International collaborative learning communities connect Qatar’s schools to the world

Qatar’s education reform effort - Education for a New Era - is responding to the educational needs to be more closely aligned with the skills and competencies such as team-spirit, problems solving, projects preparation and management, critical and innovative thinking approaches necessary for the world of work in the 21st century.

More and more educators and students all over the world are focusing their efforts on design and implementation of more active and collaborative methods of teaching and learning. So many international collaborative learning communities’ initiatives have been launched to engage students and teachers with meaningful project learning to exchange expertise, best practices, etc with their peers from around the world to help prepare the youth for full participation at local, regional and international levels and to prepare them to be productive and effective citizens as well.

Qatar was among the said collaborative learning communities. Below is a summary of some of these projects:
Innovative schools initiative
Al Bayan Educational Complex for Girls recently became a part Microsoft’s prestigious Innovative Schools Program, which works with governments, local schools, teachers, educators, communities and partners from around the world to build schools that meet the challenges of 21st Century learning. Microsoft will provide guidance and expertise in the process of school development and a roadmap for technology integration that can help accomplish education objectives and improve student achievement for the next generation of citizens of the world.

The Microsoft program model works with partners to use research-inspired learning principles and best-in-class technology, integrated and adapted for local community needs to establish a sustainable foundation for continued advances in education and learning. The Innovative Schools program:

• Helps create a connections and dialogue among local teachers, educational experts and education policymakers
• Helps expand opportunities for educators that can translate into long-term economic growth for communities
• Helps instil research and development methods into the daily curriculum so that teachers and students are constantly investigating and discovering new instructional practices that can improve student achievement and create lifelong learners
• Offers access to Microsoft’s personnel and research in the areas of data integration and managements, collaboration and communication streaming media, organizational efficiency and leadership development.

Qatar is one of 12 locations from around the world selected to participate in the program. The other eleven schools are located in Brazil, Canada, Chile, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Mexico, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

The program has been developed out of collaborations with Singapore’s BackPack.Net Technology programme, the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) program in the UK, and School of the Future projects in Philadelphia and Taipei’s Zhong Lun High School, as well as Microsoft’s Partners in Learning initiative implemented in 101 countries around the world.

Global Gateway - Qatar
The Supreme Council for Information and Communication Technology (ictQATAR) recently partnered with The British Council, to connect Qatar’s students and teachers to an international portal designed to enrich the learning experience. This portal, know as Global Gateway, is a one-stop-shop for international partnerships where you find schools from all around the world share experiences and practices, and exchange ideas. Teachers are able to share instructional resources with other teachers and students can conduct simultaneous experiments with students in other partner countries.

The Global Gateway already has formed strategic partnerships with 45 countries in five continents.

GLOBE - Qatar
In 2000, Qatar joined the GLOBE program and is among 110 countries participants worldwide. GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) is a worldwide hands-on, primary and secondary school-based science and education program funded by NASA. It promotes the teaching and learning of science, enhances environmental literacy and stewardship, and promotes scientific discovery.

The program engages students, teachers, scientists and citizens to work to better understand, sustain and improve the earth’s environment at local, regional and global scales. Parents and other community members often work with teachers to help students obtain data on days when schools are not open.

GLOBE focuses on five main protocol areas – soils, hydrology, land cover, atmosphere and phenology (study of how animals and plants react to environmental changes). Students and teachers from selected schools in Qatar recently received training on the protocol areas of the program that can be integrated in science and social studies subjects; and thus supporting scientific research in schools. Being an activity-based program it helps students see how all the theory studied in the classroom can be applied.

GLOBE also allows students, teachers and scientists to learn more about different cultures around the world and create partnerships that will enhance their experiences.

Sources: www.microsoft.com; www.ict.gov.qa; www.globalgateway.org.uk; and www.globe.gov

International Education and Research Network
School children in Qatar will soon be able to tap into a network of more than 25,000 schools and youth organizations in 120 countries, gaining not only cross-cultural awareness, but also acquiring critical thinking skills that will help them in the highly interconnected world.

