The DRM Consortium participated in the 17th International Conference and Exhibition on ICT for Education, Training and Skills Development in Kigali, Rwanda, May 29-31, the second year of being present at this type of event, after Dakar, Senegal, last year.
Representatives of the DRM South Africa Group, Fraunhofer IIS and Starwaves presented the DRM eLearning project which fitted perfectly into the overall theme of the event “Education Fuels Innovation, Investment Amplifies Skills: Africa’s Vibrant Leap Forward”.
Key representatives of the DRM Consortium from the South Africa Group, Fraunhofer IIS and Starwaves presented the idea of delivering e-learning content via DRM in a small and Attractive booth hosted by the German Pavilion.
Johannes von Weyssenhoff (Starwaves and DRM Technical Committee chair) was invited to present the technology during the conference session “Empowering Rural Communities with Digital Solutions”.
This fitted perfectly into the overall theme of the event “Education Fuels Innovation, Investment Amplifies Skills: Africa’s Vibrant Leap Forward”.
During the three days of the conference and exhibition the DRM representatives conducted a lot of interesting discussions, especially with guests from East Africa, but also from Egypt, Senegal, Benin, Guinea and Nigeria, as well as with European participants and from other continents.
Some of the key points emerging after this event were that, as internet availability and affordability are limited on the African continent, access to e-learning content is seen as a supplement to traditional classroom teaching but also as a good and viable alternative to it.
On a continent where the digital divide is so marked and where the young generation is strong in numbers and in great need of information, education, training and upskilling, access to educational content is a major issue for all age groups, from pre-school to adult technical and vocational education and training.
During the Rwanda event the discussions tackled several scenarios for delivering eLearning; one was to use local or community transmitters for receiving the content terrestrially, without the need for internet. Mention was also made of using the existing transmission infrastructure, such as medium wave stations for wide-area coverage or VHF transmitter networks for local and medium area coverage. There is also the possibility, currently explored by the DRM education project, of using a shortwave transmitter for reaching regions from outside the targeted area or even the African continent itself.
If the technical solutions exist or can be upgraded, the biggest challenge for such a project remains getting all interested parties together to deliver a sustainable service on a regular basis.
For an introduction on how to deliver e-Learning content via DRM please visit: e-learning.drm.org.
If you have questions, want to cooperate with us or get closer to the DRM Consortium please write to: projectoffice@drm.org.
