Digital identity at Learning and Technology

Effat College intensifies its preparations for the Sixth Annual Learning and Technology Symposium, which will take place on April 26-27 in Jeddah Hilton Hotel.

This annual event provides a forum for educators to disseminate information relative to current and future innovations in the use of educational media and technology.

"Cyber Citizenship: Vistas and Visions" is the theme 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".

For the first time, the symposium will witness four panel discussions; all will be carried out on the first day leaving the second day for workshops and presentations.

The first panel, titled: "Emergent Technologies and the Youth" will be moderated y Elisabeth Bosley, the Institutional Partnerships Coordinator at Effat College.

This Panel will tackle the technologies that the youth are interested in today and how they are using these tools -for fun and entertainment, or there is greater value. How the Arab world is in particular adopting technology and participating in the cyber world will be discussed.

The panellists are: Baba Ali, Ummah Films, USA, Ahmed Al-Omran, Saudijeans.org, KSA, and Hadeel Al-Hodaif, Saudi Arabia.

The second panel discussion is "Communities of Practice for Teaching and Learning".

This panel will evolve around Communication models using digital systems, which are constantly evolving and being applied to an ever growing variety of domains.

One such model is the community of practice, which according to Wikipedia "refers to the process of social learning that occurs when people who have a common interest in some subject or problem collaborate over an extended period to share ideas, find solutions, and build innovations".

The panel will be moderated by Dr. Sadiga Al-Ghalib, Director of the Centre of Excellence for Teaching & Learning at Effat College. Arwa Al-Aama, King AbdulAziz University, KSA, Akila Sarirete, Effat College, and Khaldoun Dia, Dar Al-Fikr Schools, KSA are the panelists.

PeopleWare "Upgrade" is the title of the third panel. With the situation today in employment, education, and population demographics the right steps need to be taken, and taken now, in order to avoid a crisis in the years ahead.

This panel discussion will explore ideas from a group of leading thinkers on what Saudi Arabia and this region must do in order to create the future that we dream of for our children, and the role of technology in achieving this dream.

The panel will be moderated by Amer Kashoggi, Amkest Group, KSa and Shameema Parveen, Edutech, Sharifa Akil, Malaysia , and Dr. Ghazi Faisal Binzagr, Arabian Stores Company, KSA are the panellists.

The last panel, "At night we all look at the same stars: Cross Cultural Skills for the 21st century" is moderated by Halim Choueiry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Qatar.

This session is about Cross-Cultural Package consisting of three points: Be ready. Be open. Be tolerant. Be ready: equipped with analytical thinking to be able to make the right choices.

It focuses on being open to accept the others from the global village without being judgmental, being tolerant to tolerate differences and have the patience and time to look into things.

The panellists are: Hadia Al-Henawy, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Egypt, Aghareed Tayeb, Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt, and Hugh Osborn, Beehive media, Inc. USA.

Registrations are being accepted for the symposium and group discounts are also available for a group of five people or more. Students are also eligible for a discount on registration fees upon presentation of a valid student ID.

The event is sponsored by: Okaz Group for press and publication, ART (TV), EduTech, Sultan Bin AbdulAziz Al Saud Foundation, I-Zone (Apple Macintosh), BMW, Nesma Holding co. ltd, Al Bahrawi Group, Microsoft, IEEE and AbuDawood & Partners.