Syrian Arab Republic Ministry of Education Project of Integrating Technology in Education

Knowing that the education system is an open system, global changes are reflected on all its elements and components, including resources, processes and outputs. Educational administration as a process of education system is affected by the events and variables of the age such as technological development, and it works on improving educational processes and making the education system more adapted to the developments of modern times. The program of integrating technology in education in Syria as a professional development program for teaching staff is considered as some sort of methodological organized responding to the changes of the age on the level of education system. It aims at developing technological skills of teachers and introducing them to educational concepts that are compatible with modern learning environments.. Introduction

Targeted Group: - Cadre of teachers, supervisors, specialists, school administrators and students

Project’s Objectives: - Creating a virtual community for specialized teachers, mentors and headmasters. - Opening the door wider to the Syrian youth to have directed and targeted access to the internet. - Making student the center of the educational process and making the teacher a facilitator and director of this process. - Developing the Syrian educational electronic content. - Deepening the concepts of modern education environment. - Enabling teachers’ skills in recruiting technological tools for learning and teaching purposes.

Project’s Pillars The Syrian leadership calls for a better investment of education in the service of human development and society. A developmental vision of the Ministry in the field of education, methods and strategies. An imperative need for a systematic program which can develop the education system in line with modern learning environments Availability of a cadre of qualified trainers to disseminate the program, follow-up its outputs and expanding it. Availability of training materials prepared by the team responsible for implementing the program and approved by the Ministry of Education. It is possible to work on developing it in line with the requirements of change and development within the Ministry’s parameters and its final outlook for developing the education system.

Phases of the Project’s development -First Phase: which has been done in cooperation between the Ministry of Education, the Syrian Trust for Development and World-Links Organization. It included the training of (104) trainers and (1500) teachers in 300 schools. - Second Phase: The project was entirely transferred to the Ministry of Education where financial resources, logistics and preparation of training rooms, schools and training of trainers were provided. The most important thing done by the Ministry of Education is that it put the project within the investment plan of the Ministry and created the unit of integrating technology in education in order to take over the project from the Syrian Trust for Development and to work on achieving the project’s objectives, where they did the following: 1 – Set up a core group to work on the development of the project and the designation of a national coordinator of the project to manage the work of the unit. 2 – Established an office in the directorates of education for the local coordinator and a team of trainers in each governorate to follow up teachers and the implementation of the program in schools.

7 3- A team of local trainers with the participation of senior mentors from the Ministry of Education has set up a domestic training material for training teachers for 140 hours. This material will be updated annually prior to each training session teachers and mentors were trained during the past three years. 4 – An electronic Website was created for the unit of integrating technology in education. It includes the following sections: - Center for documenting training workshops management and applications in schools. - E-Library which contains electronic sources that benefit all school curricula. - Center for archiving which includes data of all coordinators, trainers and teachers affiliated to the project and their works. With a constant updating of the unit’s website. Phases of the Project’s development

5- During 2009, six air-conditioned rooms were provided. These rooms contains 20 computers connected to the network in each governorate. 225 laptop were provided for trainers to facilitate their mission. 200 projectors were provided to be distributed on the schools which are connected to the network in 2010 in order to facilitate the task of teachers during the lessons. 6- Electronic examinations: the electronic examinations of trainers and teachers were implemented by the team of the unit of integrating technology in education using the Moodle program, servers and training rooms of the Ministry of Education where 75 central trainers and local teachers from all governorates were examined in a unified central management over three years. 7- Annual competition for the projects of distant participatory learning involving teachers with their students in all governorates. The selection of winning projects will be filtered according to three stages.

8- School classes were implemented throughout the school year by the teachers who were followed-up by the trainers in the classrooms as well as on every Saturday where special rooms were opened for follow-up in all governorates in order to enable the trainer to continuously supervise teachers. This process has covered more than schools and students. 9- Blended Learning Project: (merging positive features of learning face-to-face within the classroom with positive aspects of e-learning). A team from the unit of integrating technology in education has developed the plan of implementing the Blended Learning on a group from the tenth grade students in Damascus and Aleppo on all subjects and on two subjects at the Institute of Educational Technologies for Vocational Education in Damascus. According to this experience, a consecutive training workshops are currently organized to select a core team (Specialist - Technical) specialized in designing interactive electronic curricula. 9 Phases of the Project’s development

Future Plan: The Ministry of Education has identified the steps to carrying on the implementation of the project within its five-year plan which is as follows: -Rehabilitating 1000 trainers to expand the training base in order to reach-out all Syrian teachers within the shortest time possible. - Equipping an additional classroom (containing 12 computers and a projector) in each school where the project is applied. - Equipping 10 additional multi-source classrooms (each classroom shall contain 10 computers connected to the internet in addition to e-resources and references) in the schools where the project is applied in each governorate.

Opportunities for cooperation between the Ministry of Education and the World-links Organization In reference to the remarkable development of the project after the Ministry of Education took over in terms of training, implementation and follow-up as well as the accumulation of experiences: - The Ministry of Education is willing to offer this experience in the preparation of training materials, rehabilitating trainers and training teachers on programming sites necessary for training, follow-up and cooperation with the World-link Organization for the purpose of disseminating and expanding the project in all Arab countries. - Developing training themes and activities in line with the evolution of the integration of technology in education in the world within a framework of developing continuous professional development programs.

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