Founded
in December of 1992 during two days of meetings hosted by Clark
Atlanta University. The sessions were chaired by Dr. Shelby Lewis,
Associate Provost at Clark Atlanta. Representatives from Kenyatta
University, the National University of Lesotho, the University of
Manchester, The University of Ottawa, Ohio University, Oklahoma
State University participated in the organizational meeting. Clark
Atlanta University was designated to be the lead university of the
AERN and Dr. Shelby Lewis was selected as Network Chair.
THE MISSION
of the AERN was to promote research capacity building through
collaborative actions aimed at increasing access which research
professors have to essential data bases, to strengthen the community
of scholars concerned with African development studies and to
utilize the emerging informational technologies to close the gap
between the educators in the information poor and the information
advantaged universities of sub-Sahara Africa and the “north.”
INITIAL ACTIVE MEMBERS
Menbers of the AERN included
North Carolina State University, Makerere University, The University
of Namibia, The University of Zimbabwe, Kenyatta University, Ohio
University, The University of Manchester, Clark Atlanta University
and the National University of Lesotho. Bayero University in Kano,
Nigeria, was a charter member but has been limited in participation
due to severe communication constraints.
KENYATTA UNIVERSITY
was the lead university of the AERN with Vice Chancellor George
Eshiwani as Chair and Professor OliveMugenda as Coordinator.
CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY
was the lead northern university of the AERN with Dr. Jacqueline
Howard Matthews as Coordinator.
EARLY DEVELOPMENTS
of the AERN included three initiatives to obtain funding for support
of faculty and programme development in the utilization of
Information Technology. The first attempt involved Kenyatta
University, The University of Zimbabwe and Makerere University in
cooperation with Clark Atlanta University, Ohio University and North
Carolina State in submitting an “invited” proposal to the United
States Information Agency. The second initiative involved The
National University of Lesotho and the University of Namibia in
cooperation with the same northern members in submission of an
“invited” proposal to The World Bank.Neither initiative was
successful for quite different reasons. The Ohio University
Library, in cooperation with the AERN, made two presentations to
USAID leading to a proposal concerned with electronic information
exchange as a means to strengthen resources of African university
libraries accessible to their faculties and graduate students. This
was not funded.
COMMUNICATION LINKAGES
have experienced modest success to date. The AERN Homepage has been
in operation since 1997 and has been visited on more than 5,000
occasions. The Homepage is hosted by North Carolina State
University. It is administered by
Dr. Kwabena Ofori-Attah of Cumberland College in Kentucky. The
AERN Listserv is hosted, also, by North Carolina State where it is
administered by
Dr. Sofus Simonsen. The Journal of Practice in Development
Education is published at the University of Manchester as an AERN
publication, edited by Professor John D. Turner.
MORE RECENTLY,
four African university members of the AERN have become partners in
the African Virtual University project of the World Bank. Initial
contacts between Etienne Baranshamaje, The Bank’s AVU manager, and
the AERN universities were promoted as an outcome of early visits to
Ohio by Mr.Baranshamaje. Finally, the interest of USAID in
supporting a strategic planning activity by the AERN members has
led to proposal development and revision by Professor Mugenda. A
meeting was held in Lesotho in July of 1999 to further consider the
status of the proposal and to do forward planning.
In September of 1999,
Professor Mugenda met in Atlanta with Dr. Sofus Simonsen of North
Carolina State University, Dr. Jacqueline Howard Matthews of Clark
Atlanta University and Dr. Milton E. Ploghoft of Ohio University to
brief them on the status of the proposal and to consider future
developments.
THE NEED FOR THE AERN,
or similar associations of African and northern universities, was
derived in large part from the studies of the crisis in research
capacities and the sharp declines in research resources of libraries
in African universities. The isolation of research professors, the
lack of access to information and the growing chasm between the
resources of the information rich north and the information poor
African institutions were cited by Trevor Coombe, by Kabiru
Kinyanjui, by Mayuri Odedra Straub, by George Eshiwani and others
who were studying the status of tertiary education in sub-Sahara
Africa in the period since 1980.
The uses of information
technology to increase purposeful communication amongst
researchers, to increase their access to data bases, periodical
literature and research reports was a high priority of the AERN.
WIDESEARCH was an
initiative of the northern members of the AERN in 1996, to serve
some of the reference needs of research professors and advanced
graduate students in AERN universities. The service was offered at
no cost to the users who could request specific bibliographic and
reference information by e-mail, fax or conventional mail. The
WIDESEARCH service received only moderate use by faculty and
graduate students in two of the AERN universities, most likely due
to the lack of dissemination of information about the service. It is
possible that the crisis in library research resources has
diminished and the need to use computer networking to increase
information access has lessened.
ANNUAL RESEARCH SURVEYS
was another initiative aimed at collecting and disseminating
information about current research activity in AERN universities and
sharing, as well, information concerning the priorities assigned to
various fields of educational research. Two AERN members have
responded.
PROSPECTS FOR FUTURE
COLLABORATIONS. It
appears that funding agencies such as USAID and foundations such as
Rockefeller, Ford and Carnegie, have a current interest in the
further development and application of information technology in
African education, especially to increase access and opportunity to
further education of rural and female populations, to strengthen
programmes in family and early childhood education and to improve
instructional programmes in the sciences and mathematics. The early
experiences of the AERN suggest that network wide projects may be
difficult to fund and to sustain, that project collaboration between
only two or three universities may have higher success
probabilities. It is within this frame of reference that exploratory
discussions are suggested to involve the University of Namibia and
Clark Atlanta University. At a later point it may be deemed
feasible to invite participation of one or more additional AERN
members depending upon the nature of the project(s) identified.
PROSPECTIVE DEVELOPMENT
AREAS:
1. Pilot offering of maths and
science courses for which software has been created, field tested,
revised and proven to be effective in raising levels of performance
by secondary and post secondary students.
2. The exchange of
selected courses between African and northern universities in
curriculum areas where “local” expertise may be limited. The courses
may be presented by various means to eventually include web based
offerings.
3. The targeting of WIDESEARCH
as a tool for research support for faculty members and advanced
students in those fields where there is
limited access to the information resources which can be offered by
northern AERN members and by access to the internet.
4. Faculty/staff development
seminars and institutes dealing with the uses of the INTERNET as an
instructional resource in the designing of courses, in support of
teaching and as a tool to be finally used by students. The uses of
information technology present complex issues for the professors,
academic administrators and certifying agencies, not the least of
which is the appropriate use and management of the vast resources of
the INTERNET. An initiative in this area will provide a cutting edge
experience for both African and northern universities.
5. Development of strategic
plans for the development and application of information technology
to the benefit of the national universities and the broader
socio-political communities of the nation.
6. Creation of an on-line
educational research journal which will specialize in reporting
the works of scholars committed to the study of African educational
development with such journal to be sited at an African university
of the AERN . The on-line journal was first considered at a meeting
of AERN representatives hosted by Clark Atlanta University in
September 1999. A further planning meeting was held in Washington in
April 2000 followed by a visit by Dr. Sofus Simonsen of North
Carolina State University to the University of Namibia where Dr.
Barnabas Otaala hosted discussions concerned with the creation and
operation of the on-line journal as a collaborative project of the
AERN.
7. Most recently, in the
Summer of 2000, the HIV/AIDS crisis has been identified by two AERN
universities as deserving of “north-south” collaboration in the
study and development of educational programming concerned with
home nursing practices and with the design of hospice type
services. University departments of public health and schools of
nursing have expressed interest in collaboration in this problem
area.
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