The University of Bahrain receives the Chair of judges of the UNESCO Prize – King Hamad

Prof. Daniel Burgos, Chair of Judges of the International committee for awarding the “UNESCO King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Education”, stressed the importance of this award, as it is one of the events awaited by the innovators of information technology in education globally. He pointed out that since the launch of the award in 2006 a great variety of projects have been submitted by participants from different geographical locations, almost all the countries of the world.

Prof. Burgos, who has been invited to the University by the University President Prof. Riyad Hamza, explained the terms and conditions for winning the UNESCO prize, pointing out that the bodies and individuals who took part in the competition submitted more than 300 projects. Commenting on the atmosphere that prevailed in the arbitration committees, especially with the growing competition among creative entrepreneurs in e-learning around the world, he pointed out to the successes this prize has achieved since its inception a few years ago, with the support of the wise leadership of the Kingdom.

He also talked about the two institutions that won the prize, the advantages of their project from the artistic and creative aspects, and the jury’s conviction of their novelty and benefits.

On his part, Prof. Hamza said that Prof. Burgos’s scientific and practical experience is an important asset for us at the University, as he is one of those who lead important changes in the future of the learning process in universities, especially with the virtual learning growth that has become wide spread in the world. He emphasised that the University of Bahrain will look into all possibilities of cooperation with Prof. Burgos and all international specialists in the field of learning at the university level in order to benefit from the various experiences that have been successful and effective, and to explore the possibility of applying them locally to further improve the university’s output and harness the skills of study and research.

The “UNESCO King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICTs in Education”, for this season was won by both German organisation Kieron MMA and Jaago Foundation from Bangladesh. Kieron MMA submitted a project structured as more than 500 Open Online Courses offered to internally displaced persons, refugees, and asylum seekers, in four fields, namely social science, computer science, business administration and economy economists, and engineering. The German organisation derived and adapted its courses from advanced courses in 23 German universities and developed them online for more than 4000 people of the above mentioned categories to benefit, as education is an inherent right of human rights regardless of living and security conditions.
In addition Jaago Bangladeshi establishment won the prize due to its primary focus on investing the capacity of highly qualified teachers to provide clear and accessible explanations in a number of disciplines including Bengali, English, mathematics, natural sciences and social sciences, a high-quality interactive video-based e-learning programme. The Foundation sponsors several hundred students in urban and rural areas in Bangladesh and seeks to expand this program after it has proven successful.

The same way, Prof. Burgos said that the shift towards electronic learning and the widespread of distance learning allows for broad research and scientific instruments. He emphasised that the development in technological structures and new living styles requires a change in the teaching and learning processes too.

In a related context, Dr Burgos emphasized that the shift toward electronic learning and the expansion of distance learning provide a broad range of research and scientific tools, and that the evolution of technical structures and modern lifestyles entails a change in teaching and learning as well. In his lecture offered to the instructors of information technology and e-learning at the University of Bahrain, Prof. Burgos addressed several themes, the most important of which are the aspirations of e-learning, content development, and increased interest in e-learning and its skills. The international expert talked about various experiences in Spanish universities on e-learning, and expressed his readiness to start scientific cooperation between the Spanish University of La Rioja, with which he is affiliated, and the University of Bahrain in the fields of research and exchange of expertise and exchange of students and professors.

The talk also covered new experiments in the field of e-learning, which began in recent years in which the student take a lot of courses before choosing their major through several options offered by e-learning.

A discussion between the lecturer and attendees centred on the quality of e-learning-based disciplines, the universal recognition of this type of education and the international reliability of these programmes. Answering the audience questions, Prof. Burgos pointed out that the world is moving more and more towards distance learning, as information and communication has the potential to proceed beyond classical education, and that the market is increasingly accepting this type of virtual education, which provides a large interactive databases to the student, in addition to interaction with teachers and other students.

Prof. Daniel Burgos is a leading expert in the use of information and communication technology in education, and a professor of pedagogy and communication technologies in education at the University of La Rioja, Spain.