Internet in Africa

• Media Awareness Network. A Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to media education and media issues affecting children and youth. This site contains a wide range of copy-right cleared resources for teachers, some of which include: an electronic "verticle file" of newspaper articles; over one hundred and fifty elementary and secondary lesson plans; an "Issues" section that explores privacy, portrayal of diversity, ownership and media violence; and advice to parents on encouraging media and web literacy in their homes -- to name just a few. En Français et Anglais.

• La toile des Nations Unies au Gabon. Experiences of local communities using internet in Gabon can be found in the website, as well as websites developped by youth.

• National Schools Network (South Africa). NSN is an Educational Trust formed to advance access to and use of the Internet in all South African schools. has arisen from the successful regional school networks, which are school-driven, grassroots networking organizations. (See for example the Gauteng Schools Network and Western Cape Schools' Network). The NSN has been formed by end-user educators who believe that the Internet has a vital role to play in educational transformation.

• Teaching & Learning on the WWW. Here you will find hundreds examples of how the web is being used as a medium for learning. This searchable collection includes sites that range from courses delivered entirely via the web to courses that offer specific activities related to a class assignment or perhaps courses that offer class support materials via the web.

• Positive Lives. This initiative, hosted by DRIK (see other links on these pages) focuses on the human stories of those at the heart of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. Our hope is that by sharing these stories, we can face and challenge the myths and prejudices about HIV.

• Blue Webn. A searchable database of outstanding Internet learning sites categorized by subject area, audience, and type (lessons, activities, projects, resources, references, & tools). Blue Web'n does not attempt to catalog all educational sites, but only the most useful sites -- especially online activities targeted at learners.

• Rural Multipurpose Community Telecenters. In close collaboration with the Basic Education Division and UNESCO's Communication Sector, LWF is supporting the implemention of Multipurpose Community Telecenters, initially in 5 African countries (Benin, Mali, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda). The telecenters are seen as a means of providing affordable access to modern information and communication technology tools for development. The purpose of these demonstration pilot projects is to try out and test new technologies and applications, innovative policies, tariff structures and new technologies, and to demonstrate the impact of provision of such tools to populations in rural and remote areas on economic, social and cultural development.

• TERC. A nonprofit research and development organization committed to improving mathematics and science learning and teaching. Founded in 1965, TERC is internationally recognized for creating innovative curricula, fostering teacher professional development, pioneering creative uses of technology in education, contributing to educators' understanding of learning and teaching, and developing equitable opportunities for underserved learners. A truely inspiring site!

• Internet World Wide Namibia Index Page. This extensive site in Namibia (by Namibia's first full commercial on-line Internet Service Provider) contains an extensive database of online newspapers from approximately 90 countries with 1750 listings. Many sites are in English, but other languages, such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish are represented. It may be a little slower then most sites.

• Acacia Initiative (IDRC). The Acacia Initiative is an international effort to empower sub-Saharan African communities with the ability to apply information and communication technologies to their own social and economic development.
  Acacia est une initiative internationale destinée à conforter les efforts déployés en faveur des collectivités locales de l'Afrique subsaharienne, et notamment leur capacité de mettre les technologies de l'information et de la communication au service de leur développement social et économique.

• Finding Information on the Internet. A tutorial. Always wanting to study at the University of California in Berkeley? Check out this site, and learn to find what you are looking for on the web from your own chair.

• Summer Institute of Linguistics. The focus of this extensive site is the study of minority languages and cultures around the world. Academic domains represented here include linguistics, anthropology, translation, literacy, language learning, and computing.

• The "No Significant Difference Phenomenon". This site provides selected entries from the book, "The No Significant Difference Phenomenon" as reported in 355 research reports, summaries and papers -- a comparative research bibliography on technology for distance education.

• The Benjamin Franklin Institute of Global Education. The Franklin Institute is one of the main players in the yearly Global Learnday event. This site keeps you up to date as to what will happen with the next event, and it contains extensive archives of presentations related to the Internet, Distance Education, etc. A site to explore and learn from!

• Inter Links. an Internet navigator, resource locator, and tutorial. To learn more about what this site has to offer, take a look at the overview. Then dive in... We put it here, because it actually guides you on how to search what!

