Jordan Times
Tuesday, March 9, 2004
British educators interact with local counterparts on e-learning experience
By Ruba Saqr
AMMAN — Since the educational system in UK has taken quantum leaps over the past few years — moving from the classroom onto the desktop and now into the pocket — British experts are now here to encourage local educators and school pupils to “leapfrog.”According to Neil Shaw, head organiser of the “Jordan-UK ICT in Education Conference,” the event offered around 10 consultants from the UK the chance to interact with their Jordanian counterparts to “teach and learn” ways to move forward the e-learning revolution in the Kingdom.
“The reason we are here is so Jordan can `leapfrog'... and not necessarily to take the same route that we have taken,” Shaw told The Jordan Times.
He said educators here could learn from UK's “mistakes and successes” as they become fully immersed in ICT. Teachers, he said, need to be aware of ways to tailor their own programmes and e-teaching techniques in accordance with local classroom needs.
“This way Jordan will [emerge] a successful model for the whole region,” Shaw said.
The three-day conference, which concludes today, is organised by the British Council in conjunction with the Ministry of Education.
The event is part of efforts to expand on the Jordan Educational Initiative that was launched during the World Economic Forum, which was hosted on the eastern shores of the Dead Sea last year.
To create a catalyst of experiences combining those of Europe and the Kingdom's attempts to modernise education, the conference held brainstorming sessions about educational reform in Jordan; teachers' perspectives with regard to modernisation of education; curriculum design of e-material; building innovative e-content and advancing e-learning.
Where Jerry Graham comes from, e-learning and reform are inseparable. What Graham, a leading educator and a multimedia specialist in Scotland, hopes to see in Jordan is an “intelligent” transformation of educational space into a set of creative “e-classrooms.”
“E-learning is using technology where it is relevant. If it's not relevant then don't use it,” he advised participants.
Speaking about his observations and evaluation of “connectivity” among his Jordanian peers, Graham hailed the efforts of this “enthusiastic” crowd of educators and mentors.
“You are definitely on the right track,” Graham said, commenting on a presentation given by Tuhamie Dawas, a local teacher.
A young teacher at the King Abdullah School for Excellence in Zarqa, Dawas talked about how e-learning makes the process of learning exciting, engaging and compelling.
“In my school, hard and boring subjects can be made easier, more interesting and appealing with e-learning,” Dawas noted.
E-learning means that learning no longer needs to be a passive experience, with the learners sitting in front of the teacher and “learning by telling,” Dawas noted.
In one of the Power-Point slides on the data-show, Dawas pointed out how modern teaching techniques allow students to create their own action plans, research information and learn from resources outside the classroom.
Dawas is one of many educators who underwent a pioneering programme, dubbed Intel Teach to the Future, spearheaded by the Ministry of Education in conjunction with the computer-manufacturing giant, Intel Corporation.
Although the UK is advanced in terms of e-education, “ there is a lot to learn from Jordan,” Shaw concluded.