an almost litany of attempts, some seemingly well-intentioned and others not so much, to avoid the dirty work of teacher training in favor of automation or some sort of teach by numbers approach (see any number of posts we have done on this). We have seen some naive approaches to student surveillance and lax approaches to protecting the data that emerges as a result. All of this is, more or less, an effect of neoliberal policy designed, overtly or not, to pull back or disinvest from commitments to the public sector at the national level, in favor of privatization or whatever the market will bear. In some communities, this means a repurposing of education towards a more market orientation. In other communities, particularly developing nations, this is a process a bit more fraught with danger.

Apr 9, 2017 Education, News, Position Pieces ICT4D, Kenya, education, neoliberalism Michael Gallagher Comment

Steer clear of the bridge: Bridge International Academies in Kenya, neoliberalism, and lazy shortcuts to meaningful education

Returning to a favorite subject of mine, discussed here and here in past posts, is the ongoing Bridge Academy debacle throughout the continent, but particularly in Kenya, which has now turned legal.

“Lawyers for the for-profit chain secured a temporary court order preventing Wilson Sossion, General Secretary of the Kenyan National Union of Teachers (KNUT), and the union or its “agents,” from publicly criticizing Bridge “pending” a court hearing. Bridge accuses Sossion of putting a “malicious post on twitter about the institution.” Sosson accused Bridge of recruiting the “richest of the poor at great cost of those families.”

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