Technologizing Africa: On the bumpy information highway

Although the microcomputer and the Internet continue to advance rapidly in Western cultures, developing nations, especially those in Africa, are lagging behind—a situation that continues to widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots of the world. This article offers the rare opportunity to get a glimpse of Africa on the information highway and documents the use of computers in the educational systems of three African nations: Ghana, Kenya, and Egypt. It documents the progress these countries have made in exposing their citizens to information technology and reveals the challenges they face in closing the digital divide that Africans continue to experience. In presenting how these countries adapt to technological change, one may better understand why Africa's ride on the information highway is rutted.