microsoft innovative teachers forum - arabia 2007 concludes by rewarding teachers for exemplary innovation in classrooms
The Microsoft Innovative Teachers Forum – Arabia 2007, held under the Patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, has come to a successful conclusion today, culminating in an awards ceremony that recognized and rewarded teachers who have demonstrated exemplary use of technology and innovation in the classroom.
The two day forum, sponsored by Microsoft and its partners including the Queen Rania Al-Abdullah Award for Excellence in Education, the Ministry of Education and the Jordan Education Initiative, brought together approximately 150 teachers from the Middle East, Gulf and North Africa, with the objective of creating communities of teachers to share ideas and best practices with their peers, and facilitate the creation of collective knowledge.
Razan Fasheh, Education Program Manager for Microsoft Eastern Mediterranean and Pakistan said, "The Innovative Teachers Forums, held on a regional level leading up to a worldwide event in the fall of 2007, are key elements of the Microsoft Innovative Teachers Program, which includes an online component known as the Innovative Teachers Network (ITN)."
She added: "During the Jordan ICT Forum 2006, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdallah launched the ITN for Jordan, which has so far attracted 400 teachers from the Kingdom. A similar website was already developed in Arabic in Egypt, and another one will shortly be launched in Lebanon. Through the ITN, educators can share best practices, lesson plans, teaching materials and allows for teachers to engage in discussions and forums with their peers online. The ITN is flexible enough to allow for customizing of websites to meet the requirements of each country."
The two-day event concluded with the Innovative Teachers Awards 2007, given to 3 groups of teachers who demonstrated exceptional examples of innovation with the use of technology in the classroom. The winners were evaluated and selected by a high level evaluation committee from all countries represented at the forum.
The winning groups were selected based on specific assessment criteria, which include clarity of project idea, level of effort and methods used for the presentation, usage and quality of audio and video, the usage, quality and effects of PowerPoint presentation, the usage and quality of still pictures, clarity of the content, overall presentation including audio, video and content, the project's educational value and its level of interaction with students.
The Group who won the highest award was a collaboration of teachers from Qatar, Iraq, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. This Group's Virtual Classroom Tour (VCT) project was selected for being distinctive and meeting all the assessment criteria through the use of interactive lesson plans that include audio, pictures and cartoons, as well as videos on science experiments with detailed written and spoken explanations. The students can also take timed exams to evaluate their performance and receive assistance using a 'help' icon.
This year, Jordan's Innovative Teachers Forum set the stage for new initiatives. A group of experts and specialists from a number of countries were invited to train participating teachers on a set of basic and essential skills, such as building teams, teamwork and integrating multimedia with education, which were conducted by trainers from the School Technology Innovation Center. Training sessions were also held in a first of its kind initiative on intellectual property rights with contribution from experts in the field, in addition to workshops on the professional use of information technology in education, held by the Harvard School of Education.
As part of its continuous efforts to support the educational sector, Microsoft sponsored the five winners of the Queen Rania Al-Abdullah Award for Excellence in Education 2006 to participate in the Microsoft EMEA Innovative Teachers Forum that took place in Paris in March 2007. Reflecting the significant development of the Jordanian educational sector in terms of adopting ICT as one of its main pillars, Jordanian Maha Al Shakhshir won the first prize award for "Innovation in Content" out of a total of 200 teachers and 10 other winners.
Microsoft's Innovative Teachers Program is a key component of the efforts made by Microsoft’s Partners in Learning (PiL), to invest financial and technology resources in order to provide access to IT training and development based on the needs and requirements of the educational sector. The program provides both educators and learners with access to all the needed technical support, funding and research resources. Microsoft collaborates with local and international experts to achieve its goals and efficiently provides educational institutions with state-of-the-art technologies.
