I made several visits to South Africa during the early years of this century 2000-2004. I did several trips to Johannesburg, all business trips.
I have been deeply impressed and inspired with my experiences on how e-learning was implemented and made a huge social impact.
In South Africa there were numerous tribal hamlets (50-100 families) which were far flung, and in remote areas. Most of these locations had no access by Road. Some of these locations even had challenges getting potable water. They had to walk long distances to fetch water.
However, there was a quiet revolution that was happening in these villages. Traveling in small planes and using small rough runways to land and take-off, A Government funded project had installed solar panels in these remote villages.
It brought them from darkness at night to electric lighting at night, from Batteries charged by solar panels.
VSAT terminals were installed in these villages, with terminal end equipment/receivers. Also powered by Solar energy. A small studio was setup in Johannesburg from where teachers would broadcast lessons live via satellite to these remote villages. A big step to take education to the remotest and highly challenging terrains and habitats.
The children had access to education. In these villages Radio transmitters were setup, also powered by solar energy. Interaction with the teacher in the studio was made possible via Radio.
In summary live lectures were broadcast via satellite connections and VSAT to the villages, and the return path required for live interactions was powered by Radio.
The lives of the children was undergoing a huge paradigm shift. Awareness, literacy levels and education.
I was fortunate to witness this in real, and even had pictures from that time. I found a couple of them online.
Today we are fortunate to have internet access and Education technology is not as challenging as it was at one time.
This made a huge impact in my life and was the beginning of my journey in online education.Create Acceptance Case Study
