Culture & Education | Friday 20 February, 2015 3:19 am |

The Microsoft Global Education Forum in Dubai will bring together education leaders, schools leaders and educators from across the Middle East, Africa and Indian regions to discuss the latest technological innovations that will help to overcome the region’s key educational challenges.

To be held from February 22nd to February 23rd, the Conference forms part of Microsoft’s Global Event Series, designed to provide policy makers, school leaders and NGOs with an opportunity to learn about the latest innovations in the education sector and share best practices for utilising newly available technologies. Delegates at the Dubai event will debate how to best drive improvements in the region’s education systems by leveraging current industry trends in mobility, cloud access and learning analytics, showcasing technologies like Office365, OneNote and Azure.

A highlight of the two day conference will be the ‘Future Classroom’, a joint initiative of Pearson, Microsoft and Steelcase. The interactive classroom will give delegates a glimpse into what the future of learning will look like, where physical learning spaces and technology advancements push new boundaries to achieve maximum student results.

The pop-up classroom will bring together the latest digital learning solutions from Pearson powered by Microsoft technology, with cutting-edge classroom design and furniture from Steelcase. Craig Wilson, Director Market Development of Steelcase Education said:

“At Steelcase, we believe active learning occurs when pedagogy, technology and space are all carefully considered and integrated to help students succeed. The Future Classroom with Steelcase, Pearson and Microsoft is a great example of how these three can coexist. Effective learning spaces connect students and instructors with each other and content to support learning”.

Fadi Khalek, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships & Efficacy at Pearson, will lead a discussion at the Conference on the role partnerships between the public and private sectors play in ensuring the successful educational transformations. He says learner outcomes should not be lost sight of as we develop education systems of the future:

“Education, like all areas of modern life, has undergone a rapid technological transformation that has seen changes to almost every aspect of teaching and learning. There is no doubt that many of the technological innovations being rolled out in classrooms both here, in the Middle East, as well as other regions, will bring advantages for students. However, we must be increasingly mindful of the need to ensure that the digital technologies we choose to embed in our education systems are having a positive impact on learner outcomes, and are not being invested in simply for technology’s sake. We need to do a better job of assessing how we are actually increasing learner effectiveness and taking a pedagogy first approach to implementing educational technologies. No longer is it enough to claim “this model is good”, or “this model works”. Rather, we must be able to evidence a positive impact on learning outcomes, measured against rigorous and objective criteria”.