Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Education Integration of Information Technology in Education Prepared by: DR. AbdulAziz Al-Rwais Moving Young Minds 2oo6 9-11 January 2006, London, England
Information Technology and Education Introducion The importance of information technology and communication is greatly increasing in the 21st century economy which is completely based on knowledge. The digital divide is a term which refers to the discrepancies between those who possess information and those who don't. The Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia is constantly seeking to improve the quality of education for citizens and residents who enroll in government schools. It does this by constantly striving to upgrade the various educational processes and update the sources of education. The inclusion of computers and its services was one of the major steps in this direction. This was to mark the transition from the traditional educational system to a new world of knowledge, integrating quality education with modern technology. The seventh development plan in Saudi Arabia included clear perspectives for the place of information technology in the national issues. The goals of the plan have stated the necessity of preparing a national plan that could utilize information and other technologies for serving science, supporting economic development, providing modern data and information as well as methods for obtaining them, identifying the roles of the establishments which accumulate and produce information. In addition the plan has stated the necessity for constructing information system in the form of subsidiary nets related to the integrated national information system, and distributing technology and information services in the society. A future perspective has been set to lessen the technology gap between the kingdom and the industrial countries by the year 2020 through utilizing information technology in developing man power, and upgrading it to the international standards in order to enable man power to deal with modern technology.
The National Policy for Science and Technology The Ministry Cabinet confirmed in 2002 the document of national policy for science and technology which was prepared by the Ministry of Planning and King Abd Alaziz City for Science and Technology. The document included ten strategic bases. A group of subsidiary policies has stemmed from each of these bases. These polices include the techniques and the scientific and the technological programs which carry out the national policy for science and technology. The tenth strategic base has focused on the availability of the scientific and technological information, and achieving it through the following methods: Developing and supporting national bases for scientific and technological information, Adopting national programs and systems leading to encouraging the production, distribution and exchanging information, Establishing necessary techniques for guaranteeing information security and protection, Supporting and reinforcing the place of the Arabic language in the domain of information technology, Preparing a national plan for information leads to supporting the comprehensive development in the kingdom. Focusing on developing information technology for improving the efficiency and the effectiveness of information and its services in the kingdom. King Abd Alaziz City for Science and Technology and the Ministry of Planning are working on preparing the fourth stage of the comprehensive national plan for science and technology. This stage will include a number of implementation techniques, programs and projects which will help in achieving the national policy for science and technology. The Ministry of Education Ten - Year Plan The Ministry of Education Ten-Year plan aims at organizing the available human resources and abilities to achieve aspirations that are translated into action that achieve the highest degree of excellence through the most effective use of time and costs. Thus, this plan serves to achieve a desired and intended change based on existing proposals, the examination of present situation and the prediction of the future to meet social and economic needs.
The main purpose of the ten-year plan is to develop the infra-structure of information and communication technology and its employment in education and learning. The main objectives of the plan are the following: To establish an integrated system for the application of information technology. To establish an integrated system for the application of communication technology in education. To enhance the integration between machine and human knowledge. Integrating Technology in Education Integrating technology in teaching could be achieved through two main levels of planning: Strategic planning Technology planning These two levels of planning are required for achieving the educational reform which is directed by technology. Strategic planning is characterized by being broad, conceptual and includes general trends that should be strictly followed. Technology planning is more detailed and more specific in its goals and techniques. Strategic planning stems from a vision concerned with future perspective of the educational system. The vision is a full description of a future intended situation. The vision is identified by specifying the principles, suppositions and concepts employed for achieving the vision. These principles, suppositions and concepts are related to numerous issues such as the nature of learning and teaching, the role of technology, the needs that should be met by the strategy of integration, the general philosophy of the technological program and the intended outputs of the plan.
The Vision As above mentioned the vision describes the future perspective of the educational system. The vision takes into consideration the status que of employing technology within the educational system. In other words, the vision should stem from the findings of the analytical studies of the educational system. The vision should lead to goals achievement. In addition, the vision should take into consideration the contemporary and future educational trends, the challenges which face the educational system and the principles, suppositions and concepts which lead to its formulation. The following vision has been suggested for integrating technology in teaching: All the members of the school community (students, teachers and administrators) will become efficient and skilled users of the information and communication technology in implementing the tasks of learning, teaching and administration in the light of changes in the educational model, information technology and the contemporary and future challenges. The Goals In the light of the above mentioned vision, the following goals are suggested: 1. The teacher becomes technologically able so that he could: concentrate on student's acquisition of the skills of thinking, analysis and communication. activate the educational process through the employment of computer programs and education technologies and resources. develop education and teaching methodologies. use technology to improve his productivity. plan and design the learning environments related to technology.
