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Bring your own Technology? We wish

GeSCI Admin Account — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:59:16 +0100

My colleague recently sent me a link to an article which discussed the merits and demerits of a new trend in the American schooling system, namely, B.Y.O.T – Bring your own Technology or B.Y.O.D. – Bring your own Device. In the article, and following a description of this growing fashion, the author asked if such a trend was positive, given that it might contribute to inequality of access to learning, with students bringing devices with varying degrees of sophistication. When I consider this argument in the African context I can’t help but feel a little exasperated by the precious attitude harbored towards education in other parts of the world. In Africa, or at least in East Africa, there is already gaping inequality in access to education between urban and rural, and between the vast majority of people and the thin wedge of people described as the rising middle class, and between them and the top 1% of elite with access to vast wealth and the best education money can buy - anywhere in the world.

Innovation Forum Part 2

GeSCI Admin Account — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:51:28 +0000

One of the highlights of GESCI's policy forum on innovation and skills development (held end of January in Nairobi, Kenya), was the presentation of research on the use of technology, skills development, learning models for innovation and employment in the knowledge society. Mary Hooker of GESCI presented the context for the research, which looked at the role of informal learning environments in the development of 21st century skills for innovation and enterprise in East and Southern Africa. More specifically, the research asked what 21st century skills do youth need in order to function as participative citizens of a Knowledge Society? It also endeavored to identify the skills required by the growing creative digital media industry in the 21st century, and how digital creative media skills are being developed in Africa, and what role innovation hubs can play in their development?

Blazing a trail for the development of East Africa’s Digital Creative Media Industry

GeSCI Admin Account — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 08:35:25 +0000

A presentation of digital creative media (DCM) work by 15 talented young Kenyans was recently show-cased at Nairobi’s Alliance Francaise. It didn’t follow the usual graduation ceremony format. There were no esteemed academics present, robes, parchment, wall hangings of student final projects or long formal speeches. What was presented was an enthralling series of show reels of new digitally produced music, a mobile device puzzle game with touch screen controls, an Afro-contemporary fusion animation feature, and Afro-futuristic graphics and new imagery.

The students produced this work after just 12 weeks of digital creative media skills development in an informal collaborative learning environment led by four young industry savvy DCM free-lancers from Kenya.

Jerome Morrissey, GESCI CEO and advocate for the mobilization of Kenya’s digital cultural industry, opened the graduation event by stressing the pivotal role the arts can play in job creation and revenue generation. Citing Ireland as an example of a country that went from digital cultural obscurity in the early 90s to being the second biggest animation producer in the world today, Mr. Morrissey encouraged the development of digital creative media skills in Kenya so that the cultural industries have the human resources required to develop.

From left: Brian Brian Waigwa Kinyua – Games and Apps Development Tutor; Kelvin Kim, Graphics and Photography Tutor, and Allan Mwaniki Animation Tutor

Innovation Forum Part 1

GeSCI Admin Account — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 06:55:08 +0000

Bridging the gap between innovation, and education and skills development : Policy makers, entrepreneurs, researchers and Kenya’s digital creatives have their say Part 1

GESCI recently held an innovation forum in Nairobi which engaged a wide variety of innovation stakeholders in a debate on the critical link between skills development and education, and innovation and enterprise creation. The forum put forward the question, what links them all together and how can education, and science technology and innovation policies create an enabling environment in which free enterprise can thrive?

The area of skills development has come under close scrutiny by African governments and donors, both keen to mitigate the alarming levels of youth unemployment in most sub-Saharan African countries, through technical and vocational skills development (TVSD). So why is it so difficult to furnish talented youth with the right skills to galvanise emerging economies?

African policy makers meet digital media leaders to discuss the development of a skilled workforce

GeSCI Admin Account — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:18:22 +0000
On Tuesday and Wednesday at Nairobi’s Kenya Institute of Education (KIE), policy makers and researchers will meet some of the great talent driving Africa’s creative digital media industry to discuss how policy can be better developed and implemented to nurture innovation, entrepreneurship and enterprise in Africa. The two day event titled, Forum for an Inclusive Policy Environment for Innovation, Youth Skills Development, Entrepreneurship and Enterprise, is being held by GESCI and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and will host experts on ICT, Education and Science, Technology and Innovation from ministries across several African countries. Joining them will be advisers from Finland’s South African and Kenyan embassies, leading policy specialists from UNESCO, UNICEF and USAID, entrepreneurs, cultural media proponents, and technologists.

