JEDDAH, 31 March 2006 — Effat College ended a two-day symposium yesterday on the subject of utilizing information and communication technologies in a teaching environment.
Speakers at the event came from different countries and provided views from various teaching backgrounds on the subject of bridging the gap between available technologies and access to information that can help students learn.
Flick Douglas, an information and communications technology (ICT) analyst for Oman’s Ministry of Education addressed the need for students in the region to improve their problem-solving skills in math and science. In his speech to the symposium, he lauded the Squeak, a programming language that helps students learn math and science and develop a variety of higher order thinking skills.
Responding to a question from the audience, Douglas assured the forum that book and printed materials would continue to be important as another “type of technology.”
Secretary-General at Al-Madinah Center for Community Development in Madinah Yousef Al-Mozaini addressed the issue of having a strong belief in the need to implement ICT in the educational system of the Kingdom. He also stressed the need to develop ICT training centers for teachers, and for students to be able to have free Internet access.
Al-Mozaini said the Saudi public school system lags considerably behind its parallel private system in the implementation of ICT as a learning aid.
One audience member suggested that the Ministry of Education had abandoned the idea of incorporating ICT into the public educational system, a notion that Al-Mozaini rejected. “It takes time to have a professional team to supervise the process,” he said.
Mohamad Khaldoun Dia, ICT coordinator for the private Dar Al-Fikr Schools, explained how students there use laptops instead of notebooks in classes.
“There is an e-library in the school’s website www.fikr.sch.sa that allows students to read the teacher’s notes on the lessons in all courses.” The website also gives students’ parents access to track grades.
Emet L. Laboone from the Institute of Distance and Distributed Learning in Virginia, US, delivered a lecture about improving teaching and learning at a distance.
“The physical distance between faculty and students can be reduced by developing teaching strategies that account for the various forms of interaction,” he said.
The symposium ran workshops, such as communication tools for e-learning, integrating the Internet in the classroom and others.
Organizers of the event were Edutech Enhancing Knowledge.
