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Improve Arabic Content on Net, Urge ExpertsDUBAI, Nov 22, 2009 (Khaleej Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- A project that was awarded for providing a platform to school educators across the globe to collaborate, share and develop content for enhanced student learning, will be developed in Arabic with the help of UAE universities, its developer said. Curriki, a non-profit organisation that offers a collection of over 25,000 free and open source content and collaborative tools to teachers and students for effective learning, bagged the World Innovation Summit for Education Award last week. The award was initiated this year by the Qatar Foundation in Doha. The annual award acknowledges projects from around the world that bring radical change in the access to quality education for students. Six laureates were chosen in the categories of Pluralism, Sustainability and Innovation in education, that were also the themes of the summit that concluded last week. Educators at the conference were of the opinion that education institutes must cooperate to co-create content and share best practices. Recipient, Dr Barbara Kurshan, executive director of Curriki said the organisation is working to develop and assist Arabic teachers to share content and teaching methodologies that are limited for them on the web. "There is a big need in this region for an open and shared content source in Arabic," said Kurshan. "What we hope to do is find a permanent partner that will work with us to develop the content and support the platform and training for in-service and pre-service activities," she said. Prof Shaikha Abdulla Al Misnad, president at the University of Qatar and a panelist in a discussion on global education paradigm, said educationists around the world need to work together, beyond borders to make quality education available. "On both national and regional levels, it is important that the efforts of educational institutions compliment rather than compete with each other," she said. "This will help harness resources and existing technologies to provide a wider base that is beyond the immediate community." Research has proved that when teachers build their own content and collaborate with others, it increases efficiency and the level of student achievements, Kurshan said. "We know in this region that teachers are interested in the use of technology but there is still a long way to go." She said the challenge faced by schools is the lack of trained teachers and the availability of content in Arabic. Traditional public schools have been posting low student attainment results in mathematics and science that is being taught in Arabic. The Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) that was undertaken by students in Dubai schools revealed that public schools students are fairing much lower than their counterparts in private schools in these subjects. In international schools, the teaching of the Arabic language has also come under fire with students being unable to communicate despite it being compulsory from Grade 1 to Grade 9. School administrators say there is a lack of quality content and trained teachers to improve the teaching and learning standards. The Curriki network has more than 65,000 members with a number of UAE teachers utilising the community's English resources in the classroom. "We get around a million visitors to Curriki every month. Last month, UAE ranked 11th in the frequency of usage of the website, which means that it was visited 30,000 times," she said. Numeracy and literacy content is most popular with teachers in the country. "They form communities and groups around a subject area, schools, and certain problems that need to be addressed." Anna Batchelder, CEO and founder of Bon Education that works with the Ministry of Education to train teachers in digital literacy said there is a great demand for Arabic content among educators in the UAE. "There is a dearth of Arabic content sources," she said. "There needs to be a platform where someone teaching, for example, algebra in an innovative way in Egypt can share it with their counterparts in the UAE and teachers here can in turn develop material through collaborations with other Arab teachers in the region." The organisation worked with 75 teachers from 16 public schools in the country through the Bon Digital Learning Academy where middle school mathematics, science and english teachers were taught how to integrate technology and social media tools in the learning environment. "We noticed that most teachers are using email but not to communicate with the students and parents. Although, they were aware of 'wikis' and 'blogs', they did not know what they were and how to use them," Batchelder said. The issue of shifting to innovative methods of teaching was more prevalent in the rural areas where teachers and students do not have widespread and regular access to the Internet and resources. Most public schools are still using old computer programmes or are not utilising the available resources to their full potential. In the schools that applied the new methodologies, trainers recorded that that students were motivated to learn those subjects. "When teachers began incorporating technology in the English classes, students were asked to create podcasts in the language which they shared with their parents and grandparents." Developing Arabic content on Curriki, will produce similar results in improving the quality of teaching and learning the Arabic language, Kurshan said. At the first World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), which ended with the identification of strategic education priorities that need to be acted upon, a fully integrated approach and innovating new ways to learn were in the top 10 proposals for enhancing global education. "It represents a convergence among global educational leaders on the key issues that will affect and shape education in the 21st century," said Dr Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, chairman of WISE and Qatar Foundation's vice-president of education. Dr Claudie Haignere, president, cite des sciences et de l'Industrie, former Minister Delegate in charge of Research and New Technologies of France, said that the teaching pedagogy must coordinate the formal and informal education because a large part of the student community is a part of social networks on the Internet. However, schools and students that are away from the city hubs face the challenge of inconsistent Internet facilities. Almost 30 per cent of the children do not have an internet access at home. "It is necessary then, that the school provides a wide broadband access for them to progress in the same way," said Batchelder. What is Curriki? -- The word Curriki is a combination of Curriculum and Wiki that allows the creation and editing of content -- By 2014, 300,000 teachers will be Curriki educators -- It allows access to high quality open and shared resources -- Teachers can create collections, assemble lessons and mix and remix resources -- Engage with other teachers around the world and create knowledge sharing communities -- Gain feedback from teachers to improve curriculum resources -- Curriki estimates that if 10 per cent of US classrooms move from proprietary, static and expensive curricula to open, dynamic and free Curriki content, the estimate savings for school systems will amount to $700 million annually. [email protected] To see more of the Khaleej Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.khaleejtimes.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Khaleej Times, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 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