By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter
Some of the major stakeholders from different areas and levels of education are showcasing their innovations, projects and experiments at the Majlis of the Qatar National Convention Centre as part of the three-day World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) 2015.
The annual summit got under way yesterday with a few informal sessions and deliberations. The main proceedings will kick off this morning with HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and US First Lady Michelle Obama attending the opening ceremony. The $500,000 Wise Prize winner and winners of the other five projects of 2015 Wise Prize for Education will be formally announced at the inaugural ceremony.
While leading journalists and other visitors, mainly those working at different levels and areas of education to each of the five dedicated zones at the Majlis yesterday, WISE team leader and head of operations Ali al-Mehmoud said children of different schools will demonstrate their experiments, creations, innovations and practices at its ‘Qatar School Zone’. The children from 18 International, Independent, Community and other expatriate schools in the country have confirmed their attendance.
Besides, trainees of such reputable training facilities as the Aspire and similar institutions local are also expected, he said.
Qatar University, Injaz Qatar, Supreme Education Council, Qatar National Research Fund, and Education Development Institute are present at the Qatar School Zone with their own projects and presentations.
Al-Mehmoud said the ‘WISE Research Zone’ was showcasing the changing strategies and character of education at various levels across the world. Several top level institutions, including the University of Cambridge have their projects, academic papers and publications here.
The WISE team leader said there were more participants from China this year as the East Asian country has some languages which are spoken much more widely and intensively than many other languages put together. That researchers have no boundaries and no age would be evident from the participation of educators of different age groups and nationalities from several parts of the world, he said.
One of the frontline participants in the deliberations to be held at the dedicated research zone is a Chinese educator who has more than 5mn followers on Twitter. The role of social media in the advancement of education is one of the topics expected to be extensively deliberated at the sessions to be held at the zone.
‘Learners Voice Cafe’ is another zone where 35 youth chosen from among more than 1,000 applications received from across the world would be available. The projects they have developed and their impact on the societies there will be showcased.
WISE team’s senior member Abdurahman al-Sayeed later introduced the visitors to the ‘Conflict Zone’ where the miseries of the children of Syria, suffering from the ongoing war are narrated through an audio-visual presentation.
The sprawling ‘Learners Lab’ is another zone where agencies, institutions and companies contributing to raise the educational awareness among children all over through the tools they developed are hogging the limelight.
One of the major attractions of the pavilion is the presence of globally acclaimed toy manufacturer Lego who has demonstrated some of their innovative tools and projects.
A classroom session at the School Zone in the Majlis.
