Regional ICT Centre in Bahrain organized two high-level workshops on ICT and education

Workshop on UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers - © UNESCO

Addressing the opportunities and challenges in effectively integrating digital technologies in 21st century classrooms, the Regional Centre for Information and Communication Technology (CICT), a UNESCO Category II Centre in Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, hosted two regional workshops from 18 to 22 March 2012 on the use of ICTs in 21st century classrooms for policy makers from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Member States and Yemen.

The inaugural regional workshops have been organized by CICT in close collaboration with the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Technology in Cairo, Egypt. 

In his remarks to the inaugural session, Dr Majid Bin Ali Al-Noaimi, Minister of Education of Bahrain, underlined the country’s commitment to working closely with the GCC Member States and UNESCO in order to realize the objectives of the centre. 

The first workshop, entitled “UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers”, is a 3-day event, which took place from 18 to 20 March 2012. This workshop focused on sensitizing policy makers to existing frameworks for teachers’ ICT competencies, as well as introducing the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers. The workshop was facilitated by international experts from UNESCO, Global e-Schools (GESCI) and Imagine Education, who provided examples from relevant global initiatives, as well as up to date knowledge for contextualizing and adapting the framework with national standards. 

The second workshop, entitled “Touch and Mobile Technologies for the Classroom”, aimed to address issues related to these technologies and beyond, and delve into the intricacies of the subject targeting high-level policy makers at the Ministries of Education in the Arab Gulf States. Beyond policy level discussions, the workshop tried to sensitize the participants to the issues of preparedness for this emerging transformation. Digital Content, Interactivity, Mobile Applications, Open Educational Content Standards etc. were discussed in detail. 

The two workshops have been organized as precursors to the meeting of CICT’s first Governing Board meeting. 

About CICT 

The Regional Centre for Information and Communication Technology is a Category II centre under the auspices of UNESCO. The Centre strives to contribute to the development of the Arab region by harnessing the power of ICTs for creating capacity in knowledge sharing and acquisition through the establishment of a knowledge hub for the six Member States of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) and Yemen by:

• fostering creativity, innovation and practical implementations of ICTs towards capacity-building and lifelong professional skills development;
• enabling design, development, effective production, and dissemination of knowledge products for sustainable development;
• promoting the creation and dissemination of Arabic digital content; and
• facilitating the consolidation of resources, know-how and private sector contributions towards ICT applications.