Masar, an achievement I am proud of....

Although I managed many other projects, larger or smalller, Masar (= Arabic "Path or Way") is the most successful one I ever managed. It included 4 thousands of users and dealt with maximizing the use of technology and web 2.0 tools in education. One of its sub-projects, iAndalus, is converted into an operational system and currently very active. Here you can watch a summary (Arabic!) for 2010 events and Here you can read about some 2011 events.

Web 2.0 tools in Education استخدامات أدوات الويب في التعليم

No doubt that facebook and Youtube and other web 2.0 tools have become a hot issue in education. For Arab world, as a conservative community, the issue is much more tricky. I face many questions and comments regarding using this or that: privacy, offensive content, wasting time, values and believes.....etc.

Well, I quote Mdm Farida words "we can't close their eyes, we can't close their hearts, but we can open their minds." A knife can be used for good or for evil.

I will share some of my thoughts regarding how to utilize these tools in education but let's first know how it works.
This is a useful FB tutorial made for Nonprofit but is OK for education. Other tutorials are:
Facebook , Facebook, youtube, youtube, google apps
سوف استعرض معكم بعض الاليات التي تمكننا من تفعيل أدوات الانترنت التفاعلية مثل اليوتيوب والفيس بوك للأغراض التعليمية ولكن أولاً يرجى تعلم كيف تعمل هذه الأدوات والتسجيل بها حتى نستكمل الموضوع واليكم بعض الأمثلة للشرح
تعليم فيس بوك بالعربي/ تعليمي اخر / تعليمي متنوع/ تطبيقات جوجل / المدونات/ تسجيل اليوتيوب
كما يمكن تنزيل هذا العرض التقديمي

Organizing my First Event

ملتقى المسار

During the last 2 years, I followed many blogs and I know that I am late to have my own. I tried 2 years ago and many friends encouraged me to do so but I couldn't go on. This time, Thanks to a friend I met in Malaysia whose blog Zaidlearn, encouraged me, I am going to start once again.

That is a strange coincidence. I have attended many events in many countries but this is also the first time I organize one myself .

The event is called Masar forum "Moltaqa Masar". Masar "The Path" is the name of a multi-project program I lead in my organization with the objective of maximizing the use of technology in education through culture spread and change management. 230 teachers including male and female (not easy in Saudi Arabia!) attended the event on December 25th. Most important session as surveyed was ALHADULILAH my keynote speech (innovative ideas in Elearning). I started the session with a shocking video (considering our culture here) I watched in ICEL conference presented by Lucifer Chu.

I looked through some web 2.0 tools that can be used in education like QR, Facebook, TED, Youtube, Second life...etc.

I consider the event successful for many reasons. One of the most important was a situation when more than one teacher stopped me and said "I think we can work better with our students if we take serious what you have presented, and we will."