Learning Outcomes
- Describe the onset of the digital revolution by emerging technologies.
- Argue the need for design studios in design studies.
- List the benefits and limitations of conventional studios.
- Describe additional advantages offered by virtual studios.
- Detail the steps by which potential users would post their designs and developments, and communicate with their supervisors and other designers across the globe.
The onset of digital outreach with emerging technologies in developing countries is akin to the industrial revolution in Europe. In the scenario of education, the revolution led to the emergence of distance learning universities, some of which have since become among the top education providers. Their emergence in the Western world was followed by more open universities in Hong Kong, India, Australia, Sri Lanka, and other countries. Digital revolution is more than a buzz phrase; it is bringing the previously neglected continent of Africa into the sphere of higher education. It is expected to bridge the digital gap by employing better and cheaper means as “weapons of mass communication” (Tapscott and Williams, 2008), such as e-learning, videoconferencing, podcasting, and virtual studios, etc.
A special area of learning is how to design and display their progress of designing and development in a studio. Design studios are expensive to build and most African and Asian universities cannot afford them although they have courses of study on industrial design, interior design, textiles and leather design, and so on. This chapter dwells on the creation of virtual design studios and demonstrates how virtual design studios may replace conventional studios because they provide an extended connectivity, in addition to enabling the functions of a conventional studio. In doing so, Afro-Asian universities may collaborate among themselves, as well as with the advanced countries in the world. It may also enable them to pursue collaborative design projects and enhance export potential, both of which are so important for the developing countries to bring about two-way globalization. The fact that e-learning can deliver more training to more people at more places in less time and at less cost with less supervision makes it worthwhile to explore the possibility of e-designing.
It is unfortunate that Africa has had the least per capita enrollment in tertiary education. A study reported by UNESCO Global Education Digest (2006) puts it at 3.5 percent, stating it as 1.9 million against a world figure of 81.7 million enrollments. It is also noted that scientific articles worldwide rose by 40 percent whereas the same fell by 12 percent in Africa during the period 1988 to 2001 (Adekanmbi, 2007). However, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2006) observed that African students are the most mobile in the world, mainly in search of better educational facilities, with one out of every 16 students studying abroad.
Digital divide estimates reported by International Telecommunications Union (2007) show that during the ten-year period, 1994 to 2004, some figures in developing countries (with 83 percent population) compared to those in advanced countries (with 17 percent population) are as follows:
| |
Developing Countries |
Advanced Countries |
| Internet users/100 inhabitants |
Increased from 0.03 to 6.7 |
From 2.18 to 53.8 |
| Mobile telephone users/100 inhabitants |
Increased from 0.19 to 18.8 |
From 5.2 to 76.8 |
It reveals the fact that the digital gap continues to widen, despite newer initiatives and emerging technologies. Whether or not the digital divide can now be arrested with the latest technologies and innovative use of the same is, therefore, an open question. An attempt is made to project the optimism in the developing world.
