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Posts tagged as “University of Hong Kong”

Professor Adams Bodomo Becomes 1st Black Faculty Member in the 650-Year History of the University of Vienna

Professor Adams Bodomo (Photo via chinaafricaproject.com)
Professor Adams Bodomo (Photo via chinaafricaproject.com)

Founded in 1365, the University of Vienna in Austria is the oldest educational institution in the German-speaking world. Now for the first time in the university’s 650-year history, a Black scholar has joined its faculty.
Adams Bodomo, from the African nation of Ghana, was appointed professor and chair of the department of African languages and literatures. He is the former director of the African studies program at the University of Hong Kong. Earlier, Professor Bodomo was a lecturer in the linguistics and African studies programs at Stanford University in California. Professor Bodomo is the author of Africans in China: A Sociocultural Study and Its Implications on Africa-China Relations (Cambria Press, 2012).
Dr. Bodomo earned his bachelor’s and master’s degree from University of Ghana in Legon. He holds a Ph.D. in linguistics and African studies from The Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
article via jbhe.com

Rwanda to Receive Free Access to Online Education via edX and Facebook SocialEDU Initiative

Image via Compassion.com

Learning nonprofit edX is partnering with Facebook to help bridge the digital divide and bring online education to the unconnected world.  The new pilot initiative, named SocialEDU, was revealed Monday at the Barcelona-based Mobile World Congress, and will provide students in Rwanda with free access to “a collaborative online education experience,” according to a statement fresh from the Facebook newsroom. The program is being released under the umbrella of Internet.org, a global partnership focused on bringing Internet to the two-thirds of the world’s population living without it.

The social media giant will be working with the Harvard-and MIT-founded platform to build a mobile app that is integrated with Facebook. Through SocialEDU, students will receive free data plans for accessing edX’s massive open online courses, which stem from 32 of the world’s leading universities, including Dartmouth, U.C. Berkeley, TU Delft, Australian National University and the University of Hong Kong.  The platform will allow students to ask questions, interact with teachers, participate in group discussions and engage with their peers. What’s more, the Rwandan government will work with edX to adapt the course materials, thereby creating more locally-relevant content, as well as expand its free Wi-Fi in campuses throughout the East African country.

As part of SocialEDU, Facebook is also partnering with telecommunications company Airtel and Nokia. The former is providing a year’s worth of free educational data to registrants, while the latter is offering discounted smartphones to all those participating in the program.  If the pilot is deemed successful, SocialEDU will expand beyond Rwanda.