Digital Reach

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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