Learning Through the Internet [Archives:1998/38/Culture]

Supervised by the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) Regional Office, based in Cairo, the regional workshop on technology-based learning by correspondence, (through the Internet). In addition to Yemen, 30 representatives from Sudan, Palestine, Lebanon, Mauritania, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Djibouti, Oman, and Morocco participated in the workshop.
The opening ceremony was attended by Mr. Mohammed Ahmed Al-Zamzami, Deputy General Manager of the General Telecommunication Corporation and Mr. Khalid Allosh, Deputy Resident Representative of the UN Production Program.
The workshop is the 5th of its kind to be held for the Arab world. Mr. Khalil Rizq, Director of the ITU Regional Office for the Arab World, said that the workshop would contribute to the progress in telecommunication techniques all over the Arab World.
Mr. Amer M. Hazza’a, a professor at the General Institute for Telecommunication, explained that the workshop gives an idea to the potential students about learning through the Internet. Three days were allocated for application and field work. On the other hand, the workshop opens a new way for learning which depends not on trainers. In other words, the trainees can learn everything by using computers.
In Yemen the Internet service was introduced just two years ago. It is not, therefore, widely used or applied. However, it becomes necessary to apply all the different services that the Internet technology offers.
The Yemeni Telecommunication Corporation plan to expand the telecommunication technology and to offer such new services. It is worth mentioning is that the telecommunication sector is open for privatization. This will incredibly hasten the process of making the new telecommunication technology more popular in Yemen.
Tony Kaye from the Institute of Educational Technology, Open University, England, is the person who prepared the program for the workshop. He gave some idea about using the Internet and about using the e-mail. He stressed the importance of using computer and the Internet service in training. He said that conferences can be held through the Internet. “The availability of telecommunication technology in Yemen was the direct reason behind the distinct success of this workshop,” he said.
Mr. Ilias Haddad, Research and Training Director at the Telecommunication Corporation, Syria, presented a paper on the general goals of the workshop and the practical steps that were done and that still need to be done for reaching an integrated use of modern computer technology, especially in learning. “This workshop is not the first and will not be the last of its kind. We have our specialists who have good experience in this field. So, we can organize such workshops all over the Arab World in the future,” he announced.
In her paper, Samia Abdulmo’men from Egypt said: “This workshop gave us new information and more details about technology-based learning by correspondence.”
Antuan Ghanem from Lebanon said, “the workshop gave us all a chance to exchange our ideas and talk about our experiences. Yemen is one of 5 Arab countries which apply computer technology in learning by correspondence.”
Ms. Ahlam Al-Mutawakil,
Yemen Times

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