Training Lebanese School Directors on ICT
Training
Lebanese School Directors
on ICT
Our thinking about Information Communication Technology (ICT) in schools has changed worldwide over the last twenty-five years in line with the development of technology. When computers were first introduced into schools, the emphasis on their educational use was on teaching and learning “about ICT”. The technology was new and relatively limited and it was important at that time that students should understandhow to use it and the concern was principally to prepare them for a future in which computers would play an important part. This is still important but with the rapid development and the increasing complexity and range of uses of ICT along with the development of their communication links through the internet, they have become very powerful tools that are central to the educational process. Our emphasis is now changing to one of teaching and learning “with ICT”. It is worth emphasizing that we have passed the point where ICT could be considered as a department within the school or where its oversight can be left in the hands of an ICT coordinator. Accordingly, ICT is a whole school strategic issue which requires careful management by a leadership group. It is crucial to recognize that ICT can change fundamentally how students learn and that this is the most important aspect of ICT in schools. The other main uses of ICT, for administration and for communication, are also considerations for school managers, but the central focus must be on learning.
BECTA (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) is the UK government partner in the strategic development and delivery of ICT and e-learning. Its researches focused on the importance of whole school issues in determining whether school investment in new technologies lead to improvement in learning. In October 2002 it published nationwide statistics on factors that facilitated or hindered ICT Integration. The results showed the impact of ICT on student learning and attainment. By investigating student attainment in comparison to usage of ICT, it noted that good use of ICT can make a difference equivalent to an additional term progress at the Elementary stage and half a school year at the Secondary stage. Several studies identified key consistent ICT leadership enablers: management of ICT resources; ICT leadership,school leadership, general teaching, and ICT teaching. In light of these studies, projects were launched in the UK to provide sustainable models for the successful use of ICT in supporting learning ambitions. Due to the success of the ICT initiative in UK schools and school directors, the British Council decided to launch two of these projects in five Near East and North Africa (NENA) countries, including Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Palestine. In Lebanon, these projects were launched as joint ventures between British Council and the Center for Educational Research and Development (CERD). The first project is ICT for teachers of English, Science and Math in Lebanon, and the second is Strategic Leadership in ICT (SLICT) for school directors.
In order to facilitate and develop a regional ICT ‘think-tank’ of key stakeholders and influencers, a meeting was held for the NENA think tank members of the five countries in London in 2005. The Lebanese think tank members were the president of CERD, the Administrative Director at CERD, the Head of English Department at CERD, the Director of Secondary Education at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE), and the Director of Basic Education at MEHE. Following the think tank meeting, a memorandum of understanding for ICT in Lebanon was signed by the Minister of Education and Higher Education and the British Council Director in Lebanon. Following this, 29 private and public teachers from Lebanon were trained by master trainers from the UK in using and embedding ICT in English, Maths and Science. The objective was to support teachers in building a portfolio through a follow-up support program. A regional online community of practice was established to support the participating teachers, which was a key component of the follow-up support aspect of the teacher training program. Five distinguished Lebanese trainers were selected by the UK master trainers to cascade the face-to-face 3-day training on ICT in Lebanon. Over the years and due to the success of the training, the number of trainers increased to 20. The trainers assess the lesson plans and projects which participant teachers submit following the workshop. The assigned project is a major component following the training. It demonstrates the implementation of the ICT skills that the participant has acquired and enables him/her to obtain a certificate. As a follow up to the workshop, ICT coordinators conducted classroom observations in some of the schools and provided feedback to the teachers. In 2007 and 2008 evaluation models were developed and applied by external evaluators. These were conducted by the Center for Continuing Learning Innovation at Birzeit University- Palestine, and the reports were submitted to the British Council. The project concluded its three year life-cycle with a number of major achievements in Lebanon as well as across the region:
Development of ICT training manuals for teachers in both Arabic and English in the five participating countries.
Building the capacity of a core team of ICT trainers within the Ministries of
Education in the five participating countries.
Establishing links on the regional level for knowledge sharing purposes.
ICT Certificates for teachers are still being distributed by the British Council and the
Ministry of Education and Higher Education in the region. The number of public and
private school teachers in Lebanon who took the face-to-face 3-day training on ICT is
1035.
Following two regional ICT in Education conferences in Jordan in 2006 & 2007, the project was extended for another year to focus on one priority area –educational leadership for school directors - which required further development, as it was relatively a new concept in the five participating countries. The Strategic Leadership in ICT
(SLICT) project which proved to be necessary for any 21st century school director was
backed by BECTA’s research as well. Drawing on their collective expertise, BECTA
and the National College of Strategic Leadership (NCSL) co-developed a pilot initiative known as the (SLICT) program. Initially, 18,000 UK school directors joined a residential
3 day workshop as part of an in-service professional development course. It proved to be a highly successful program and a strong agent for managing ICT change. Later the course content was integrated into the pre-service preparation of UK school directors on a large scale.
The SLICT program was introduced to Lebanon by the expert Richard Pietrasik in 2007 at a residential workshop in Mir Amin Palace-Beiteddine. The UK training materials were amended to fit the Lebanese context by the trainers: Ghina Badawi Hafez and Samya Abou Hamad Chahine. A theoretical part, which was approved by the SLICT team in the UK, was added to the Lebanon training manual. Later, the training material was translated into Arabic. Since 2008, more than 150 school directors from schools all over the country have enrolled in this 3-day residential workshop which is given yearly in two sessions, Arabic and English.
At the end of the workshop a certificate ceremony is usually held at the UNESCO Palace in the presence of the Minister of Education and Higher Education, the British Ambassador to Lebanon, the Director of the British Council, the Connecting Classrooms
Project Manager, the President of CERD, the Director General of MEHE and other
officials.
As a follow up to the previous SLICT sessions, a 2-day workshop was conducted at
the Western Beqaa Club for school directors under the theme “Strategic ICT Leadership
Networking Program.” The workshop, which was held on 20 and 21 October 2011, was
attended by 130 public and private school directors along with members of the
Connecting Classrooms Planning Committee. The attendees explained the plans
envisaged by their respective schools as well as the opportunities and risks faced by each in implementing their plans.
Following the workshop, think tank members met with the Director of the British
Council, Ms. Barbara Hewitt, to discuss the subsequent steps to the SLICT project and
possible enlargement to include more schools in the future .
