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Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – The world is witnessing rapid technological development in various sectors, including education, as global investment in educational technology is expected to grow by 15% in 2021.
In light of the Coronavirus pandemic, educational technology has become a necessity, not just an option.
Recently, there have been many initiatives in the Middle East and Gulf countries to improve the level of education by integrating it with technology.
Over a year, students from all over the world have replaced their classrooms with a small corner in their home designated for study, with the aim of adapting to the new reality in light of school closures due to the spread of the Coronavirus.
How important is educational technology in the Gulf countries?
Director of Innovation and Future Learning at GEMS Education, Rohan Roberts, told CNN in Arabic that information technology will play a greater role in the future of education than ever before, when looking at the new post-pandemic reality in which we find ourselves now.
“Educational technology plays an important role in the current and future plans of most schools in the GCC region,” added Roberts, an educational technology consultant and entrepreneur.
Increasingly, the region has witnessed strategic investments by schools to provide science, technology, engineering, and mathematics equipment, or what is known as “STEM”, 3D printers, virtual reality glasses, and robotic tools for students, in addition to increasing interest in providing students with new skills related to Digital knowledge such as coding, and computational thinking.
Educational technology is particularly important in the Gulf countries, which host a large number of private international schools due to the large number of expatriates, as well as its urban infrastructure that facilitates focus on educational technology and distance learning.
“Market forces and high expectations of parents from private schools mean that schools will have to provide the latest and best educational technology to attract and retain students,” Roberts said, noting that there has been a gradual shift to focus on competencies that are important in the real world and transferable skills.
The main challenge, Roberts said, is to hone the skills of thousands of teachers in the area and retrain them to use these technologies in their classrooms.
Education Continuity in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Simon Hay, a co-founder and CEO of the British company “Firefly Learning”, which provides a program for schools to support the continuity of learning, especially during the “Covid-19” pandemic, told CNN in Arabic that the program “facilitates for schools to share information, and it helps parents in Supporting student achievement, and getting everyone involved in the education conversation without increasing the burden on teachers and employees.
Hay added that with the transfer of many schools to the Internet, this has resulted in a series of difficulties, as many of them rely on many separate and complex systems that do not correspond to each other, explaining that for parents this matter may mean logging in repeatedly, Forgetting passwords, and embarking on a digital experience that “seems out of date in modern life”.
Hay added that this challenge inspired the company operating in the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Sultanate of Oman, Qatar and other countries to develop a “parent portal” in the program, which gives parents “the clarity they need to understand their children’s education, and communicate with the school.” Through their phones, wherever they are. “
Hay emphasized that the pandemic has been a “catalyst for change”, away from old education patterns.
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