2. The student becomes efficient in the field of information technology so that he could: define the information problem and identify the type and size of information needed for solution. develop a plan for collecting the needed information. identify the information resources. analyze the information which he collects. organize the information which he collects and finds a solution for the information problem. evaluate the information problem solution process and the final outcome. 3. School administration becomes aware of the importance of Integration of technology in teaching. 4. The integrated school curriculum becomes an essential part of the Information resources. The teachers and the students perform their activities through the technological tools and resources. 5. The school library, halls and labs become a rich learning environment that is full of software, hardware and nets which join teaching and learning with the school curriculum and the outside world. 6. The temporary educational thinking, the educational attitudes, the methods of teaching and learning, the appropriate administration and evaluation for recent and future challenges should be the basis for the processes of technology integration in education. The Procedures In order to build technology integration in education, the educational organization needs to provide the following: Physical infrastructure which includes wires, nets, internet linkage and quick maintenance services. Hardware which include computer sets, printers and labs, and software which includes operating programs as well as appropriate application programs for the school curricula and for the teaching learning activities.
Schools IT infrastructure Deployment of IT labs in the kingdom schools for boys & girls sector: 1. more than 3,000 labs for all secondary schools ( around 51,000 Pc s) 2. 2,300 labs for intermediate & elementary schools ( around 39,100 Pc s) 3. more than 2,000 Learning Resources Centers. ( around 12,000 Pc s) Every lab have a LAN, MS-Office, Visual studio, screen monitoring software, e-learning nuggets, and others. Implementing a Wireless LAN pilot project with 3com, hp, Cisco and some local partners in selected schools to insure the quality of communication and make a cost comparison with wired LAN. A reasonable budget for financial support. Appropriate technology resources for achieving the educational goals and for teaching and learning the various subjects of the school curricula. Technology resources include the following: 1. e-learning materials and programs 2. distant learning programs which are based on the universal internet. 3. computerized labs for activating modern educational applications. Faculty development for all people who are involved in the technology integration in education. Changing the school libraries into Learning Resource Centers (LRC). This project aims at developing all the school libraries of the government and private public teaching schools and colleges to learning resource centers. These sinters could absorb printed and non-printed information resources and integrating it in the teaching learning process. These centers will become rich environments where modern teaching methods are employed and where the role of the learner is reinforced.
Introducing the technology of the Computer Based Labs to accomplish the principle of positive teaching and to avoid memorization and learning by heart methods. This type of teaching depends on experimentation, observation and making conclusions by using interactive programs in the computer sets called (sensors). Integrating Technology in the Curriculum and utilizing modern technology for enriching the teaching learning process is considered an essential addition which aims at acquainting the student with the basic competences for learning and mastering the computer skills. Saudi Arabia Ministry of Education s Learning Gateway Pilot Project In collaboration with Microsoft, the e-learning Gateway will be implemented in 25 schools in the capital city, Riyadh and Almadinah Almonaowrah. Microsoft Learning Gateway Features When the user (teacher, student, parent, or school administrator) accesses the gateway and with a single user ID and password, they can view the school s portal, email, shareable calendar, and the learning management system. Learning Management System (LMS) help teachers administer the whole educational process. They can create and receive assignments, post lecture notes and presentation slides, make online tests, grade and post the marks online including analysis reports. This is accessible by students, school administrators Portal for each school that includes information about it, threaded discussion areas, enablement of document sharing, and students workspaces for group projects.
Digital Curriculum for all subjects enhanced with virtual labs for student to conduct scientific experiments, library of multimedia files, and curriculum-wide search engine Real Time Remote Teaching. Teachers can conduct fully online classes that include a virtual board for the teachers to write their comments and to present their presentation slides, interaction area for teachers and students to communicate, attendance list, screen captures to be shown to students. Execution Steps 25 schools with the proper hardware/software and connectivity have been selected for this pilot. As a preliminary step, one school has been selected to implement the learning gateway for 6 weeks to investigate the performance, stability, usage, and get technical and pedagogical feedback before implanting the learning gateway in the 25 schools. Training o Teachers and administrators will be trained on basic computer skills. o Teachers, administrators, group of parents and students will be trained on how to use all the learning gateway features stated above. o The computer teacher, lab administrator, and learning resources administrator will be trained on the technical aspects of administrating the gateway (i.e. creating user IDs and passwords, emails, monitoring performance and content, technical support..etc) This procedure would lead to the development of the teaching learning process. The teacher uses the computer and the information technology to facilitate the teaching process; and the student uses computers for research and for obtaining knowledge and information.
