World Links Arab Region participates in first international symposium for innovation in education

Together, they will build a vision for a common future for education, and set an agenda for future cooperation.

The event was organised by four major education organisations - European Schoolnet (EUN), a network of 31 Ministries of Education in Europe, the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) in the USA, Education.au, the Australian national agency for ICT in education and ANSAS, the Italian agency for innovation in education.

The symposium aims to encourage high-level networking within the global ICT in education community, improve information-sharing and cooperation between international education networks, reflect on the nature of 21st century learning and analyse the role of international education networks vis-à-vis decision makers in the field.

Participants of the symposium come from six continents, representing 30 countries. Delegations from 32 Ministries of Education and education agencies are participating.

It is the first time an initiative this scale was brought forward to build bridges between global networks, and to develop peer-learning mechanisms between all actors in the education sector. International networks are operating in a diversity of education environments, different education cultures, and the symposium were the occasion to share and exchange on this diversity and cultural wealth.

World Links Arab Region CEO, Reem Bsaiso, was among the main speakers, sharing the World Links Arab Region experience and approach to spreading ICT in Education in the Arab world.

Key industry partners who sponsored the event, included eInstruction, Intel Education, Microsoft, Oracle, PASCO Scientific, Promethean and SMART Technologies.

Several other organisations supported the initiative such as Futurelab in the UK, Apple Computers, KERIS (the ICT agency of the Ministry of Education Science and Technology in South Korea), South East Asia Ministry, and World Links Arab Region.

Other networks which attended the event included African (Schoolnet Africa), middle-eastern (iEARN Lebanon, World Links Arab Region), European (Global eSchools and Communities Initiative, Digital Europe) and South American networks (Interdidatica, Fundação Vanzolini).

The symposium also marked the start of a series of podcasts featuring key persons from International Networks for ICT in education.