The Qatar National Commission for Education, Culture and Science, in cooperation with the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) and the Training and Development Center organized a training workshop on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in developing education at the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States (ABEGS) in Doha from 24 to 26 October 2017.

The workshop was attended by a number of experts and others interested in education technology from the Ministry of Education and Higher Education together with institutions and ministries of the state.

At the beginning of the workshop, Dr. Hamda Hassan Al-Sulaiti, the Secretary-General of the National Commission, delivered a speech welcoming the participants, pointing out the importance of ICT in expanding the horizons of learners. The technology, said Dr. Al-Sulaiti, offers many advantages for students in collecting and processing information, solving the problems they may face during their studies, by using technological tools that teleport the student to experience the reality of the problem to be solved, or using computer simulation programs for the analysis of many of the experiences. The Secretary-General of the National Commission added that IT has also contributed to the transformation of the data derived from all fields of knowledge to accessible digital information than can be stored and retrieved in a short time, allowing the era to be known as the "Digital Era".

For his part, Dr. Mohamed Al-Jammani, the Director of Information and Communication Technology Department of ALECSO, praised the cooperation between The Qatari National Commission for Education, Culture and Science and ALECSO in building Arab capabilities in the field of education technology to contribute to the development of the educational system in the Arab world.

The workshop was supervised by Dr. Mohammed Al-Jammani and Dr. Mohammed Katheer Al-Khoribi from the Information and Communication Technology Department of ALECSO. The workshop program included four main axes:

• Global variables in the field of Information and Communication Technology, and the skills required to deal with these variables.
• Rejuvenating the educational environment in line with modern technology.
• Most important new technological trends in the field of education.
• Employment of ICT in learning and teaching.

The speakers pointed to the importance of developing a roadmap for using technology in education, including educational policy, building and updating educational curricula, raising awareness and capacity building in 21st century skills, monitoring and evaluation, exchange of expertise, cooperation and partnership.

They also highlighted the main aspects of using education-related technology in the field of teaching and learning. These axes are:

• Digital educational content.
• Educational software and applications.
• E-learning systems.
• Internet technology and hardware.
• Educational methods, and practices.