There is an increased awareness in Arab region in recent years towards the need for improving ICTs in education. In this context, the Arab League countries adopted Arab Regional Initiative on Smart Learning at the
ITU's World Telecommunication Development Conference in 2014. This resolve has seen further support in the form of
United Nations' Millennium Development Goals that aim to achieve universal primary education and the
Qingdao Declaration on transforming education, undertaken by the Ministers of Education worldwide at the International Conference on ICT and Post-2015 Education in 2015.
Many of the Arab countries have therefore launched local initiatives to promote the use of ICTs in Education within their regions. The ITU Arab Regional Office, Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) and Intel have joined forces to provide leadership to help Arab countries to develop national strategies on smart learning and to ensure that such national initiatives progress smoothly and leverage the strengths of each other to better contribute to the implementation of a larger strategy that meets the goals and aspirations of each of these countries in smart learning.
The ITU Smart Learning Forum will be held from 14 to 16 December 2015 in Dubai. It is hosted by the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority in Dubai and is organized by the ITU in partnership with ALESCO and in collaboration with Intel and Millennium@EDU. The purpose of this forum is to bring all stakeholders from the education and ICT sectors on the same table to create a common understanding, and in possible, vision for smart learning in the Arab region.
Objectives of the Forum:
The specific objects of the ITU Smart Learning Forum are as follows:
- Setting a common vision for Smart learning in the Arab region among all relevant stakeholders with the aim of promoting Smart Learning in the Arab region in the coming years
- Facilitating dialogue between officials from the Ministries of Education and Ministries of ICT in the Arab region to create a common understanding and vision for smart learning in the Arab region
- Launching the Guidelines on formulating national strategies on smart learning
- Launching the study on the deployment of various computing devices in schools to create smart classroom infrastructure
- Launching the study on high quality online content development in schools
- Launching the study on Capacity Building for Teacher Educators in Integration of ICTs
- Launching the study on the development of mobile educational apps targeted for Arab region
- Raising awareness on the challenges and opportunities of smart learning in the Arab region
- Facilitate dialogue among the officials from the Ministries of Education and ICT in the Arab countries to create a common understanding and vision for smart learning in the Arab region
- Highlighting best practices in smart learning in the Arab region and abroad
- Creating support network of policy experts to help Arab Ministries of Education and ICT during national policy development, contextualization and implementation
