1st Women In Computing Conference held in Namibia

On the 27th February 2016, the faculty of Computing and Informatics at Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) in collaboration with Google, University of Namibia (UNAM) and Telecom Namibia hosted the first ever Namibian ‘Women in Computing’ conference which took place on NUST grounds. The event also commemorates Anita Borg’s birthday which is celebrated around the world. Anita Borg was a Computer Scientist and an advocate for women in computing who relentlessly fought to ensure that technology has a positive impact on people’s lives. She founded the Anita Borg Institute. Click here for more info on her.

The Event

Dr Anicia Peters, Dean of the faculty of Computing and Informatics at NUST, masterminded the event. She is a recipient of the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship for Women in Computer Science  through which she has studied in the US. She has made a vow to encourage girls in Namibia to pursue studies in the Computing field and being a key organizer of this event, is already applying that very vision.

The event attracted some 200 women and girls interested in Computing and related fields ranging from high school learners to professional women and university students/staff from NUST, UNAM and IUM. The Vice-Chancellor of NUST, Prof. Tjama Tjivikua, welcomed the participants and gave his appreciation to the organizers and participants. Topics presented at the conference focused on providing a platform to introduce, attract and encourage women and girls to the Computing field and provide role models and mentors for them.

 “I think it’s very important to get more women into computing. My slogan is: Computing is too important to be left to men.”— By Karen Spärck Jones, Professor of Computers and Information at Cambridge Computer Laboratory.

Women in Computing Namibia Conference

Amongst the key speakers, was Ebru Celik, a Technical Programme Manager at Google. She connected via video conferencing for her talk and shared her successes as well as challenges she faced as a woman in computing. She stressed that a person’s gender should not have any bearing on their profession. In addition to the talks, panel discussions provided an opportunity for participants to ask questions to a group of six panelists who are professionally active in the technology field. A student panel also shared survival guidelines for women that find themselves in a “Male dominated world”.

The participants were served breakfast, a delicious lunch and what is a birthday celebration without cake? Three cakes were prepared for the celebration with some yummy ice-cream to cool-off the participants from the scorching weather outside.

Women in Computing conference Namibia
Dr. Peters cutting cake, YAAAASSSSS!!!!

Participants were also asked to sketch a design that they would like as the official logo for the ‘Women in Computing’ conference. In addition, there was a human bingo competition which encouraged the participants to meet new people and engage with each other. Across the hall from these engagements were exhibitors including a group of three 13 year old girls who demonstrated 3D programming and Tangeni Kamati, a 3rd year Computer Science  student, who showcased his great invention of a car robot. Participants each received Google goodie bags and had access to free and fast 4G LTE Wi-Fi thanks to Telecom Namibia.

Women in Computing Society

The event concluded with the formation of the Women in Computing (WIC) Society which is aimed at creating a platform where women can host get-together’s, plan activities and share ideas that will assist in the growth of the technological industry in Namibia and Africa at large. Talks are underway on hosting the event every year in February.

 

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MOOCs and what they mean for Africa

What are MOOCs?

MOOCs are a course of study made available over the Internet without charge to a very large number of people.

Massive Online Open Courses or MOOCs are essentially the digital extension (or transformation) of distance learning. The term was coined in response to the George Siemens of Athabasca University led course called ‘Connectivism and Connective Knowledge’ which experimented with mixing face to face students with digital participants from the general public in 2008. In 2011, Stanford University developed 3 MOOC courses which quickly gained more than 200,000 registrations combined in a matter of weeks.

By 2012 several well-financed providers such as Coursera, Udacity and edX emerged onto the scene touting content partnerships with several world elite and American ivy league universities alongside a multitude of lower tier university  and independently developed courses. For this article’s purpose we’d like to focus on what these MOOC courses mean for students and young professionals in Africa at large.

MOOCs in Africa

What kind of MOOCs exist?

  • xMOOCs – follow a traditional classroom style format where the eXpert (origin of the preceding x) determines curriculum content, leads a class via instructional video’s and classroom assignments during a given time frame. A lot of the courses on Coursera, for example, follow this method.
  • cMOOCs – do not follow a traditional model instead allowing the learner to choose and pace themselves on the content. The c stands for Connectivist, a which model attempts to push boundaries by also allowing for the learner to create content on the very subject material they are learning. Usually a mentor figure of some kind is still present just to loosely guide the process along but it is up to the learner to choose their own path. Many of the courses available on Treehouse a good example of cMOOCs.

