eLearning at Work in the Transfer of Indigenous Knowledge

Tonight, I found a really innovative project based along the coastal areas of Angola, Namibia, and South Africa that has implemented various online learning methods to address environmental issues that coastal dwellers are facing in these regions. DLIST.org (Distance Learning and Information Sharing Tool) is a site that anyone interested in coastal development can meet and discuss the environmental issues that arise in coastal areas due to unsustainable development.

Recently, in online discussion groups, the topic of indigenous knowledge systems has been the 'burning issue'. The site defines indigenous knowledge as “knowledge acquired over generations by communities as they interact with their environment”. Indigenous peoples have demonstrated through their own use and application of traditional knowledge and their own survival that their knowledge systems are based on sound concepts. Indigenous knowledge is so valuable that the World Bank has complied a database of indigenous knowledge and practices from around the world.

DLIST is a place that offers online discussion groups, threaded discussions and a resource bank for information that is important to the very unique coastal communities that it serves. Online courses in coastal development, coastal populations and livelihoods, coastal and marine resources of the BCLME, threats, transboundary problems and solutions, and co-management of coastal and marine resources are available through the organization.

Visiting the site, http://www.dlist-benguela.org/index.php made me rethink the traditional definitions we have for SMEs in IT. I also thought about the first article we read for class, where the author made the comment that in the eLearning industry, it is primarily the client that we should aim to please. That the learner is secondary, since it is the client that is cutting the checks. Only in such isolated scenarios as corporate bottom-lining is that the case. There are thousands, if not millions, of learners throughout the world capable of transferring and acquiring crucial knowledge that effects the actual lives and well-being of others.