Doha, Qatar (16 April 2011): Educators from across Qatar came together today for the fourth annual Exploring ICT in Education Conference hosted by the Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology (ictQATAR) and College of the North Atlantic-Qatar (CNAQ). Regional and international experts gave lectures and conducted interactive workshops on a range of topics addressing how technology can help improve education. The conference was held at the CNAQ Campus.

"Educators across Qatar are finding innovative ways to bring the benefits of information and communication technology into their classrooms. They are creating engaging digital content, preparing lesson plans collaboratively through wikis, bringing lessons to life through gaming and increasing parental involvement through new learning platforms. This conference is an excellent opportunity for these educators to share their experiences with their peers and discover the latest thinking in ICT and education," said Khawar Iqbal, Digital Inclusion Manager at ictQATAR.

Jeff Piontek from the Hawaii Technology Academy was the keynote speaker for the conference, and made the case that global learners of today will be the global leaders of tomorrow. "Current technology trends are affecting our personal and professional lives, our youth and elderly, our learning institutions, the nature of teaching and learning and our definition of intelligence itself," Piontek said during his lecture. He encouraged teachers to be engaged in technology and new media, saying "sooner or later you will probably have to learn the lingo, otherwise you will have no idea what students are saying to one another behind your back."

Other lectures at the conference addressed e-Content for education, privacy, digital content rights and digital citizenship. The interactive workshops in the afternoon provided teachers with an opportunity to experiment with some of the new ICT in education models and discover ways to integrate it into their classrooms. Topics covered in the workshops included Web 2.0, critical thinking, technology and mathematics, universal design learning, cyber safety, podcasting and collaborative online tools.

" Over 500 teachers and administrators from schools throughout Qatar participated, as well as guests from GCC countries. With over a dozen international and local presenters, the conference explored new ways of using technology in the classroom. We hope that these high-caliber lectures and workshops have inspired participants to begin to adopt these ideas and approaches of integrating ICT into the education curriculum," said Dr. Theodore Chiasson, Dean of Information Technology at CNAQ.

The conference will continue to April 18 with more hands-on workshops for educators.

Presentations and workshop materials from many of the speakers and presenters will soon be available online at www.qatarictconference.org.

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For more information please visit http://www.cna-qatar.com
www.ictQATAR.qa