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SUMMER
2011
9
bother with taking notes and simply
take pictures of board notes with their
blackberries and ‘bbm’ (send) them to each
other.
They are what are known as “digital na-
tives” – a term coined by Marc Prensky, an
educational technology professional - for
babies born in the 90’s when Google was
first launched.These children have never
heard of a world without internet.
Quick to recognize these digital natives
entering schools, education administrators
across the globe are rushing to incorpo-
rate IT into their curriculums. IC is no
exception.
Last year marks a milestone in the inte-
gration of IT into the middle and second-
ary schools (IT was already integrated
in the preschool and elementary school’s
PYP program since the late 90’s). No
longer is IT taught as a standalone subject
but is used as part of the class subjects.
IC students have become digital media
literate - defined as the ability to access,
understand and participate or create con-
tent using digital media.
Blogs, wikis, podcasts, Google documents,
Office Live, and twitter are only a small
part of the long array of web tools at IC
which promise to make any 70’s and 80’s
generation parents shy away.
“We had to reach out to our students,”
said Shihab. “Using IT makes sense to
them. We cannot change them but we
had to find a way to change ourselves. We
had to incorporate digital media into our
curriculum”.
The first challenge was training hundreds
of technologically “old” teachers in both
Ras Beirut and Ain Aar (“old” defined as
anyone born in the pre-internet era or in
other words over the age of 20) to use the
latest web tools. Workshops and intensive
training sessions (on going) were launched
on campus. Some teachers were sent to
workshops and conferences locally and
abroad run by the IB, French Embassy,
NESA, ECIS, and many others.
Before long, teachers began using the web
tools in their classrooms. Over the past
three years, they launched their own wikis
and blogs posting assignments, comments
and suggested links.They expected Power-
Point presentations, reports, posters, excel
sheets, websites, videos, blogs, podcasts,
from their students. Some began ‘tweet-
ing’ their students on latest topic issues.
Many reading requirements were emailed
instead of printed out. (During the swine
flu epidemic in 2009 when some classes
were shut down, teachers depended on
blogs to keep their lessons going). In
the classroom, teachers relied heavily on
active boards for their lessons. Students
responded.
“Teachers saw the response in their
students and began teaching each other as
well,” added Shihab.
The second challenge was integrating IT
in the Lebanese curriculum.The school
was effectively on its own. Last updated
by the government in the early 1990’s,
the Lebanese Curriculum calls for minor
computer skills and issued a drastically
outdated IT book.
Fortunately, the IB and the French Bac-
calaureate programs at IC require a heavy
IT application in its curriculum. Teachers
in these programs are required to integrate
technology quite heavily into their studies.
IC took most of these requirements and
applied them to the Lebanese program as
well.
“We are preparing our students for the
skills of the 21st century,” said Shihab.
“This is what they need to compete in
the Lebanese and international career
markets. Most jobs today require media
literate employees. And these are the jobs
that are highly paid. Our students can fit
in anywhere and compete.”
As the saying goes, a man’s work is from
sun to sun but …. an IT’s job technician
is never done. The continuously evolv-
ing technology means a continuous flow
of new web tools and new IT devices (at
higher costs!) In the works are multi touch
interactive white boards, smart tables, 3D
screens and projectors, and many more to
come.
IC has to keep up. “Students have high
expectations from us,” said Shihab.
Apparently, so do my two children at
home. Despite my resistance to IT
devices invading our abode, my little six
year old son challenged me. “How come
everybody has Wii, iPads and DS and we
have none?” he asked.
My lecture about using our imagina-
tion to play with toys and games falls on
deaf ears. I suppose it’s time to admit the
‘digital nativity’ of my children, and head
to the nearest IT store.
During the swine flu epidemic in 2009 when some
classes were shut down, teachers depended on blogs to
keep their lessons going.