This year’s International Education and Resource Network (iEarn) projects were exhibited at the “iEarn-Qatar Open House 2011”, organised by Reach Out to Asia (Rota) at the Student Centre of Education City on Saturday.
Projects from a dozen participating schools were exhibited to the public for the first time.IEarn is a non-profit organisation that connects schools and youth organisations worldwide via a virtual network to empower young people, encourage inter-scholastic collaboration, and debate world issues in real time.Rota is the sole representative for iEarn in Qatar since 2008.IEarn projects’ main objectives are: to improve learning and teaching, integrate technology in schools curriculum, enhance students’ expression and understanding of the world, develop an appreciation for cultural diversity and tolerance, and arouse civil awareness and responsibility.Until now, 300 teachers from 71 schools have been trained.“Both teachers and students benefit from iEarn’s unique interconnectivity model,” observed Rota’s online education manager Pascal Siegel.Rota/iEarn participants are asked to implement projects that are related to their curriculum. Those projects are catered to different subject areas with variety to suit all grade levels.“Each type of project is centred on pre-defined project description that is meant to be integrated within the curriculum,” explained Rota online education co-ordinator Anwar Abdelbaki.For example, in the solar cooking project, students are driven to experiment with alternative energy uses by making, testing, and using solar cookers.Another example is the “My Hero” project that seeks to promote cultural awareness, activism and understanding through global storytelling that honours the heroes in our families, the community and the world.This year, 11 schools have participated and successfully completed their iEarn-Qatar projects.The open house was the first opportunity for the schools to publicly showcase their projects.The schools are: Al Rashad Independent Model School for Boys, Al Sailiya Independent Secondary School for Girls, Al Sailiya Model Independent School, Al Shahaniyah Preparatory and Secondary Independent School for Boys, Al Shahaniyah Preparatory and Secondary Independent School for Girls, Fingerprint Kindergarten, Khalid bin Al Waleed Preparatory Independent School for Boys, the Lebanese School of Qatar, New Al Rayyan Independent Secondary School for Boys, the Pakistan Education Centre, and Rawdat Rashid Primary and Preparatory Independent School for Boys.“Our ‘Electronic School Magazine’ project was extremely popular amongst our students,” said Pakistan Education Centre teacher Razia Sardar. “With the unique approach to online collaboration that is promoted by the iEarn model, we have noticed that the students are more dedicated and excited about the work.”