ROTA hosts iEARN-Arabia meeting

Reach Out To Asia (ROTA) welcomed Arab World representatives of the International Education and Research Network (iEARN) to Doha for a 2-day meeting with the aim of establishing a new regional union, iEARN-Arabia.

On Monday 16^th and Tuesday 17^th of July, iEARN Coordinators from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Palestine, U.A.E., Yemen and Qatar met in Doha to define the vision, mission, goals, status and format of iEARN-Arabia.

Potential outcomes of the iEARN-Arabia meeting were to develop  a strategic and operational plan focusing on supporting Arabic language in education, promote iEARN in Arabic speaking communities, increase the number of teachers involved and to share and promote existing educational resources and develop new resources in the Arabic language.

“By organizing this initial meeting, and future conferences and workshops for Arabic speaking teachers, iEARN Arabia aims to improve teaching skills amongst the participating countries through the increased use of Project Based Learning (PBL),” says ROTA Online Education Manager, Mr. Pascal Siegel <psiegel@qf.org.qa>.

As well as enabling iEARN-Arabia to maximize its reach, raise funds and establish an official and recognized status, delegates attending the iEARN-Arabia meeting discussed the potential to develop and support iEARN projects relating to Arabic language and other themes central to ROTA’s mission.

“By promoting PBL in subjects that are taught in the Arabic language such as religious studies, humanities and Arabic literature, iEARN Arabia would improve teaching and learning and help Arabic speaking teachers and students acquire 21st century skills,” adds Essa Al Mannai.

iEARN is a non-profit organization of over 30,000 schools in more than 130 countries empowering teachers and young people to work together online using the Internet and other new communication technologies in order to connect classroom learning with real world issues.

Committed to becoming a founding member and taking a leadership and advisory role within iEARN-Arabia, ROTA is the official representative of the iEARN programme in Qatar, and is providing opportunities for students and teachers to collaborate through the network with other iEARN communities around the world.

Demonstrating the success of the iEARN-Qatar network, in June ROTA hosted its largest annual iEARN Open House as 400 students and 50 teachers from 19 schools showcased projects at the Qatar Foundation Student Center.

Qatar will become the first GCC country to stage the iEARN International conference when ROTA hosts the annual event in Doha during July 2013.

For more information about IEARN-Qatar, visit www.reachouttoasia.org or the ROTA Facebook page at www.facebook.com/reachouttoasia.

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