ROTA Hosts Annual iEARN Conference, Youth Summit Next July

Doha, June 19 (QNA) - Reach out to Asia (ROTA) will host the 20th Annual iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) International Conference and 17th Youth Summit. ROTA's official partner for the event will be the Supreme Education Council. Being staged in the Gulf for the first time since the conference began in 1994, the 20th Annual iEARN International Conference will witness the congregation of around 500 teachers and students from more than 50 countries to come to Qatar to share and learn how technology is being used in the classrooms. Likewise, since 1998, iEARN has held an International Youth Summit in conjunction with the International Conference. Students from over 20 countries come together to build bonds of friendship and plan future collaborative project work. "We are proud to host the iEARN conference, as we believe that this will definitely support our mission and open the floor for exchange of ideas between educators and students," said Essa Al Mannai, Executive Director at ROTA, who will announce further details during a press conference on Monday 24/6, at 11:00am at the recreation center, Qatar Foundation. "iEARN offers us the rare opportunity to step into innovative uses of technologies, and thereby facilitate the integration of global technologies into local knowledge", he added. iEARN is a non-profit organization, made up of over 30,000 schools and youth organizations in more than 130 countries, that works to connect classroom learning with real world issues, and to work collaboratively to find solutions to these issues. The first iEARN International Conference began in 1994 when iEARN teachers came together physically in Argentina. After that it became an annual event and the last iEARN conference was held in Taiwan in 2011. The theme of this year's conference will be 'ICT for Education: Reaching Out, Building Bridges', and will focus on the use of technologies in education to reach out, learn and build a better world together. The conference attendees will expatiate on developing knowledge and skills about the use of ICT for inquiry and collaborative learning as in the iEARN context. Similarly, participants will be encouraged to promote innovative ways to use ICTs, share their iEARN experience, network with peers across the world, and experience and learn more about the Qatari/Arabic culture. The conference is open to all educators and students already involved in iEARN as well as those interested in the field of ICT for Education. The conference program will offer 8 plenary sessions, 2 panel discussions, and more than 90 workshops and presentations. In addition, there will be an exhibition for students and teachers to showcase their projects, or present about their cultures. Reach Out to Asia as the official representative for iEARN in Qatar since 2008, has been supporting iEARN's objectives of improving learning and teaching, and stimulating civil awareness and responsibility amongst the youth, and thereafter about 411 teachers from 90 schools in Qatar have benefitted by attending ROTAs iEARN-Qatar workshops, and participated in a variety of iEARN projects with their students. To facilitate Qatar-based learning community of educators and students, the iEARN-Qatar conducts workshops twice a year for teachers who are interested in integrating internet technologies and project-based learning into their curriculum. This workshop provides educators with the opportunity to join the ROTA Knowledge Network for professional development to enable them to integrate internet technologies and project-based learning into their curriculum, besides this, ROTA also organizes an Open House every June to give students and teachers the chance to display their work and achievements and showcase their iEARN projects for the school year. "By hosting the 2013 iEARN Annual Conference, iEARN-Qatar hopes to create thought-provoking and information-sharing occasions for all iEARNers as well as educators for a better quality of education" added Essa Al Mannai. (QNA)