Such digital technologies offer the potential to tackle some of the continent's chronic education challenges, including overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and the 30 million children in sub-Saharan Africa without any education at all.
As Africa becomes ever more connected, educators and publishers are finding new ways to reach young audiences and develop their burgeoning minds.
One such company is Via Afrika Publishers.
First and foremost a publisher of textbooks for over 65 years, Via Afrika began to investigate the move to digital content several years ago. Its early adoption seems to be reaping dividends.
"We decided about three years ago, after looking at what was taking place in the world, that e-learning was an important direction to go in," says Michael Goodman, the company's group content manager."We decided to design a set of e-learning books that matched our printed books and indeed matched the books we submitted to the education department. It was a sort of 'build it and they will come' mentality, because there was no call for any electronic books to be submitted," he added.Mr Goodman points out that uptake has really mushroomed over the past year. While there were about 1,000 e-book sales in 2013, there have already been 64,000 in 2014, he says.
But he admits that as the South African government has invested heavily in printed materials, a widespread shift towards e-learning will require partnerships between private enterprise and government.
"We are seeing pockets of co-operation," he says. "Companies are coming up with their own initiatives in supplying tablets and then co-operating with government to implement them in schools.
"That needs to grow a whole lot. We feel that a very strong public and private partnership is needed to move us towards e-learning completely."