New Science, Technology and Innovation policy set to drive all sectors of Gambian economy

GeSCI Admin Account — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 11:32:32 +0000
At a meeting to review Gambia’s draft policy on STI, the Chancellor of the University of the Gambia, Professor Muhamadou O. Kah, described Science, Technology and Innovation as affecting every social and economic problem facing the Gambia, and all African nations. Education will receive considerable attention in the new policy, and not just higher education. Professor Kah is of the view that science education must begin in early childhood and ‘be linked to issues and problems that are directly relevant to students' day-to-day experiences’. He expressed his belief that the STI education policy could transform the entire education system by making learning interactive, relevant to a changing society’s needs, and focused on higher order thinking skills as opposed to rote learning.

Digital Creative Media Showcase and a chat with Juliani

GeSCI Admin Account — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 09:30:19 +0000
For just over a month now sixteen students under the tutelage of four local professionals, with the assistance of four tutors from the Ballyfermot College of Further Education, have been able to hone their skills in graphic design, gaming, music and animation as part of the GESCI African Knowledge Exchange project. The overall idea is to empower these students to tell their own stories, to share the Kenyan (or African) cultural heritage and modern vision.
Digital Creative Media Blog

Introducing Nairobi's first Tech Salon

GeSCI Admin Account — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 08:47:26 +0000
Friday the 30th of October, was, as it happens, the day of the inaugural Nairobi Technology Salon. In fact it was the first of its kind to be held in Africa, highlighting Kenya’s advanced position within the ICT sector on the continent. A Technology Salon is “an intimate, informal, and in person, discussion between ICT experts and international development professionals, with a focus on both technology's impact on donor-sponsored technical assistance delivery, and private enterprise driven economic development, facilitated by technology.”
In addition it employs the Chatham House Rule, which means that what is said in the discussion can only be attributed to the Salon itself, not to any specific participant. This fostered a very open-hearted and interesting dialogue that will make the end user of any project delivered by the participants’ organizations the real winner.

Collaboration for innovation, creative minds from Ireland and Kenya launch a new course in Digital Creative Media in Nairobi

GeSCI Admin Account — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 20:53:49 +0000
This week, at Nairobi’s Kenya Institute of Education (KIE), 16 aspiring young digital creatives are gathering together with experts and tutors in animation, graphic design, gaming and apps development, and digital music production, from Ireland and Kenya, to embark on a three month pioneering multi-disciplinary course in digital creative media. The practical initiative, which is the brain-child of GESCI, funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, and hosted by KIE, is designed to furnish talented Kenyan youth with the kind of digital creative media skills that knowledge intensive industries now demand, both in Kenya and beyond. It is designed by experts from Ireland’s Ballyfermot College of Further and Higher Education, which is renowned for the outstanding quality of its courses, having produced graduates who have excelled both nationally and internationally in a range of creative disciplines. .

A New Experience in Kibera by Mathias Antonsson

GeSCI Admin Account — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:45:33 +0000
Last Monday I started my new job at GESCI in Nairobi, Kenya. Technically I’m hired by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), and they seconded me to GESCI. In short I’m here to promote the use of ICT4D in education in East Africa. As such I have been assigned to gather information on how ICT is being used to promote Digital Media Arts (photography, film making, animation, graphic design etc.) in Kenya, and at a later stage the same in Zambia. Interviewing different key actors I’ve been touring the city with a colleague and that is how I ended up visiting Kibera slum yesterday.

Fully funded Training Opportunity in Digital Creative Media and Animation

GeSCI Admin Account — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 13:45:20 +0100

Fully funded Digital Media Training Opportunity for Kenyan Youth

GeSCI Admin Account — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 08:12:23 +0100
We’re delighted to announce a new training opportunity for Kenyan youth with an interest in digital creative media. The training program runs from 1st November 2012 - 8th February 2013 and is open to youth who have artistic abilities and want to develop their digital creative media skills with a view to building a career within the cultural industries. About the Training Program GESCI is launching an innovative training program focused on the development of digital creative media skills, together with a team of tutors from Nairobi and the Irish School of Animation at Ballyfermot College of Further Education. The training program runs for three months and covers four areas of digital media production: - Animation - Graphics new imagery - Development of games and mobile apps - Creative sound production for digital media

