Teachers honoured at Khalifa awards
ABU DHABI // Most schools would grind to a halt without internet access – but most schools do not have Ghania Al Banna.
The chemistry teacher at Dubai’s Applied Technology High School created her school’s own local web by connecting each pupil’s laptop to a larger network.
Her idea won her the Khalifa Award for Creative Teacher in Public Education in Abu Dhabi yesterday.
“Whenever you have a problem you get creative and that is what I did when I planned to upgrade the technology in my school,” Ms Al Banna said.
“Initially at our campus we did not have internet because there were lots of delays in installing it and there was no solution. The students had laptops and nothing else, just one photocopy machine, which was a problem.
“You can imagine how it would be, the whole school working with just one photocopy machine. So I created a local internet, a network among students that had files and a system where students could solve and submit their work to a public folder on my own local server.
“It made things so much easier. Technology in education is an excellent concept but only when it matches the needs of the students.” Ms Al Banna was among 24 teachers from the UAE to be honoured at this year’s event, alongside 12 from the wider region.
Also praised for adopting new technology was Dr Afnan Oyaid, who won the Introducing New Media into Education award.
“We use tools like Twitter, YouTube and Google Plus to deliver lessons and educate students,” said Dr Oyaid, associate professor in education technology at the Princess Noura University in Riyadh. “These are platforms they were already using so I did not need to invest in it and neither did I have to train them to use it. The students really enjoyed it.
“They are so used to using new media that lessons turned into entertainment more than education for them. It is extremely important that we turn to new media to educate, because we are losing students to varied sources of entertainment.
“Using these tools, I can attract their attention and keep it for longer unlike conventional methods of teaching. I hope this is the first step in spreading the message of using new technology in education.”
This year’s awards received 4,595 applications from across the region, with 600 candidates from the UAE.
Afaf Al Haridi, principal at the Al Amal School for the deaf in Sharjah, was praised for her work with pupils with special needs.
“We are very happy to be recognised, being the only school for the deaf in the UAE,” Ms Al Haridi said.
“We follow the ministry curriculum and provide deaf students with the same education speaking students receive, which is what every child deserves. “We have 69 students in school, 27 in kindergarten, and have graduated eight groups of students who have gone on to university and landed jobs.”
At the ceremony, Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Minister of State for Tolerance and President of Zayed University, was presented with the Educational Personality of the Year award. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Presidential Affairs and chairman of the awards, announced that a new category for community service would be added to the next edition.
“In line with the development in the UAE, starting next year we will have an additional category for community service,” Sheikh Mansour said. “Three UAE families will be awarded for their efforts in embracing education.”