Internet, computers, digital satchels or blackboards, digital work spaces or recently even interactive whiteboard systems (IWS) are all tools endowed with potentials for improving methods of teaching and the quality of education. One of the priority issue zones for digital solidarity is the development of digital technologies in educational systems in southern countries. Taking account of the contextual realities of developing countries, how can innovative educational projects be developed in both the use of high-performance digital supports and teaching methods? Are the new solutions offered by the digital revolution the occasion for closing up the educational gap in certain areas where there is little or no schooling? What are the elements that need to be taken into account to make digital education an opportunity for attaining at least a part of the millennium’s objectives?

The IWS example: The “Digital Education for all” project

For reinforcing educational systems, facilitating access to education and to educational resources, and promoting contributions to contents by teachers in Africa, the Global Digital Solidarity Fund has initiated a programme called “Digital education for all”. This concerns diffusing an interactive whiteboard system (composed of a video projector, a computer and a touch-screen) in African school-rooms. This tool, widely used in British schools, enables images and educational information to be projected onto a touch-screen. The teacher can write and wipe off on this screen, but he can also project texts, drawings and as many photographs as his computer can hold. Thanks to the community portals of the “Digital Education for all” programme, teachers are now meeting together “virtually” to create, develop, use and share educational digital resources.