Scholarship Study Tour

This report is about Natalie Denmeade’s 2016 Study Tour to South and East Africa – This work was produced with funding from a NSW Premier Scholarship. It includes six case-studies of Gamification in Education. The recommendations are that TAFE NSW promote their excellent World Wide English resources to meet demands in East Africa, and that […]

A long flight is a good chance to reflect on all of the interviews I have conducted in the last month. My tour started with protests in South Africa over the affordability of education to the middle and lower classes in the #feesmustfall campaign. My time in Tanzania ended with increasing tensions over a disputed

The winning team from the eLearning Africa Hackathon 2015 was Afrione. The members, from Congo, Kenya, and Madagascar, had an idea to create a virtual world that represents each of their cultures. Basic elements like houses, utensils, and greetings would introduce children to unique features of many tribes around Africa. The aim is to be

The theme of my Study Tour was Gamification and mobile technology, which is epitomised by the team at Ubongo Studios in Dar Es Salaam who create an edu-cartoon watched by over 1.4 million Tanzanians. Children watching the Saturday morning shows are invited to interact live through basic mobile phones. The talking / rapping Giraffe will

Zanzibar has a mix of traditional and contemporary culture. As a popular tourism location, English and Hospitality Skills are highly valued. I had the opportunity to discuss Education with many people. The stories below represent a mix of on the job training provided by corporate NGO organisations, Vocational College Training, Informal , Apprentice and self-led

My guide for my few days at the (mostly) Australian sponsored School of St Judes was Enock, a 2015 graduate. He started at St Judes as a young child and is now ready for University. One of the many things we discussed was the difference between the traditional behaviour management techniques used in Tanzanian public

I was invited to visit Buni, an innovation hub in Dar Es Salaam. This is an open office for young innovators and entrepreneurs. The facilities include a meeting room, training room, computers, and a maker space. The smart houses in the video are part of a recent project which aimed to encourage young women to

The Global Learning Xprize challenge is to develop an Open Source  solution to teach 7 – 10 year old children basic literacy and numeracy.  Android tablets will be distributed to remote villages in East Africa with pre-loaded educational content. Pre and post tests after 18 months will identify which team’s approach is the most successful.

My Perth stop over, as part of my NSW Premiership scholarship study tour,  was an ideal opportunity to drop in to the Moodle HQ offices and meet Martin Dougiamas and the Moodle  HQ – headquarters – team. The very sleek new office has room for three times the current number of staff, which is a