(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) First International Conference on Web and Open Access to Learning opens in Dubai.
Muammar Al Katheeri speaks at the International Conference on Web and Open Access to Learning at Atlantis Hotel in Dubai on Tuesday. — KT photo by Juidin Bernarrd
The best way to gauge success of a ‘Smart City’ programme in Dubai is to measure the level of happiness in the city said Eng Muammar Al Katheeri executive vice-president engineering management and chairman smart city project committee Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority.
“Dubai has been on the right path and our target is to make the city the smartest by 2017. Unlike m-Government or e-government platforms smart cities require the joint collaboration of all government departments” said Al Katheeri. He was speaking at the First International Conference on Web and Open Access to Learning (ICWOAL’14) taking place at the Atlantis Resort The Palm.
Organised by the Canadian University of Dubai with technical support from Unesco and the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineering (IEEE) the conference opened on Tuesday.
The Chancellor of the Canadian University of Dubai Butti Saeed Al Gandi said: “The university is honoured to host the region’s first conference on open access to learning. UAE is at the forefront in the use of digital technologies. This is due to the increasingly central role ICT occupies in the government’s agenda as an enabling infrastructure for developing a world-class educational infrastructure.”
Prof Mike Sharples professor of educational technology the Open University UK said there is a crisis of access to higher education with growing numbers seeking it. The only answer is massive scale open courses. He related the experience of the Open University the largest in the UK and 14th largest in the world with over 250000 students. Another pioneer is the company Future Learn which has 5 million registered users. It offers 130 courses for 30 partners and has a community of 750000 learners.
He said massive scale open courses enable effective conversations for learning at all levels of action through social media tools thus opening a whole new world of learning with a new perspective.
“At the end of the conference Canadian University Dubai will issue the ‘Dubai Declaration on Open Access to Learning’ which will set a strategic roadmap for development deployment and adoption of various repositories of Open Educational Resources for learning research and training. We are very pleased to announce that the Canadian University of Dubai will work with Unesco to be the regional hub for this important initiative” said Professor Rachid Benlamri General Chair of the conference.
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