Many educators are concerned with the dominance of English as the language of global 

education. Countries with a minor national language may find it difficult to compete in a 

global market with countries that have English as their first language. Other educators are 

worried about cultural imperialism as a result of Western institutions export of online courses 

to the Third World. Gayol and Schied, discuss these issues in their article Cultural 

Imperialism in the Virtual Classroom. 

Africa 

This analysis includes very limited information about African initiatives. There are probably 

many more initiatives than the two that were found. The African institutions included in the 

analysis are The African Virtual University [4] and the Pinelands High School [78]. 

The only entry from an individual African country was from the Pinelands High School [78] 

(

http://www.wcape.school.za/subject/CS/PHS/main.htm

) in South Africa. The school offers a 

course in computer studies for grade 11. The course has 70 students who study in groups of 

four. Three students outside the physical school are interacting in co operative learning groups 

with students in the physical school building. It is emphasized that the course is a pilot project 

and that web teaching must take into consideration that local telephone calls are expensive. 

Case Study 1: Africa. The African Virtual University 

This case study is a transcript of an interview written by Desmond Keegan. 

The African Virtual University [4] (

http://www.avu.org

) is a project sponsored by the World 

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