NEW! Fibre Optics to Revolutionize the Education Sector In East Africa
Written by Riziki Makokha |
Fibre optic cable laid by Kenya Data Networks (KDN) connects three East African capitals: Mombasa, Nairobi and Kampala. The 1, 500km broadband cable linked to the Seacom undersea cable is expected to reduce the cost of internet connection by more than 80 per cent much lower in comparison to the price of satellite. The broadband has a capacity of 1.28terabits per second. With better communication the world is now truly a global village.
Readily accessible bandwidth will not only lower telecommunications costs but also provide new opportunities practically in all sectors with the education sector as a major benefactor. The chances of congestion during browsing are reduced to almost zero.
ICT in Education
ICT is not only set to be the main pillar of growing East Africa’s economy, but a stimulant for the growth of education in the region. Access to education will be rejuvenated by the emerging technology. Through online resource centres and libraries, information and knowledge will be easy to access by learners and researchers. The internet is bound to reduce costs as e-books and other online learning materials become accessible.
This project comes with many attractive benefits. The TEAMS (The East African Marine System) Project marks a crucial turning point in our efforts to bridge the digital divide. It will empower East Africans to become fully digital citizens of the 21st Century. It redefines modernity and efficiency and is a big step in the delivery of quality service in the ICT sector.
Online notes and assignments
Teaching and learning will be more interesting; teachers will be able to post notes and assignments to their students on the Internet, teaching via the Internet via on-line classrooms, this will reduce large classrooms that characterize third world countries in Africa. Connecting classrooms at distant locations with high-quality video streaming, this will enable students to be taught by the best teachers in the subject. Teachers will also be able to teach in more than one school, which will be advantageous to students since they will be taught by experienced and highly trained facilitators. Through the use of high-definition learning tools, such as telepresence, a new way of videoconferencing that gives the users the appearance of being at the same location at the same; making multi-campus collaborative research projects possible.
Distance and open learning
Fiber optics will greatly benefit promotion of distance and open learning. Currently students studying through distance education experience difficulties in accessing educational materials owing to the slow internet connections they use. Lecturers will be able to post notes to them and guide their students on what to do.
Head of Corporate Relations, Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, Makerere University, Michael Niyitegeka said he was optimistic that the fibre-optic cable will make communication more affordable and reduce on time and money spent on transport and hotel expenses. “This shall encourage innovativeness and creativity among students in ICT by providing laboratories to grow their talents through continued assimilation in the inter-connected world”.
Research Partnership and collaborative Programs
Today, so much in teaching and research can only happen through partnerships, and fibre optics brings it to East Africa a first-rate connective fibre for allowing college and universities to work together on teaching and research projects to help build their communities, and the world at large. Education is built on the cornerstone of research, with easy access to information by the Internet. Research shall be boosted. At the click of a button information shall be retrieved. Having optical fiber circuits connected directly to advanced networks of North America via the Pacific Northwest Gigapop provides enormous opportunities for collaborative programs amongst East African Universities and Colleges.
The most significant achievement in bridging this transoceanic digital divide will be our newly acquired abilities to traffic in high quality remote sense, video, sound, and multimedia material as well as in huge scientific datasets and other demanding digital objects like medical images. This will make virtual neighbors out of our fibre optic networks and resources across the world. Exploiting such mechanisms to develop relationships between researchers is key to fostering and sustaining excellence in research, education, and economic development.
Colleges and Universities
Fibre optics will allow East African colleges and universities to collaborate at a much higher level than was ever thought possible. It will strengthen every aspect of the state’s educational offerings, and it will greatly expand East Africa’s capacity to conduct basic scientific research. It will also ensure that East Africa continues its growth as one of the region’s premier destinations for life sciences and biotechnology investment. It will increase collaboration among research institutions in the Universities Collaboration among researchers and students “down under” with those in developed nations; “First Class university” students will be able to exchange ideas with students from East Africa thus expanding the academic Kingdom.
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