• World Links for Development (WorLD). A global collaborative learning program sponsored by the World Bank's Economic Development Institute. Apart from the fact that the site is just a very good resource, we include this link here because Learning Without Frontiers collaborates with the WorLD Program in several countries in Africa. While LWF primarily works with teacher training institutes, the WorLD Program links students and teachers in secondary schools in developing countries with their counterparts in industrialized countries for collaborative research, teaching and learning programs over the Internet. The site is available in English, French and Spanish.

• African Development Forum: Youth Focus. The mission of the ADF Youth Focus is to information and communication technologies to empower African youth. One can learn about the youth perspectives on the presentations and workshops held at the African Development Forum 1999 as well as new projects, programs, and initiatives.

• African'TI: Information Technologies in Africa. The Developpment of the new technologies of information and communication is a fact in the african countries too. This website offers a comprehensive vision of this evolution in the african continent in order to show the implication in spatial organization.
  En Français: Les nouvelles technologies sont souvent l'apanage des pays du Nord, mais force est de constater que les Nouvelles Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication ( les N.T.I.C) se développent très rapidement sur tout le continent africain. L'objectif de ce site est d'offrir une vision cohérente de cette évolution afin de pouvoir déterminer les implications d'un tel développement notamment sur le plan spatial.

• NASA's Educational Resources. NASA, the US Space Agency, is made up of many different programmes, each of which has fascinating learning resources available. One way to get into this vast amount of material is through this link (scroll down!!). The two categories to look for on this page are:
  • Online resources for educators
  • Education Home Pages by NASA Field Center (each one will have educational resources)

• DevMedia. Devmedia began as an e-mail listserve in 1994 to help exchange information on "Media for Development and Democracy." Now, with Devmedia web site they have a variety of new ways to stay informed and share information. List listserve members and Devmedia web site users generally include people interested in participatory and community uses of media: radio, video TV, and the Internet. (in English, French and Spanish!)

• The WWW Virtual Library Project. This very extensive resource on whatever subject you are looking for was started at CERN in 1991 by Tim Berners-Lee to keep track of the development of the World Wide Web that he had just created.

• NASA Langley's HPCC/IITA K-12 Program. They have some interesting course materials about teaching the use of the Internet in education.

• Teachers Talking About Learning (TTAL). Teachers Talking About Learning (TTAL) is designed to support the professional development of teachers in countries where UNICEF works. It aims to support teachers to explore ideas, discuss issues and take action through collaborative projects. 'Explore Ideas' section has a large selection of current articles, research, and opinions. 'Discuss Issues' section is an online community.

• Internet connectivity in Africa in April 1998. A thorough overview of the status of connectivity on the African continent. All you want to know about how the continent connects, backbone development, VSAT technology, pricing, market forces at work, and more. Also access to an overview of maps showing recent and old connectivity status on the continent

• LETSNet. A dynamic on-line environment where teachers can develop their understandings of the Web and find ways to effectively use - or make sense of - the World-Wide Web in their classrooms. To help teachers achieve these goals, we have organized teaching resources around classroom teachers' stories, including lesson plans, curriculum standards and guides, pointers to e-mail discussion lists, and many other Internet and Web materials.

• "Little Engines that Did" - Case Histories from the Global Telecentre Movement. An 80-page report on a series of case studies involving 10 telecentres around the world, by Richard Fuchs

• Physics Learning Resources on the Web. The software presented on this site are reasonably good examples of what can be done interactively on the Web to support learning. (Well, if they are not good, they are worth looking at to get ideas of what can be done!).

• The Gutenberg Project. This is a serious effort to provide on-line access to electronical versions of public domain material. From Shakespeare to an English translation of the Koran, you find it here!

• Education World. A search engine which allows searches along an index or keyword search in a database with resources, course materials and other stuff for planners, teachers, learners, and other interested surfers.

• The African Virtual Tutorial. A vast amount of information about Africa is available on the World Wide Web. Most of the sites providing such information, however, are specialized, and few if any provide a comprehensive array of Africa-related linked in a single, easily usable site. As the amount of accessible information about Africa increases, so too does the need for a for a well-organized, geographically-based site drawing together African resources.