Reach Out to Asia (ROTA), a non-governmental organization in Qatar whose mission is to extend educational opportunities across the Asian continent, recently paired up with the non-profit International Education and Research Network (i-EARN), to bring access to the network’s powerful resource directly to the teachers and students in Qatar. iEARN-Qatar aims to provide opportunities for students and teachers in the country to engage in collaborative education across the globe using the internet and other new technologies.

The i-EARN program is a major extension of Connect ROTA’s Knowledge Network initiative, which was created to establish a sustainable, connective and collaborative online learning community, with access to international educational resources, dissolving barriers and leading to a better quality of education and life within Asia including the Middle East.

ROTA’s aims of establishing iEARN-Qatar are to:

• Establish a Qatar-based learning community of educators and students
• Establish online and face-to-face connections between schools in Qatar and the 120+ countries involved in iEARN International
• Promote intercultural exchanges, tolerance, and awareness of cultures of the world
• Involve teachers and students in sharing best practices and online project based learning
• Facilitate and enable teachers’ capacity building to participate in online project-based learning
• Expose Teacher and students to an international K-12 community and best practices

Through face-to-face workshops, teacher professional development opportunities, conferences, exhibitions community events and other activities, ROTA will establish a self-sustainable iEARN-Qatar learning community that will be connected regionally through iEARN-Arabia and globally through iEARN International.

Currently, ROTA is running a pilot phase for iEARN-Qatar from March until June 2008 with 18 teachers from 9 schools throughout Qatar including 5 Independent Schools. Teachers participated in a 2 ½ day intensive workshop to introduce them to iEARN and to begin planning for participating in an iEARN structured project with their class. Participants also began to develop their individual professional development portfolio online. Throughout the pilot phase, teachers will be interacting with each other on ROTA’s Knowledge Network portal. By using tools such as blogs and forums, teachers participating in the pilot phase will be sharing and discussing their progress throughout the project and also building upon their own professional development portfolios.

Project outcomes will be shared by teachers and students involved in the pilot phase during an exhibition/celebration event in early June. Students will have an opportunity to showcase their work and teachers will also be able to meet with other teachers and discuss outcomes and steps for the next phase of iEARN-Qatar. Teachers will also have the opportunity to travel to the iEARN Annual Teachers Conference and Youth Summit to be held on July 12-18, 2008 in Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

Next Steps
Following the pilot phase, Phase 2 of iEARN-Qatar will involve existing members of iEARN-Qatar in further professional development opportunities including training as master trainers. New members in the iEARN-Qatar will have the opportunity to attend workshops to enable them to participate in iEARN projects. ROTA will also be creating Qatar-specific learning circles, involving Qatar based educators and students, and will be hosting seminars about iEARN-Qatar to enable educators and students the opportunity to share and plan their iEARN experiences.

As the learning community of iEARN-Qatar grows, international learning circles, which are specifically formed groups of iEARN members, focusing on ROTA focal countries will be included. Also, further capacity building and professional development opportunities for teachers to be involved in iEARN projects will be offered. iEARN-Qatar will also join the regional iEARN-Arabia partnership (see www.iearn-arabia.org for more details).

Although ROTA plays a vital role in facilitating the establishment of the iEARN-Qatar learning community, its aim is to create a sustainability community. Over the next 2 to 3 years, ROTA will be transitioning iEARN-Qatar into a self-sustaining organization with local administration and governance.

It is hoped that iEARN will provide an excellent resource for teachers looking for professional development opportunities and resources to help them meet the Professional Standards set by the Supreme Education Council.

About iEARN
iEARN is the world’s largest non-profit global network that enables young people to use the Internet and other new technologies to engage in collaborative educational projects that both enhance learning and make a difference in the world. Established in 1988 as a pioneering online program among schools in the United States and schools in the Soviet Union, iEARN is now active in more than 25,000 schools and youth organizations in 120 countries.

iEARN builds upon the basic principle of Project-based Learning (PBL) by connecting classrooms around the world via an online network. iEARN’s model of Global Project-Based Learning allows young people to acquire skills in critical thinking, and cross-cultural awareness while connecting their learning to real world issues, making learning challenging and enjoyable.

Cherie Clark-Moore is the Head of Connect ROTAsia at Reach Out To Asia