Bahrain's Education Ministry's initiatives to promote e-learning highlighted

Manama, Dec. 30 (BNA): Within the framework of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s directives to consolidate digital empowerment and to take advantage of digital systems in the field of education, Education Minister, Dr. Majid bin Ali Al-Nuaimi, said that the inauguration of the King Hamad Schools of the Future Project in 2005 and the shift to the digital empowerment in education after the project’s success have contributed to achieving success stories in innovation and e-learning. These success stories include the educational portal, edunet, which offers soft copies of a great number of books, and the advanced means of e-communication between schools’ administrative staff and the students and their parents, the virtual lab project for science and maths, which allows students to conduct virtual scientific experiences using computer programmes, and the King Hamad Digital Library, which provides access to a large base of sources and information for learners and students through its cooperation with the world's most important digital libraries, he said. Dr. Al-Nuaimi pointed out that the Ministry of Education has taken many initiatives to boost e-learning at schools, including the "My Digital Library" initiative, which is currently implemented in 20 schools and will cover 20 others in the coming period, noting that the initiative aims to spread schools’ distinguished e-content. In the same context, he added, the Ministry has held training workshops on producing e-content for 1056 teachers, 4077 students and 51 specialists, noting that such efforts have resulted in posting 1054 digital learning content on the website of "My Digital Library" at schools, 871 of which have been produced by teachers and 183 by students. He added that textbooks have been converted to flip books, noting that the Education Ministry’s website and educational portal include 363 books, 1010 educational units, and 579 final exam questions with model answers. The minister said that the second part of a guidebook on the production and evaluation of e-content criteria is being prepared, and that the Content Management System (CMS) is being developed. He pointed out that a joint digital educational content team between the Education Ministry and the University of Bahrain has been formed to produce an interactive digital educational content that would serve school curricula. Regarding the "Safe Use of Technology" projects, Dr. Al-Nuaimi highlighted the Ministry’s efforts to promote the safe use of technology culture through launching awareness-raising and educational campaigns on its social media accounts, providing awareness programmes on digital games and holding a workshop for 100 specialists on digital games in education.