It was a great pleasure to participate in this year’s 19th eLearning Africa gathering held in Accra from 3rd to 5th June. Enormous thanks are due to Rebecca Stromeyer and her team for bringing us together at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra, as well as to Ghana’s Ministry of Education who co-hosted this year’s event. This was the eighth time I have been fortunate enough to participate in these conferences, and it has been fascinating witnessing how eLearning Africa has evolved since its inaugural event in Addis Ababa in 2006. Over the last 20 years, the use of digital tech for learning and education has deepened and widened very considerably across the continent, but many of the challenges and opportunities that we discussed together in the mid-2000s still remain evident today.
This year’s plenary addressed the theme of “Africa’s Time, Africa’s Terms: Learning for Sovereignty, Strength and Solidarity”, and this focus underlay many of the subsequent sessions. There was certainly a vibrancy in the presentations and considerable confidence in the rhetoric that Africans can indeed use and innovate technologies, and especially AI, to serve their interests. The reality of US and China’s dominance of the global digital tech sector, particularly now in the design and control of AI systems (see, for example, Netcorp’s recent AI-Generated Code Statistics 2026) nevertheless suggests that such optimism may be challenged in practice on the ground. More importantly, it is no long possible for isolationism to flourish in an increasingly interconnected world, and it is crucial for African countries to look beyond the continent’s boundaries to forge strategic and mutually beneficial partnerships with other states and companies. This, however, also requires those outside the continent to recognise Africa’s richness and potential, something I wrote about at length in the late 2000s, and to treat this with respect.
I hope that the images in the slideshow below capture something of the vibrancy and energy of eLearning Africa 2026
I was especially pleased to moderate a session on the final day on “Inclusive Digital Education: African Led Innovations for Learners with Disabilities”, which began with presentations from two main speakers:
- Daniel Atuah, KNUST E-Learning Centre, Ghana
Inclusive Digital Education Toolkit: Accessibility in KNUST Virtual Classrooms and Online Exams - Bridget Longla, Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services, Cameroon
Inclusive Digital Learning in Low-Resource Settings: Lessons from Cameroon’s First Accessible Digital Library
Following these, there was a wide-ranging discussion that emphasised in particular the importance of invisible disabilities such as dyslexia in its many different guises. Sessions on and with people with disabilities at large international conferences are often poorly attended, but it was excellent that a large and engaged group of participants chose to contribute to our session.
Dear Tim,It was wonderful reading your highlights from the e-learning conference. It certainly sounds as though there was never a dull moment. I am delighted that you enjoyed the sessions and also had the opportunity to experience Ghana. Unfortunately, I was never the host I had intended to be. My own calamity on Tuesday is perhaps not worth revisiting in this email, but I must say that the flooding across the city, especially for those of us travelling from the eastern corridor, has been quite catastrophic. Needless to say, I owe you an apology that we were unable to meet. However, I am confident that should there be another opportunity for us to connect, whether here in Ghana or in London, we will certainly make it happen.I hope you are returning home with many great memories of both the conference and your time in my beloved Ghana. Best of wishes Tim! Victor
Thanks so much Victor – really kind of you to write in this way. I too am sorry we did not manage to meet, but hope we will again before too long. Will write at greater length by e-mail!
Great to know about e-learning progress in Africa
Thank you