The Kingdom is poised to take the lead in interactive education technology in the region with the launch of the Arabic edition of the TI-Nspire CX handheld and the TI-Navigator from Texas Instruments, according to Anton Hierhager, director of sales and marketing in the Middle East and Africa.

“With the latest technology, the Kingdom can gain access to the best equipment used by European countries to educate their youth to nurture future mathematicians and scientists,” said Hierhager during a press conference at a local hotel yesterday.

Hierhager added that TI is “honored to be collaborating with the Kingdom in introducing this technology, especially since the Ministry of Education is investing a lot of money in developing the supporting curriculum that will accompany this technology.”

He emphasized that TI was delighted to announce the “launch of the localized, Arabic version of the TI-Nspire CX handheld and the TI-Navigator, which has proven to aid both students and teachers in mathematics and science”.

“Highlighting our ongoing global commitments to advanced classroom technology, we hope that our delivery of this solution will support the Kingdom’s wider education initiatives to move towards a more knowledge-based economy,” he said.

The launch of the Arabic TI-Nspire CX follows the completion of a successful learning pilot in Al-Kharj and Jeddah.

“Participating schools, students and teachers welcomed the new technology and have since acquired the TI-Nspire handhelds and navigator systems for day-to-day classroom use as an aid to teach and study math, physics, biology and chemistry and to stay on course with the national curriculum,” said Essam Ghosbeh, TI Middle East regional manager. He added that Obeikan, a publishing house, provides textbooks in Arabic supporting the curriculum and providing learning content and exercises with the help of TI-Nspire Technology.

According to Ghosbeh, by using TI-Nspire CX handhelds in the classroom, teachers are able to encourage the learning of mathematics and science by applying complex scientific rules and mathematical equations to real life situations through graphical representations, providing students with important visual aids that not only make the lessons more enjoyable but also support students’ understanding of the subject matter as shown by the pilot results.

TI navigator allows the teachers to monitor each student’s progress by having access to their individual screens during class and to provide support to each student according to individual learning progress and speed.

The Al Kharj school district and TI have also launched the first regional training center in the Middle East to provide the necessary support for use of the TI-Nspire CX handhelds inside the classrooms.

“The decision to host both the pilot and training center in Saudi Arabia highlights the importance TI attaches to a successful roll-out of its activities in the country, which it considers a pioneer in the field of education in the region before expanding into other territories throughout the Middle East to provide state-of-the-art education technology for the entire Arabic-speaking world,” Ghosbeh said.