Nobert Jere

Social Media Usage in Africa and its Ethical Implications

African users are continuously signing onto Social Media and it has become a game changer within the communication system. Most importantly the research on Social Media has become a topic of tremendous interest within the Human Computer interaction (HCI) field. Despite the benefits of Social Media, there have been concerns among users, communities, academics, researchers and governments on the ethical implications of Social Media use. We plan to have a workshop on understanding the ethical implications and perspectives of Social Media use from various stakeholders. Researchers in the Social Media space can share their work and methods in order to gain a broader understanding of Social Media issues arising on the continent and specifically ethical implications. Finally the workshop aims to encourage collaboration and cross-cultural research among researcher in the space.

Social Media for Enhanced e-Education at Namibian Schools

The continuous technological changes have influenced service delivery in various sectors. Within the education sector, both learners and teachers use different technological devices in teaching and learning. Devices such as computers, mobile phones, tablets, and e-readers are used to access information. Technology has power to transform the teaching and learning paradigm. One should not ignore a variety of e-Learning platforms which are available including social media. This book chapter focuses on the effects of social media in education. A quantitative case study research approach is used. This was supported by document review on current emerging teaching techniques. Approximately 800 participants from high schools and tertiary institutions were engaged. Results from the engaged participants indicate that Facebook is distracting students from studying as they spend a lot of time in online. This book chapter proposes a modern teaching approach that could be used and explains the role of social media.

An integrated mobile veld fire detection and sharing platform for Southern Africa

While there are clear efforts towards managing veld fires, it comes as a concern that in Southern Africa, the role of local communities in fire control has weakened and veld fires have grown to be a major threat. Current systems and technologies to share veld fire information have several challenges. These include; being unable to detect burning fires in the forests, poor to almost missing veld fire local alerting systems, and malfunctioning local veld firefighting communities. Against this background, a mobile veld fire detection and sharing application prototype was developed using a qualitative data approach and experimental design. Weather data and scientific models of different areas were used to create fire-danger indices based on forecasted weather data and weather station information on the ground. These were programmed into the system to trigger alerts for the veld fire prediction component. For the identification of already burning fires, this was linked to the MODIS system of firefighting stakeholders (EMA Zimbabwe). Results revealed that conditions that promote veld fires can be predicted and local residents can thus be warned instantly to avoid activities that cause fires. For already burning fires, the mobile application was able to instantly communicate to users registered to the system.

Universal design (UD) and visual impairment: Can UD principles be applied for mobile sharing platform?

Visually impaired people in Namibia are at greatest risk of being socially excluded as a result of poor access to information. At the same time designing for the visually impaired people requires different approaches and application of innovative methods. We have considered the Universal Design (UD) principles and the guidelines in designing a mobile sharing application. A sample size of 60 visually impaired participants from the School for Visually Impaired and the Namibian Federation of the Visually Impaired (NFVI) in Windhoek was considered. A series of activities were done together with the participants to understand and learn from them on how they would prefer a mobile sharing application to look like. The final application was tested with the users after incorporation of their feedback and participatory design activities for the prototype. The findings show that the visually impaired people engaged do not have a mobile application for sharing disability related information and had specific preferences and insights for mobile application design. In addition to this, the mobile application adhered to all seven Universal Design Principles when we evaluated the final design. We argue that the Universal Design Principles could be used and helpful in designing for visually impaired users.

An adaptive recommender-system based framework for personalised teaching and learning on e-learning platforms

Current learning management systems such as Moodle and WebCT are considered as linear systems that provide e-learning material in a fixed-sequence, delivering the same content to learners regardless of their differences in background knowledge. For learners engaged in self-study online distance learning, this may result in material being presented at either too high or too low cognitive levels. According to the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) theory, this may result in either frustration or boredom among learners. This paper proposes a recommender-system-based adaptive e-learning framework for personalised teaching on e-learning platforms. The framework would assist designers, teachers and learners to identify issues they need to consider in order to address challenges of poor engagement in online distance settings, arising from a “one-size-fits-all” approach that does not recognise the role of individual differences in teaching and learning. Secondly, the framework may enable the identification of problems or obstacles that may be encountered when supporting learners in their quest to reduce frustration and boredom when using a Recommender-Based Pedagogical System (RBPS). A literature review was conducted on adaptive e-learning systems based on the ZPD theory, learner modelling, the Generic Adaptive Framework and a recommendation system model. 70 articles were selected from a database of 720 articles published between 2010 and 2017 to come up with the dimensions needed to develop such a model for the framework through deductive analysis. The research found out that the majority of the studies only consider three dimensions to an adaptive framework, that is, the learner model, the content model and the adaptation engine while the Generic Adaptation Framework proposes seven dimensions. In addition, the majority of the studies are based on the principles of macro-adaptation which provide a “static” snapshot of a learners profile instead of dynamically adjusting the adaptation as learner variables. In the proposed adaptive framework, we identified five dimensions, including real-time dynamic adaptation and context modelling in addition to the learner model, the domain model and the pedagogical strategy.

A security model for Namibian Government Services

As technology evolves, the once reliable traditional authentication and verification systems are now open to a number of security threats, some of which may not be combated by these old or traditional security measures. An advance in technology has provided great benefit to the world in immeasurable ways, however it comes with disadvantages. Cases have since been reported in Namibia in which people have lost personal belongings worth thousands of dollars as a result of information security breaches. The paper presents findings of a qualitative research approach used to investigate the current security technologies in selected Namibian Government Ministries. Three Namibian ministries were selected as case sites as they are among the security critical sectors of the nation where security issues are imperative. Results have shown that a number of security technologies are used in government departments in Namibia. However, in most cases one technology is used and the usage is still a bit low, hence a lot is required for citizens to trust and be aware of security harms. There is a lack of a guiding security model that government ministries may follow and use for reference. The paper proposes a security model for Namibia that could be applied by other public sectors to improve the information security of services.

The Usage Pattern of Mobile Devices among High School Teachers in the Oshana and Oshikoto Regions towards the Adoption of Mobile Learning in Namibian High Schools

This study investigated the usage pattern of mobile devices among high school teachers in the Oshana and Oshikoto regions of Namibia. The sample for this study consisted of one hundred and eighty (180) high school teachers from the two regions selected from three (3) high schools from each region. A mixed method approach, comprising a baseline survey questions and interviews with randomly sampled teachers from the high schools was undertaken and the result was analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The findings among others indicated that since teachers are already using mobile devices for educational and non-educational purposes, mobile learning technology can be adopted in Namibian high schools.