The opening day of Effat college's Fifth Annual Learning and Technology Symposium

150 women and 100 men from diverse educational and academic backgrounds attended the first day of this program. The Dean of Effat College, Dr.Haifa Reda Jamal Al-Lail, as well as several Effat College staff members, faculty, and students attended the symposium. The theme of this year's symposium was "Digital Literacy - No Boundaries, No Limits." It focused on the issues and strategies that are involved in facing the challenge of educating students and employees for "digital citizenship".

The first speaker of the day was Ms. Shameema Parveen, the Co-Founder and Knowledge officer of Edutech Middle East. In her session entitled," Literacy in the Digital Age", Ms. Parveen gave a background summary about Edutech's activities and emphasized that digital literacy is vital to prepare innovative employees that can adapt to the demands of an evolving economy. She stressed that "the L&T symposium has added to my experience and opened new venues for interacting with educators." In the second session entitled "Digital Literacy Assessments", Dr. Houria Oudghiri, the Chair of the Computer Science Department of Effat College, defined digital literacy as "an individual's ability to use computers in an efficient way." According to Dr. Oudghiri, "The objective of this L&T Symposium is to reduce the technological illiteracy in our society."

The sponsors of the Fifth Annual L&T Symposium included several leading institutions like:
Aal Taher Group, BMW, Al-Akbaria TV Channel, Al-Eqtisadiah Newspaper, Al-Hadaf Advertising, IT-Arabia, Yalla Net, Mubarak Al Guthmi Contracting Company, and Khadija Bint Khuwailid Center.

Dr. Haifa Jamal Al-Lail, Dean of Effat College, expressed her sincere thanks on behalf of Effat College's Board of Trustees for the generous sponsorship support of this event by the various sponsors. According to Dean Haifa, "This year's symposium is unique because it illustrates how educators can effectively integrate technology in the classroom by providing workshops. This symposium will also empower Saudi women because it will equip them with the technological skills that they require to pursue careers in business, politics, finance and other fields. This is in accordance with King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz's (the King of Saudi Arabia and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques) recommendations to empower women and enable them to contribute to the development of the Saudi Community."