Kidsmart kicks off in Jordan

The inauguration ceremony took place alongside the official launch of Jordan's new curriculum for Kindergarten schools.

The Kidsmart initiative is to see the donation by IBM of over 100 of these centres to Jordan's Ministry of Education in 2004 and is the first such initiative to take place in the Arab countries. IBM will continue to work with the Ministry on their future plan for over 200 schools.

"As Jordan launches its national early years curriculum, we are delighted to be working with IBM on bringing the Kidsmart initiative in Jordan. We are focused today on a programme of development that will migrate all of Jordan's national learning resources to e-learning and connected learning platforms and this initiative is a key component in our early years planning," said Jordanian Minister of Education, Dr. Khaled Toukan. "Kidsmart is an important contribution to our work, particularly in less advantaged communities in Jordan."

The Kidsmart initiative includes the donation of specially equipped early learning terminals designed by IBM in collaboration with children's equipment manufacturer Little Tikes. The units are designed to allow two or more children to work together, sharing learning experiences driven by educational software developed by Riverdeep. The software, which has been translated into Arabic, covers basic skills in maths, science and creative writing and thinking. The initiative has so far seen the installation of the first 49 Kidmsart centres in Jordanian schools, as well as training provided to over 200 Jordanian early years teachers. The teacher training and implementation of the Kidsmart units is being overseen by the Ministry of Education team.

"Kidsmart is an exciting initiative for IBM in Jordan that links to Jordan's ERFKE (Education Reform for the Knowledge Economy) strategic framework and we have been delighted to be able to work with the Ministry of Education team on implementing the scheme. This first move forms part of an ongoing commitment by IBM to work with the Ministry on implementing key elements of the Jordanian national e-learning initiative," said general manager, IBM Middle East, Egypt and Pakistan, Dr. Samer Shaar. "We're proud to be part of such a progressive and far-sighted programme."

The Kidsmart programme also includes ongoing development and training opportunities for early learning practitioners in Jordan, including access to the global Kidsmart website which has been developed in partnership with the US Centre for Children and Technology. The site, www.kidsmartearlylearning.org provides ongoing resources and support for teachers and parents using ICT with young children and is multi-lingual.

IBM developed KidSmart in 1999 to extend its partnership programmes in the education sector to cover the critical pre-school years. The programme was designed specifically to address the digital divide in access to Information Technology. KidSmart units are donated to public schools serving disadvantaged communities so that children who would otherwise not have access to IT are able to benefit from enriched teaching and learning. IBM runs the KidSmart programme in more than 50 countries around the world and will have donated 20,000 units by the end of 2005, benefiting over 4 million children (this represents an investment of $56m USD). IBM delivers the KidSmart programme through partnerships, usually with the Ministry of Education or a leading early education professional body.

A report representing an independent evaluation of IBM's KidSmart Early Learning Programme in six European countries is to be published this month. Carried out by a team of university researchers over a two year period to the end of 2003, the report highlights very positive findings which clearly demonstrate the strong impact of this programme on curriculum development and effective teaching and learning with information and communications technology (ICT) in the pre-school sector. In addition, it establishes the value of high quality professional training in the use of ICT and presents evidence of improved teacher confidence, as well as strong gains in children's enjoyment of learning.