What do MOOCs mean for Africa?

  • Access to an ever growing amount of educational content at little to no cost
  • Content is, in most cases, accessible across a number of devices

The courses you can find available at some of the world’s most popular MOOCs range from ‘Introduction to Artificial Intelligence’ to ‘Learning Basic English’. MOOCs are already taring down the access barriers to education enabling Africans to access world class content at very little cost.

Note that it’s not ‘for free’ as professed by many MOOC providers and mainstream media articles because this is not exactly the case in many instances for the average African user.  While a course like ‘Financial Markets 101’ from Yale University may now be open to participants at no cost for enrolment, the supporting ‘hidden’ costs to access this material for the average African user is largely ignored.

Access Problems

Two core issues at the heart of the multi-tiered problem are:

  • access to quality computing devices/facilities on the one hand
  • access to quality internet on the other.

Access to quality desk/laptop/mobile computing is lacking in many homes and institutions around Africa, the problem intensifies when we look at rural sectors of Africa. While low cost mobile somewhat provides a viable alternative to access MOOCs, not all MOOCs have optimised their content delivery for low end mobile systems.

Whether you are dealing with sporadic power dropouts in South Africa or Sierra Leone or exorbitant broadband internet access prices in Namibia or Mozambique, getting stable and fast internet access is still a hindering factor in many parts of Africa.

The above notwithstanding, MOOCs have the potential to enhance the efficiency of Africa’s public education systems (the so called ‘Ivory tower’ problem) if the political/academic will and social dynamic in the various countries is present.

What do MOOCs mean for me as a young African student or professional?

MOOCs mean that even without instructions or assistance from your lecturer or employer that you can gain world class knowledge, skills and accreditation by participating in a MOOC of your choice. The access problems notwithstanding, you can take courses in various fields offered by top elite universities such as Harvard, MIT or UCT at little to no cost.

The information and course content might not always be accurate or appropriate for your locale but nevertheless being able to study ‘Computer Science 101’ from Stanford University (The creators of Google studied there) in the comfort of your home or local library beats having to raise local equivalent in USD currency to attend the course physically. Never-mind the normal entry requirements to get into some of these ‘elite’ universities.

Some platforms such as Coursera or NovoEd, usually for a fee, also provide certification and accreditation upon course completion which is recognised by companies and institutions around the world.

MOOCs can also assist young entrepreneurs, if you are able to beat the internet access hurdles, you can enhance your skills cheaply and thereby decrease the risk of your business venture failing.

MOOCs in Africa

What do I need to access a MOOC?

  • Somewhat stable Internet access
  • A desk/laptop or smartphone/tablet
  • A willingness to learn and discipline to hold yourself accountable for finishing a given course

P.S. Many post 2013 Samsung smartphone/tablet devices ship with the ‘Samsung Learning Hub’ applications which provides access to a select number of MOOCs. If you are lucky to own an Apple device, they also ship with the iTunesU application which provides an extensive selection of MOOCs.

How do I find a MOOC that interests me?

A Google or search engine query is usually an easy enough method to find a suitable MOOC. For example the search: ‘Computer Science MOOC’ will return a good number of actual MOOC websites that offer such a course. Another search query method is ‘University name – class name MOOC’ e.g. ‘University of Cape Town Medical Science MOOC’.

Some prefer to research their most suitable MOOC by referring to ‘best of’ lists, which list MOOC platforms based on some or other criteria. We have included some of those lists below and more can be found via a search engine query (such as searching for ‘Best MOOCs’)

We’ve found MOOC List an excellent resource for people who really want to get specific. It is a comprehensive database of most MOOC courses available on various platforms to date.

We are happy to answer readers queries regarding MOOCs. Please either leave a comment or mail us for a reply.

Namibia to include coding in national curriculum

On the 26th of February 2016, UNESCO held a stakeholder meeting to discuss the findings of the YouthMobile coding workshop held in November 2015 which also served as a feasibility study to include a coding and computational thinking element into the Namibian public school curriculum.

