The Education Chair of the Internet Society (ISOC) – Ghana Chapter, Samuel Nii Dodoo, has called for the establishment of a Council for E-learning, to help improve teaching and learning in the country.
He said E-learning is often regarded as a ‘new’ form of learning that uses the affordances of the Internet to deliver customized, interactive, learning materials and programmes to diverse local and distant communities of practice.
He also called for a paradigm shift, from the brick and mortar/one-jacket fits all education to create room for open schooling.
Mr. Dodoo made the call in Accra, during the 2016 Ghana Internet Governance Forum (IGF) meeting on the theme: “Building a Strong Multi-Stakeholder Model for a Sustainable Development of the Internet in Ghana”.
The Forum sought to discuss key issues on Internet Governance in Ghana, such as cyber security, affordable access, critical internet infrastructure, data protection and openness, child safety and many other topical issues on global IGF scenes, which are also relevant to Ghana.
Mr. Dodoo gave statistics on the Global E-Learning Revenues as 2011 – $35.6 billion, 2016 – $51.5 billion; whereas in Africa E-Learning Revenues were 2013 – $332.9 million and 2016 – $512.7 million.
He said there was evidence that the ever increasing African population was willing to engage with new technology-based tools to improve their education and knowledge.
He said in the situation where physical educational infrastructure could not be expanded at the rate at which the population is increasing, the globally known technology adopted is, E-learning.
On the prospects of E-learning, Mr Dodoo said, it was flexible, of good quality, accessible and cost effective for an individual to undertake.
He said E-learning could help institutions increased their enrolment; and that it was cost effectiveness, optimize of resources and is of international dimension to the educational experience.
Ms Dorothy Gordon, the Director-General of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, said it was high time the private sector takes the lead in promoting the use of E-learning.
Speaking on the importance of this year’s forum, Mr Eric Akumiah, Coordinator IGF, Ghana said, “this year we want to focus on the model that will help us create awareness on internet government issues and sustain the discussions into the future.”
He said Internet Governance forums seek to bring stakeholders together to meet and share experience on what they have been doing and collaborate where the need arises to develop the internet.
Ghana IGF is a forum that seeks to bring all stakeholders of the Internet including users, network operators, lawyers, and software developers to discuss governance issues around the Internet in Ghana.
The 2016 Ghana IGF is being held in the light of massive infrastructure developments over the last few year and issues of security online.
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Source: GNA