Log on, learn, and live @ learning and technology symposium

Preparation, arrangement and promotion is underway as four weeks remain till the sixth Learning & Technology Symposium that is annually organized and hosted by Effat College under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Loulowah Al Faisal; Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees and General Supervisor of Effat College.

The Symposium will take place on April 26-27 2008 at Jeddah Hilton Hotel to increase the awareness among the local and regional community about the global digital nation to which they now belong and to acquaint them with their "newly acquired citizenship".

Registrations are being accepted for the symposium and an early bird discount is applicable till the 31st of March 2008. Group discounts are also available for a group of five people or more.

The first day of the Symposium features several prominent international speakers who will share their expertise and knowledge with the participants and various workshops will be available along with panel discussions featuring renowned speakers. Emergent Technologies, Teaching and Learning, Social and Cultural Issues, 21st century Skills, and Tools, Systems, and Infrastructure are the themes for the symposium sessions this year; the workshops, presentations and panel discussions will be about topics that reflect the session themes. These sessions will be delivered by national and international professional and technical experts including; Dr. Farouk AlBaz, Center for Remote Sensing, Boston University, Dr. Naif AlMutawa, Teshkeel Media Group, Kuwait. The two days of the symposium will feature workshops provided by EduTech and Microsoft.

Day one will also feature an opening night ceremony which will begin at 7:00 PM on 26th April 2008 with the welcome note and keynote address. The Ceremony will feature a panel discussion entitled "Women in Technology" followed by awards ceremony, recognition of sponsors and a gala dinner.

The second day of the conference will continue to offer a variety of workshops that will provide participants with hands-on knowledge of various technological tools that can be applied to the classroom or other work situations. These workshops are designed to suit participants' various needs and technical abilities.

These workshops will include: Using WebCt as strategy of engagement in a nursing program in Saudi Arabia: The impact of the new technologies on teaching and learning by Amani Al Ghamdi (Saad College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences Saudi Arabia), Using ALICE to teach novice programmers OOP concepts by Arwa Linjawi (King Abdul Aziz University Saudi Arabia), Designing and Delivering Effective and Interactive Online Course, and Next Generation Networks Evolution: WiMAX application in Education will be presented by Dr Nadine Adra (Effat College).

A worshop on "Publishing on YouTube" will be presented by Ali Baba and Yusuf Chowdhury from Ummah films-USA

The event is sponsored by: Okaz Group for press and publication, ART (TV), EduTech, I-Zone (Apple Macintosh), BMW, Nesma Holding co. ltd, Microsoft and IEEE.