Fully funded Digital Media Training Opportunity for Kenyan Youth

GeSCI Admin Account — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 08:24:09 +0100
We’re delighted to announce a new training opportunity for Kenyan youth with an interest in digital creative media. The training program runs from 1st November 2012 - 8th February 2013 and is open to youth who have artistic abilities and want to develop their digital creative media skills with a view to building a career within the cultural industries. About the Training Program GESCI is launching an innovative training program focused on the development of digital creative media skills, together with a team of tutors from Nairobi and the Irish School of Animation at Ballyfermot College of Further Education. The training program runs for three months and covers four areas of digital media production: - Animation - Graphics new imagery - Development of games and mobile apps - Creative sound production for digital media

The final leg of the African Leadership in ICT course opens at AUC HQ Addis

GeSCI Admin Account — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 07:17:19 +0100
We're here in Addis for the opening of African Leadership in ICT final workshop, where Africa's future leaders in science, technology and innovation, education, and ICT will gather to develop the first ever cross cutting knowledge society roadmap for policy development in Africa. Speaking at the opening of this landmark event are Dr. Helena Tapper, ALICT Programme Manager and STI specialist, Jerome Morrissey, GESCI CEO, and Dr. Jyrki Pulkkinen, a senior education adviser to the Finnish Govt, and Dr. Moctar Yedaly from the AUC.
ALICT Final Workshop Day 1 Morning August 27th

Tánaiste Launches DCU/GESCI Partnership

GeSCI Admin Account — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 10:16:51 +0100
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ireland Eamon Gilmore TD today launched a new partnership between Dublin City University and the Global eSchools and Communities Initiative which will see senior government officials across Africa study for DCU postgraduate awards in the area of ICT and the Knowledge Society. The partnership was formalized through an MoU signed in Nairobi by Jerome Morrissey, CEO of GeSCI and Ciarán Ó Cuinn, Executive Director of External & Strategic Affairs at DCU in the presence of the Tánaiste.

Kenyans are now eligible to apply for a place on ALICT round two!

GeSCI Admin Account — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 11:01:45 +0100
Over half-way through a very successful first round of the African Leadership in ICT course, GESCI is preparing to launch the second round of the course in October 2012. Applications are now being accepted from Rwanda Mozambique, Uganda, Botswana, Ethiopia, Namibia, Kenya and Malawi . To be eligible to apply candidates must work for a ministry, public sector organisation or public research institution or university. ALICT is an intensive online, offline and applied learning professional course to build leadership capacity for the advancement of the knowledge society across Africa.Please ensure you meet the criteria before applying online through the GESCI website.

Kenya has been added to the list of eligible countries for the next round of ALICT!

GeSCI Admin Account — Thu, 31 May 2012 14:08:48 +0100
Over half-way through a very successful first round of the African Leadership in ICT course, GESCI is preparing to launch the second round of the course in October 2012. Applications are now being accepted from Rwanda Mozambique, Uganda, Botswana, Ethiopia, Namibia, Kenya and Malawi . To be eligible to apply candidates must work for a ministry, public sector organisation or public research institution or university. ALICT is an intensive online, offline and applied learning professional course to build leadership capacity for the advancement of the knowledge society across Africa.Please ensure you meet the criteria before applying online through the GESCI website.

Majority of children can’t keep pace with school curricula

GeSCI Admin Account — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:05:35 +0100

Let’s move from schooling to learning. That’s one of the key messages I took away from this excellent report from the Center for Global Development, which presents empirical evidence to support a suspicion that many of us working in education already harbour – that the gap between schooling and actual learning in developing countries is growing. The report, which presents the findings from a series of studies that tracked changes in student skills per year of schooling in South Asia and Africa (including Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda), finds that:

Seeking future leaders from 7 more African countries

GeSCI Admin Account — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 09:22:10 +0100
The African Union and GESCI can now release the list of 7 African countries that will be participating in the next round of the African Leadership in ICT course which commences in October 2012. ALICT launched in January in Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa and Mauritius.

New Innovation to provide work for many in Kenya

GeSCI Admin Account — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 14:25:39 +0000

“Microwork” is known as the breaking down of a project into a series of small tasks that can be carried out by a number of different individuals.

Samasource is a social enterprise that has taken the business of microwork to the world’s poor through their microwork distribution platform. Projects are broken down into small manageable digital tasks and distributed to large numbers of individuals.
Each individual is responsible for specific task completion and is paid accordingly. Collectively the job is completed.