In order to employ technology effectively in the teaching learning process, technology should be an essential part of a comprehensive plan. For achieving this objective, The Ministry of Education has set its tenyear plan and has implemented a number of technological projects. Starting a future partnership with a number of well known experienced organizations in the field of information technology. This is expected to lead to preparing the technological teaching environment, and to developing teaching programs which are integrated with technology. Introducing the teaching of Computer and Information Technology as school subjects in the intermediate and secondary school stages.
Preparing student's activity books and teacher's guide books which integrate technology in teaching. This procedure would increase the awareness of the concept of technology integration in teaching. An independent team is now preparing guide books for integrating technology in teaching. The team is also preparing student guide books for all students. These activity books will work as models for integrating technology in education. These activity books include a variety of techniques of integration and methods of employing technology. The teacher's guide books which integrate technology in teaching aims at the following: 1. Enabling the teacher to use the computer and the information technology as a teaching means to help him to clarify and facilitate teaching. 2. Enabling the teacher to acquaint the student with the learning skills by using the computer and the information technology. 3. Enabling the teacher to acquaint the student with the feeling of responsibility and self reliance when seeking, processing and employing information. 4. Enabling the teacher to acquaint his students with the basic thinking skills such as critical and creative thinking. 5. Enabling the teacher to instill the concept of cooperation and work group among his students either inside the single group in the different groups. 6. Enabling the teachers to provide the students with the necessary skills to deal with advanced information and knowledge. 7. Enabling the teachers to help the students to develop self - education and life - long skills. 8. Developing and shifting the role of the teacher from being the only source of information into being a facilitator for obtaining information from various sources. This requires setting new bases for cooperation among teachers themselves and among teachers and the surrounding environment.
Applications Development The Computer Information Center (CIC) in the Ministry of Education has designed and developed various software applications to assist in the proper and effective management of the Ministry's financial and human resources. Moreover, it has provided access to these applications and their respective databases to all directorates and Ministry offices spread across the country to enable real-time access to crucial information. Other software applications are in the process of development to cater both to the educational requirements and information needs of various agencies within and outside the Ministry. The CIC is in the process of webenabling the existing software applications to enable easy and secure access to information for researchers, administrators and other authorized educational staff. Video Conferencing Project From the beginning of 1425, the computer and Information Centre (CIC) embarked on an ambitious Video Conferencing project whereby all major directorates will be able to interactively participate in virtual meetings with their colleagues and managers. Presently, The Video Conferencing facility has been established between the Minister's office, the Vice Minister for Girl's Education, the offices of various deputy ministers and Computer and Information Centre (CIC) headquarters. Soon most other major offices will be able to avail this facility. Towards this end, the CIC has initiated a project to upgrade its Frame Relay-based Wan to a IP-VPN based Wan. Implementation of IP-VPN Wan To enable unhindered access to all information in its central database, the CIC has already implemented a state-of-art wide areas network connecting most educational directorates and teachers colleges to the Ministry's Head Office in Riyadh. Incidentally, an expansion of the existing wide area network is in progress to enabled linking of the girls' educational directorates and female teachers colleges as well so that they too can benefit from the available management and educational system. This is in accordance with the ministerial decision which combined general management of Computer and Information Center in boy's education department with the general management of computer and information center in the girl's education department to be merged as one department called Computer and Information Center.
The present WAN which is based on Frame Relay technology is being upgraded incorporating the latest MPLS technology also called IP-VAN. Intranet Project Among the major projects on hand is the design and development of an intranet for the entire Ministry of Education to enable greater collaboration and information sharing. IT Strategy Very recently, the CIC has also prepared a comprehensive and futureproof IT strategy document. The IT Strategy is the first step towards the eventual migration of the CIC to state-of-the-art Data Center from its present location. The IT Strategy also takes into account the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's vision to enable its citizens to keep pace with the rest of the developed world in all spheres of life through the design, development and development of an E-Learning infrastructure and related resources. PARTNERSHIP with IT Vendors Microsoft Initiatives for teachers training.(30,000 teachers) Supporting the software,content and implementation process for E-learning pilot project. IT consultation. 3com IT professionals training Supporting the network of E-learning pilot project Dell & Hp Pricing & up-to-date technical information. Intel Teach to the future initiative. ( signing the MOU in process ) Pricing & up-to-date technical information.
Conclusion The Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia is adopting information technology strategy in teaching and learning to enable its citizens to keep pace with the rest of the developed world in all spheres of life through the design, development and development of an E-learning infrastructure and related resources. The Ministry of Education is now moving towards integrating technology in teaching and learning as a strategic choice for developing and improving the outcomes of education in the kingdom.