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D
UBAI
,
ONE OF
the seven emirates forming the United Arab
Emirates (UAE), has been experiencing phenomenal
growth in these past few years. A truly modern metropo-
lis undertaking some of the most enterprising infrastructural
projects of our times, Dubai is positioning itself as the digital hub
of the Middle East. Among the first Arab leaders to recognize the
impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on
society is H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum,
crown prince of Dubai and the UAE Defence Minister, who has
laid out an ambitious multi-pronged strategy to transform Dubai
into a digital city. Today, the initiatives include the Dubai e-
Government, Dubai Internet City and Dubai Knowledge Village
among many others.
Alongside the infrastructural initiatives are programmes recogniz-
ing the critical importance of an ICT literate society. The Education
Project (ITEP) has been set up with the focal aim of ensuring the
permeation of IT literacy within society. In accordance with this
commitment, ITEP has been successful in increasing the IT literacy
levels within various segments of society such as students, teachers,
government employees, women, and special needs individuals.
Prior to its launch in 2000, education experts in the country
had been expressing the need for an interactive education system
that would help schools and students to keep pace with the
rapidly developing trends of the ICT world. Furthermore, demo-
graphic data and other factors, including long term benefits,
identified school students as the ideal segment to begin the ICT
literacy programme. Therefore, in partnership with the Ministry
of Education, ITEP launched its operations first at the school
level, training first- and second-year secondary Dubai school
students in ICT.
Students
As well as fostering IT literacy, the school programme is designed
to complement the Ministry of Education’s aim of introducing
new means of enabling graduates to meet market requirements.
The programme now covers 39 schools, in Dubai and Abu Dhabi,
and has trained around 65 000 students in the last five years. Its
success is largely attributed to the following factors:
Curriculum: the school curriculum (containing over 500 infor-
mation objects) provides a blended learning approach where
teachers mediate the learning experience, and the online resources
including interactive demonstrations allow students to work inde-
pendently. Provided both in English and Arabic, the curriculum
is learner-centred, context-based, provides multiple learning
Priming today’s generation for
the digital future
H. H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum IT Education Project
School students in one of the IT labs
Photo: ITEP