The YouthMobile Initiative attempts to introduce young people to computer science programming (learning-to-code) and problem solving (coding-to-learn).

What is coding and computational thinking?

Coding refers to the creation of software for various platforms such as desktop PCs, mobile phones and other automated systems. Computational thinking refers to an open ended cognitive process that encourages arriving at meaningful answers using decomposition, data representation, generalization, modelling, and algorithms.

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Group picture of meeting participants

It was the second meeting to be held to plan how the Namibian implementation of UNESCO’s YouthMobile program will move forward in 2016 and beyond. Stakeholders present included amongst others:

Coding Workshop meeting
Maurice Nkusi of CTL at NUST center, Dr. Perien Boer head of Education faculty at UNAM left, NYC officers right

The coding workshop outcomes and findings, presented by Teaching and Learning unit of NUST Director Maurice Nkusi, highlighted the need to update the computer studies component of Namibian public school curriculum and how YouthMobile could serve as a platform to be leveraged towards that outcome. 2 functional application prototypes were demonstrated by workshop participants and the remaining certificates awarded to those not present at previous award ceremony in 2015.

“Coding refers to the writing of software for various platforms, be it desktop PCs, mobile phones and other automated systems.”

Tech Guys & UNESCO YouthMobile coding workshop meeting
Daisry Mathias, Youth Advisor at Office of the President of Namibia

It was decided that 3 additional regions are to be targeted during 1st half of 2016 beginning with a ‘Training of Trainers’ phase with additional logistical support from The National Youth Service and NBII.  Simultaneously UNAM and NUST are to assist in reviewing how open source derived course materials developed for YouthMobile by The Tech Guys can be implemented into the national curriculum.

Furthermore, it was discussed how Code.org, which has expressed interest in becoming a partner in the Tech Guys endeavour to positively disrupt the Namibian education system can become involved with an agreement has been formed with the education faculty at UNAM and subsequently other organizations to pursue the opportunity.

The program also received tentative support from the Office of The President represented by it’s Youth Advisor, Daisry Mathias, who stressed the need for the various players in Namibian digital innovation to stop operating in silo’s and form cohesive partnerships that could interface with government in a more efficient manner.

 

 

 

2nd Namibian Open Data Hackathon underway

2nd Namibia Open Data Hackathon

The 2nd annual Namibian ‘Open Data’ hackathon is underway at the Namibian Business Innovation Institute’s (NBII) Mobile Lab located on the Namibian University of Science and Technology (NUST) grounds. The hackathon event runs all whole day on the 5th and 6th of March, 2016.  Participants form teams and focus on one of 5 areas of public service delivery to create software enabled solutions to them. Follow up prototype presentations are to be held at 5:30pm at the same venue on Thursday, 10th March, 2016.

Lamech Amugongo working on tracking Windhoek's public transport.
Lamech Amugongo working on tracking Windhoek’s public transport.

“To create awareness around using open data to improve efficiency in Namibian social and civil service delivery.”

The event is organized by Lamech Amugongo, a software developer who has been active in the nascent innovation and open data scene in Namibia, and NBII’s Mobile Lab which provided the space and internet access.

What is ‘Open Data’?

‘Open Data’ refers to the idea that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control. In the context of this hackathon that means accessing public data around social services and identifying where improvements using software based solutions could be made.

For example a UK based startup , TransportAPI,  aggregated all British public transport information ranging from bicycle lanes to city underground train schedules into an easily accessible API which is now used to build apps by various municipalities and businesses alike.

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Gervasius Ishuuwa working on the eHealth solution

Over 15 participants attended and created 5 teams that focused on creating software based improvements to service delivery in:

  • Water utility services
  • Medical health based services
  • City public transport services
  • Emergency response services
  • Food Bank access services

Lamech says he created the event to create awareness around using open data to improve efficiency in Namibian social and civil service delivery. Teams will present their prototypes at the Mobile Lab on Wednesday and are expected to present final versions at the national ICT summit taking place later this year.

A highlight of this hackathon event was that teams got to work with smartcitizen.me‘s Arduino kits which include various sensors for environmental data.

The atmosphere at this year’s event was lively with developers fully engaged in the projects they are working on. Participants remarked on how events of this type were sorely needed and must take place more frequently in the future. The event is expected to expand into different regions of Namibia in 2017.

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