Distance education and spatial citizenship in Africa - challenges and prospects

• Published in: Review of international geographical education online Vol. 2; no. 1; pp. 95 - 117
• Main Authors: Kanwischer, Detlef, Quennet, Fabienne
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Review of International Geographical Education Online 01.09.2012
• Subjects: Access to Computers; Barriers; Citizen Participation; Citizenship Education; Computer-assisted instruction; Correlation; Distance Education; Educational Technology; Elementary Secondary Education; Foreign Countries; Geographic Information Systems; Geographic Regions; Governance; Handheld Devices; Indigenous Populations; Meta Analysis; Postsecondary Education; Spatial Ability; Spatial systems; Technology Uses in Education; Telecommunications; Web 2.0 Technologies; Africa
• ISSN: 2146-0353; 2146-0353

The relevance of GIS for sustainable development in Africa is undisputed. One web 2.0 application which plays a particularly strong role within local governance structures in Africa is PGIS (Participatory Geographical Information System). In fact, Spatial Citizenship education is the basis for the empowerment of the indigenous capacity for using PGIS. This article will introduce the concept of Citizenship and address the question: What are the conditions in Africa that enhance Spatial Citizenship through distance education? Consequently, the relationship between ICT, distance education, e-government, geographic information technologies, and PGIS in Africa is of central interest. These interrelationships have been studied within the context of a meta-analysis of already published data and qualified studies of these topics. One of the results of this investigation is that there is no lack of distance education materials for GIS and PGIS; even so, all are being developed for the post-secondary education sector and not for primary and secondary education. In addition, online-based distance learning is not accessible for all African citizens due to a lack of skills, technical equipment, and financial means. As a solution for this problem, m-learning approaches need to be advanced.