ICT in Education Conference Held

The Supreme Council for Information and Communication Technology (ictQATAR) and College of the North Atlantic-Qatar (CNA-Q) hosted the second annual conference on e-education, "ICT Conference 2009: Exploring ICT in Education" on March 7 and 8 at CNA-Q's Duhail Campus. Nearly 500 educators from across Qatar attended the conference, which featured lectures and workshops with leading international experts in the field of ICT (information and communication technology) in education.

"This conference was a unique opportunity for educators in Qatar to hear from leading experts from around the world who are effectively finding ways to unleash the power of ICT in schools. The informative lectures and hands-on workshops allowed teachers and school administers to gain valuable knowledge on the use of ICT in education and directly apply it to schools here," said Dr. Ghadah Omar Fakieh, Manager of ictQATAR's e-education program.

The conference highlighted the latest innovations in ICT and education, addressing a wide range of topics, including schools of the future, games in education, mobile learning, robotics, developing science and math curriculum with ICT, and more. The conference was free and open to all educators in Qatar, and many of the presentations from it are available online at www.qatarictconference.org.

"We were pleased to once again host this event at CNA-Q,"" said Dr. Harald Jorch, President, College of the North Atlantic - Qatar. "As the State of Qatar's leading technical institute we are committed not only to providing the most current technology to our students, but also to sharing our knowledge with the community. This conference allowed teachers from across the State to learn new techniques in incorporating technology into their classrooms."

International experts from the Middle East, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa presented lectures and facilitated workshop sessions at the conference. Some of the notable participants included Doug Brown and Gavin Dykes from Becta, the UK's government agency leading the national drive to ensure effective and innovative use of technology throughout learning, and Mala Bawer from CyberSmart!, a leading international education organization that prepares students to safely succeed in today's digital society.

The Conference Committee also announced the launch of a contest for students called ""Digital Star." The contest asks students to submit digital projects on how classroom lessons in any subject could be improved using technology. The contest will run through April 30, 2009 and is open to all students in Qatar, with the top prizes being MacBooks. Information on the contest is available on the conference website.