Leading IT companies like Intel, Google, Apple, Microsoft and others actively support the government and are pursuing initiatives aimed at strengthening the spread, access and utilization of technology in the education sector in the Kingdom. This also includes equipping teachers and students with the necessary skills to adapt to new learning techniques.
The International Exhibition and Forum for Education, the biggest education-centric exhibition in Saudi held in February this year, also focused on the increased utilization of modern technology to bring the quality of education in the Kingdom on par with international standards.
Recently, a Saudi youth delegation accompanied by officials from the Foreign Ministry, Communications and Information Technology Commission, Culture and Information Ministry, and King Abdulaziz City of Science and Technology visited the Korean Ministry of Education Science & Technology where they explored knowledge-based economy and e-education programs. These few examples show that the country is moving in the right direction.
Sufian Dweik, MENA manager at Brocade Communications, said that with the proliferation of modern smart devices, the education sector is ripe for change. The old 'one size fits all' classroom paradigm of a teacher lecturing to a classroom full of students cannot hope to compete with the ways that today's digital natives learn on their own. Schools at all levels are racing to capture the interest and imagination of students by bringing the innovations of e-learning technologies and applications into the classroom and the curriculum.
Dweik said the educational technology revolution is providing a three-pronged answer to this question. The first is making sure that students have access to the wealth of information available on demand via the Internet. The second is challenging them with a wide array of innovative new e-learning applications. Last, but not the least, is reaching them through the high-speed communication networks that connect students both in and out of the classroom.
Delivery of bandwidth-intensive e-learning applications, such as streaming video and multimedia is a challenge for virtually every school. Multiple single-purpose technologies are cost-prohibitive: Their financial burden is far greater than their benefits. A technology that can be applied for multiple uses costs less and provides agility to respond to growing and emerging needs. The answer, he points out, lies in the deployment of a high-performance campus network.
Although most schools have existing wired systems that still provide value, said Dweik, e-learning needs to grow to include new applications. Therefore, leveraging one IP network to provide connectivity for multiple uses will prove more cost-effective than adding additional wired networks. More and more institutions are turning to outdoor wireless broadband networks and indoor wireless LANs as more cost-effective alternatives to wired expansion as the education technology revolution takes hold. "These wireless environments can be used simultaneously for data and file transfer, automated testing, video learning, video security, voice calls, and inventory management," he said.
Wireless solutions, he points out, are also faster and easier to deploy, and simpler to manage, than wired solutions and only wireless technology enables the mobile access that is crucial for the delivery of anywhere, anytime learning on- or off-campus. With these solutions, each classroom is enriched with data, video, and voice connectivity, while the same network provides connectivity to technical and support staff so that students' activities are coordinated, and supplies and facilities are fully prepared.
On the use of smart devices in the classroom, Dweik said that today's students live their lives with access to the latest, most functional devices imaginable, such as smartphones and tablets. Schools can capitalize on the opportunity presented by these technologies through the deployment of specialized applications for learning.
Smart devices also pave the way for 1:1 classrooms, which foster a personalized learning environment. In the true 1:1 classroom, students have individual laptop computers, notebooks, tablets, and smartphones, and they are able to simultaneously view streaming video content from the Web or from a third-party educational video management system. Each individual student is able to view and work with the content in his own way, and also is able to work more closely with the teacher.
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Quelle/Source: MENAFN, 26.08.2012
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