Welcome from Will Clurman, eKitabu CEO
Karibuni sana Nyote — Tunaenda Digital!
You know the saying… we hear it often in Kenya: if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.
Now although I think Kenyan runners competing on the world stage this year managed both, nevertheless I believe the saying is true. And in going digital especially we must go together.
This is why our team says when we are with schools and teachers — “Tunaenda digital.”
This is why our question for this year’s countrywide Digital Essay Competition was “Kwa Mpendwa Rais… maisha yangu kama mwanafunzi wa kidijitali.” And when Miss Zamzam Suleiman from Little Angels Primary School in Isiolo received the top prize for her essay at last week’s DEC Prizegiving, Zamzam was together with a proud team that came with her from Isiolo including her Deputy Governor, her teacher, her father, and the pilot that carried them all from far to Nairobi.
This is also why we recognize and thank our partners and sponsors: HP, Avanti, MTN Kenya, Oxford University Press East Africa, Longhorn Publishers, Swahilihub, DataWind, Moran Publishers, Samsung, Kenya Ministry of Education, Science & Technology, Kenya Publishers Association, Knowledge Empowering Youth Trust, Elimu Holdings, and many more. For these partners not only collaborate with us and support our efforts, but also they themselves are deeply invested in all of us going digital together. “Ecosystem partners” we are collectively weaving together the threads of Africa going digital: networks (and Internet!), computers, content, teaching, learning, schools… in a sustainable form.
In the new UN Sustainable Development Goals or “SDGs” announced last week for now through 2030 (coinciding notably with Kenya’s Vision 2030), education is the #4 overall goal. Sustainability must be our priority in education going digital. For what is sustainability other than going far together?
From Migori’s Daniela Akoth, a finalist in the Digital Essay Competition 2014:
Without the galaxy
The world is dark and dull
Technology in education;
The star designing Kenyan stars
The sun inspiring the son’s visions
The moon radiating the daughter’s ways
To revolutionize education, lean on technology.
I hope you find this, our first eKitabu newsletter, useful and enjoyable. I hope you see yourself, your school, or your company represented in it. Central to our purpose is to recognize you as we go digital together.
Please give us your feedback and your input for future newsletters.
Sincerely yours,
Will
eKitabublog 