Monday, September 20, 2004
The real star of Highway Africa
Hello, good morning and welcome to Cybersurf, a weekly window where the web matters – I am Steven Lang coming to you one more time from Grahamstown where the eighth Highway Africa conference has just ended.
The annual meeting of African journalists focuses on how the media can make better use of information and communication technologies – or ICTs. Presentations and workshops are mainly about the latest innovations on the Internet and about better ways of using cellphone technology.
With literally hundreds of top level journalists and academics from around the continent – it is a bit ironic that it was a local schoolboy who stole the show.
Sivusizwe Mzamo, or Sivu as he is known at Graeme College in Grahamstown, was the shining star of the conference because he used his ingenuity in the field of ICTs.
Recognising that many rural people have difficulty making use of a cellphone simply because they have no access to electricity, he invented a cellphone charger that works off a bicycle. Sivu uses a dynamo, that would normally power a bicycle light, to send a current to the charger. The components of his invention – a circuit, a resistor, a transistor, a casing and two wires cost less than ten rand while the dynamo, costs a little over seventy.
He deservedly received a huge amount of attention for his invention and was called on to make a brief address before more than 400 people at an evening function. That a Grade eleven pupil could make such a wonderful impromptu speech in such intimidating circumstances is almost as impressive as his invention. The warm applause and ululating that followed his speech were clear signs that the African ICT community is looking for African heroes.
Sivusizwe Mzamo is without doubt one of those heroes – a young articulate and very promising prospect for the country.
He is however, the product of an enabling environment – a progressive science teacher in a progressive school. In order to hail the many more Sivus who are out there – we need more enabling environments – more progressive teachers and more progressive schools that can uncover and nurture the wealth of bright young learners in this country.
Highway Africa went some way towards providing an enabling environment for forty students and journalists to improve their abilities in covering ICT related issues. Two separate groups from nine African countries attended ICT training courses and exercised their newly honed skills by covering the conference for a daily newspaper and a web site.
Why don’t you click along to the site to find out what the students did. You can also read about Sivu Mzamo and his dynamo cellphone charger at the following address: www.highwayafrica.org.za – repeat : www.highwayafrica.org.za
And that is a wrap from Grahamstown. Cybersurf will take to the air yet, again next Monday, same time, same place – till then – remember to keep on surfing
The annual meeting of African journalists focuses on how the media can make better use of information and communication technologies – or ICTs. Presentations and workshops are mainly about the latest innovations on the Internet and about better ways of using cellphone technology.
With literally hundreds of top level journalists and academics from around the continent – it is a bit ironic that it was a local schoolboy who stole the show.
Sivusizwe Mzamo, or Sivu as he is known at Graeme College in Grahamstown, was the shining star of the conference because he used his ingenuity in the field of ICTs.
Recognising that many rural people have difficulty making use of a cellphone simply because they have no access to electricity, he invented a cellphone charger that works off a bicycle. Sivu uses a dynamo, that would normally power a bicycle light, to send a current to the charger. The components of his invention – a circuit, a resistor, a transistor, a casing and two wires cost less than ten rand while the dynamo, costs a little over seventy.
He deservedly received a huge amount of attention for his invention and was called on to make a brief address before more than 400 people at an evening function. That a Grade eleven pupil could make such a wonderful impromptu speech in such intimidating circumstances is almost as impressive as his invention. The warm applause and ululating that followed his speech were clear signs that the African ICT community is looking for African heroes.
Sivusizwe Mzamo is without doubt one of those heroes – a young articulate and very promising prospect for the country.
He is however, the product of an enabling environment – a progressive science teacher in a progressive school. In order to hail the many more Sivus who are out there – we need more enabling environments – more progressive teachers and more progressive schools that can uncover and nurture the wealth of bright young learners in this country.
Highway Africa went some way towards providing an enabling environment for forty students and journalists to improve their abilities in covering ICT related issues. Two separate groups from nine African countries attended ICT training courses and exercised their newly honed skills by covering the conference for a daily newspaper and a web site.
Why don’t you click along to the site to find out what the students did. You can also read about Sivu Mzamo and his dynamo cellphone charger at the following address: www.highwayafrica.org.za – repeat : www.highwayafrica.org.za
And that is a wrap from Grahamstown. Cybersurf will take to the air yet, again next Monday, same time, same place – till then – remember to keep on surfing
