This is a guest post by Muthuri Kinyamu (Student of University of Nairobi ), Founder Shakili.com From Kenya.
As a blogger, social media strategist and the founder of SocialPRO social media clubs for universities I noticed a gap for a knowledge sharing
network as they were drowning in information but starved of knowledge.
During the launch of SocialPRO clubs in October 2012 at the School of Business; Dr. Bitange Ndemo the permanent secretary at the ministry of information and communications in Kenya talked about the potential in the education business in Africa and his keynote address inspired the conception of an idea I clearly hadn’t figured out back then. After months of research I set up a team to build technology aided peer to peer learning platform called Shakili.com.
Shakili.com is a hybrid learning platform that connects educators to students and by enabling users to set up e-schools and create courses to share knowledge & content. Shakili comes from two words (Share Akili) which simply means “share knowledge”.
Learning, on one extreme is the magic of presence – with peers and professors another is the almost infinite access to peers and experts in the virtual world. Shakili.com blends both and accelerates hybrid learning by taking the best of both worlds.
Through Shakili.com, institutions of higher education can embrace yet another way inexpensive and convenient way of passing knowledge, ease content sharing and networking amongst students & faculty.
Technology and globalization makes it possible to redesign every single aspect of teaching, learning and assessment and with Shakili.com the content of the courses– lectures, seminars, tutorials, combined with set reading can be digitized and offered online for easier consumption; social and mobile learning.
Shakili also offers an innovative new approach that provides a two pronged approach to democratization of education by offering access to high quality content for students and giving experts a platform to share knowledge with interested learners.
And as everything goes E, university leaders need to seize the opportunities open to them through technology – to provide broader, deeper and more exciting education and with Shakili universities can broaden their reach and offer more value to students, raise degree completion, deepen college curricula, increase learning productivity and prepare students better for work, entrepreneurship and life ahead.
There is an enabling environment as “Connected Kenya 2017”; the ICT master plan seeks to establish Kenya as a leader of the knowledge-based economy by connecting over 90% of Kenyan society through the internet guided by “Education is the foundation of knowledge for all”. Penetration of technology like tablets, PCs, apps, mobile phones and access to broadband internet in the Kenyan market are lubricating the shift to mobile and e-learning, and as learning environments change that fluidity provides a stream of new ideas and constant opportunities for revision and application of thinking to improve learning outcomes in higher education.
I foresee a bright future for edtech and digital learning where Shakili.com inspires increased student interest in their education, and development of 21st century skills by integration of teaching technology that supports improved learning therefore Ladies and Gentlemen kindly join and embrace Shakili.com to Learn: Share: Discover More.
Who else can use Shakili.com?
- You can also create e-schools and courses to upload from your computer and also share content already existing educational content from the web in the courses you’ve created and also join schools & take up courses around your profession, passion, talent or interests.
- Research Institutions, Corporate entities and NGO’s that want to share educative content as education is one of the best forms of marketing.
- Speakers, coaches, tutors and consultants can also create online schools, aggregate content from the web and organize it into courses.
- Bloggers and other content creators can also create online schools around their areas of expertise and organize their content into courses for easier browsing.
