JEDDAH, 10 January 2007 — For the fifth year in a row, Effat College is holding its annual two-day Learning & Technology Symposium starting Saturday. The first day’s lectures will be held at Jeddah Hilton while the workshops on the second day will take place at Effat College. This year’s theme is “Digital Literacy: No Boundaries, No Limits”.
“The symposium will discuss how digital literacy is important in our daily lives and how it can empower people using it,” said Annette Lagman, assistant professor and chair of computer science in Effat College. “This year we are focusing on digital literacy and the basic understanding of computer technology; the thing that everybody needs to incorporate.”
Since all institutions and working places nowadays depend on digital technology, Lagman says it’s important to promote computer skills.
“It is not acceptable anymore to say ‘I do not know how to use the computer’, because if you want to be a productive person in society you need to make use of the tools that everybody else in the world is using,” she said.
Speakers will address topics from using the digital technology in classrooms to the basic anatomy of a personal computer. Event coordinators said they have made efforts to speak about these technical matters in a way that can be easily understood. “Our goal is to remove the fear that a lot of people still have for computer,” said Lagman. “We will show how digital literacy is important, how it is for everybody and how it can be used for our own benefit.”
Speakers from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Pakistan, Malaysia, Germany, the United States and Australia will make presentations on the first day.
The second day of the conference will feature a computer lab where presenters and attendees will interact with computers. Some of the participants will bring robots and show how they can be used in teaching.
Attendees will also be taught how to overcome the language barrier in using technology. Registration fee is SR500. Further information can be found on www.effatcollege.edu.sa.
