As curtains finally come down on our coverage of stories in Nairobi a number of things have strongly emerged. Among them being the Internet and the end user. Students and Institutions of higher learning have been of particular interest in this stories. The stories gave them that rare chance to tell their side of story. And as we endevoured to cover the stories we also took note of a number of things which include:

VIRTUAL TREASURE TROVE OF INFORMATION

Of all the universities we visited students seemed to be singing from one hymn sheet that Internet offers a barrage of information to its users.

With the coming of Internet most students claim that their world has reduced and attained a form of global village. It is now easy for them to gather resources from all over the world and also communicate in a fraction of a second with a person who is sitting in the other part of the world. According to them any kind of information on any topic under the sun is available on internet.

It was clear that the Internet was of great help and use for students from all majors. With internet the students could also compare notes with students and scholars from other parts of the world.

EMBRACING NEW TECHNOLOGY.

The universities have by far embraced the new technology brought about by Internet. Most universities websites can be accessed from anywhere. Courses are also advertised online and application forms can be downloaded from the website. And just in case you think you are lost while locating the universities then have no fear you can locate the university through Google earth.

Last year United States International University initiated a shift from e-learning platform to the blackboard technology. The technology is said to improve every aspect of education. It enables the lecturers to engage more students in exciting new ways and also connect more effectively keeping students informed,involved and collaborating together.

MILESTONE

The stories of great achievement do not start and end with private universities alone it seems also public universities are making tremendous achievements take an example of Kenyatta university.

Kenyatta University has re-branded the institute of Open Learning to include e-Learning. This effectively makes it The Institute Of Open, Distance and e-Learning (ODeL). This re-branding of the Institute was geared towards improving the delivery of the educational services to students, which in essence improves the quality of the distance learning programmes. By introducing e-Learning Kenyatta University is adding value to its programmes by placing the student at the Centre of Learning. Under the new Institute, the University has taken a more practical approach to pedagogy, thus addressing students learning needs.

Some of the new developments in the newly established institute include students learning online through an interactive e-Platform, and their access to the University Digital Library. Lecturers will tutor students online and offline and the ODeL programmes will be handled with efficiency. In addition, students, lecturers and the ODeL administration work closely to inject into learning creativity, innovativeness and problem solving solutions. ODeL also aims at having forums for students’ discussions in form of e-Debates, e-Tutorials, e-Workshops and e-Conferencing.

The university also wishes to infuse Ultra-modern e-Technologies into teaching and learning which includes Computer Based Learning and other e- Technologies such as: m-Learning, Video conferencing, Teleconferencing, satellite and web-based technologies.

Just to make sure that the internet resources are adequately used the googlers were at Kenyatta University at the time of my visit to hold a workshop. The workshop essentially gave hands on training on the best practice around searching the web and how to conduct quality research online. The workshop also focused on taught the students on online sources like Google books.

AHEAD OF THE PACK

Last year United States International university initiated a shift from e-learning platform to the blackboard technology. The technology is said to improve every aspect of education. It enables the lecturers to engage more students in exciting new ways and also connect more effectively keeping students informed,involved and collaborating together.

According to Mr. Patrick Afundi the blackboard helps breath life into the educational content empowering the instructor with tools to engage every learner. One thing that stands out when it comes to blackboard is that it constantly evolves to meet learners needs. It helps create virtual classroom,offices and meeting.

The blackboard also offers exciting approaches, consider the example of peer to peer and instructor level help which involves each students on an individual level.

STUDENTS TAKE QUEUE

In what I saw was a huge step forward the universities have made it clear that examinations will be administered with efficiency and mechanisms are already in place for providing feedback to CATs and release of Final Semester Results online and offline.

Most private and public universities have already cut down
Students will submit their assignments online and they will get feedback from their facilitators. Students will be provided with two official email addresses and there will be an efficient SMS system that will address student matters.

ONLINE PUBLIC ACCESS CATALOGUE(OPAC)

Most universities library use an online public access catalogue system to ensure that students don't waste time looking for books on the shelves. This essentially depends on Internet. According to Agrey Elegwa a worker at the university Internet has been a precious commodity for them especially when it comes to indexing and cataloging.

From the interview it is however clear that the Internet is lifeblood for USIU academic community since a great part of their learning depends on Internet.