Digital Education in Emerging Spaces

Africa, Music

University of Ghana and Whistling While You Work

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf0I5s-Ghhk]

I just heard this via a tweet (@BoingBoing) and was immediately enthralled. It is the sound of four postal workers at the University of Ghana in 1975 going about the daily monotony of their jobs. They are literally canceling stamps, something they have managed to turn into art. It is the sound of work and how a song can transform that experience into something enjoyable.

I have presented at the University of Ghana and find it an incredible place. Situated quite a bit outside the city of Accra, the University of Ghana was important in the development of Ghana. It is considered the most prestigious of the universities in West Africa and is a pleasant place to visit.

Not to get too far off topic about the music that this post is about, but when visiting the Balme Library at the University of Ghana, I wandered into a computer room and saw this on the screen.

JSTOR at the University of Ghana, Legon
JSTOR at the University of Ghana, Legon
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About Author

My name is Michael Sean Gallagher. I am a Lecturer in Digital Education at the Centre for Research in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh. I am Co-Founder and Director of Panoply Digital, a consultancy dedicated to ICT and mobile for development (M4D); we have worked with USAID, GSMA, UN Habitat, Cambridge University and more on education and development projects. I was a researcher on the Near Futures Teaching project, a project that explores how teaching at The University of Edinburgh unfold over the coming decades, as technology, social trends, patterns of mobility, new methods and new media continue to shift what it means to be at university. Previously, I was the Research Associate on the NERC, ESRC, and AHRC Global Challenges Research Fund sponsored GCRF Research for Emergency Aftershock Forecasting (REAR) project. I was an Assistant Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (한국외국어대학교) in Seoul, Korea. I have also completed a doctorate at University College London (formerly the independent Institute of Education, University of London) on mobile learning in the humanities in Korea.

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