New E-education initiative to prepare Lebanese youth for the future

Tech for Kids, part of the Mobile Internet Ecosystem Project (MIEP), is hoping to start a new initiative about education in Lebanon. The venture, organized by the World Bank and the Ministry of Telecommunications, supports open innovation and crowd sourcing mechanisms in Lebanon. It hopes to spur innovation and entrepreneurship and boost the skills of the country’s workforce. For that end, the World Bank brought together education and innovation experts and government officials to discuss skills development in the 21st century. This meeting was held as part of a series of events which took place a week earlier to focus on understanding global trends in education. “The aim is to expose children, teachers, and government officials to the potential of technology for education, enhancing technology-related skills in teachers and children, and bring together stakeholders from the innovation ecosystem and education curriculum,” Hallie Applebaum, ICT innovator consultant at the World Bank Group, told The Daily Star. During the first workshop held in the Beirut Digital District (BDD), students and teachers learned about programming, robots, and sensors through three workshops. Also taking up a corner at BDD was Beirut’s Rapid Manufactory, a 3-D printing company, which presented a project entitled “QalamSila”, a creative construction design set that uses 3-D-printed connectors and wooden pencils. The workshop also stressed the importance of collaboration as a tool for fostering creativity and supporting new ideas, and the creation of curriculums that nurture critical thinking. The teachers also developed a lesson plan that was tested with students, at a second workshop also held at BDD. During the session, students completed the lesson using the skills they acquired from previous sessions. (The Daily Star, 27 April 2015)