Nasr Preparatory School in Siwa

Mr. Hamed Sobhe, teacher of English at Nasr school attended the Windows and Word course. Unfortunately, often the time of training is conflicting with the time of teaching. As soon as he is learning something new in Word, he is teaching the students how to use it. Once a week he uses the lab to teach students Word. He encourages its use and provides better marks to students that prove using Word.

Even if there is no webcam they can actively participate. Educational digital content in English, math and science is also installed on the local web server accessible through any computer linked to the internal network. He goes every working day to the CLC to use the internet after working hours. He is very keen to communicate with other teachers through e-mails, and exchange experiences on what they can do about exams and students.

Mr. Sobhe reads the daily news on the computer. He learnt how to use the PC when he was in secondary school and attended some computer classes. He considers ICT as a powerful tool to promote tourism in Siwa. He wishes to have CDs for his own subject in the future to teach his students. He believes computers allow him to improve quality of lessons by preparing them in the way he wishes. He believes computers will have an impact on the community of Siwa in the following ways – first of all, in agriculture: farmers can offer their crops on the net and attract other traders. The lab became available at the beginning of this year. Before that there was only one computer available in the school.

Mr. Amr Abdallah Baghi, instructor and manager of the lab. He teaches students how to use Windows and PowerPoint. Some of them learn MS Word. This is done between 2pm to 10pm after school hours. These courses are offered for free for students in the primary, preparatory and secondary school. On holidays, courses are in the morning. The CLC is not a source of revenue yet, so for the moment internet is free for everybody.

Students learn how to use digital pictures, take pictures, and do presentations by incorporating pictures into PowerPoint. The lessons started during the last week of March. It is estimated that out of the 20 students trained in one of the classes visited, around 16 are at the moment knowledgeable about introduction and windows, and 14 are able to prepare a PowerPoint presentation having some knowledge of Word. There are 2 instructors like Amr in the other 2 schools in Siwa. Amr has 6 classes. Two for primary school students, two for secondary and two for preparatory. Twice a week he teaches a two hour internet course. 120 students have been trained so far.

The selection of the students to attend these IT classes is based on their performance (marks) and it is done by headmasters of the schools. In the holiday period there are five groups of students being trained in the morning– three from the primary school, two from preparatory schools. Some parents do not have any knowledge about the computer; the ones who are teachers want to learn how to use the computer.

Mr. Abdallah Mohamed Alhedawy, teacher of Arabic from Siwa. He worked in the Nasr School for 5 years and taught in three classes of the preparatory school subjects such as grammar, literature and Arabic poetry. He used the computer for the first time in his life in this school 5 years ago. At that time the school used to have an Apple Macintosh computer provided by the Ministry of Education (MoE). This computer was used by all teachers who used floppy dics to prepare lessons. 3 years ago they received from the MoE a projector as well. They used the data show to distribute material prepared by the MoE. Two years ago, when the Smart School project started, the MoE brought 5 computers to be used for e-learning. The 500 students of the school used the www1.emoe.org site of the MoE for e-learning.

He feels it as a big challenge to use the computer for the search of knowledge. He considers that using the computer and the internet to prepare the lessons allows him to gain time. The difficulties associated to e- learning and e-research is the weak knowledge of the people of the English language, as well as the lack of time and experience in using the right search engines. The impact on the parents of the students is such that everyone wishes and is happy to know that the kids are attending a smart school and will be better prepared to face the world of tomorrow.

In the near future, he plans to learn more features like animations that allow him to prepare all the materials he wishes. He believes that the way in which he delivers the content of his teaching to the students is extremely important and animations keep their attention alive. He also enjoys his job more by using ICT tools. Exploring research possibilities on the net makes him strive towards improvement of himself and being able to share experiences with other teachers helps the mutual increasing of the knowledge of everyone who shares.

Mohammed Abdallah, student, 12 years old but he had a computer at home since he was 8. It was used by his father while he just played games. His father taught him how to use the computer. His father used the computer to communicate with the world for the safari company he owns and to attract tourists. He knows how to use PowerPoint to present his city. He paints, draws, and then uses PowerPoint to merge animation, story and sound. He follows regularly news about school topics, exams and exercises on the website www.elostaz.net that belongs to the “el gumhuriyya” newspaper as well as on Ahram.org.eg. He prepares his exams on these websites. He wants to learn Excel and Word and uses the internet to search for Islamic songs and poetry. He is very happy to communicate with the rest of the world.

Ibrahim Madani, student, 12 years old. He does not have a computer at home. He saw a computer when he was in primary school but now it is the first time that he has the opportunity to use it. He followed the courses of Windows, Word, PowerPoint and Internet research. The only place where he can practice what he learnt is here, in the school lab. He is very happy to work with the computer in a team together with his friends and they prepared a presentation about Siwa that received a special award from the school. On the internet he plays games, looks for Islamic songs, sometimes he check news, mainly about sports, and he uses e-mail. He tried to connect with his brother in Qatar. The problems he faces is that the results appear in English language and he has little knowledge of it and hopes that the CLC will offer English courses soon. He believes that the students can help the community in Siwa because they can show the people how they can learn about agricultural methods and chemicals. Ibrahim thinks that soon everyone will buy computers in Siwa and is proud to be one of the first ones to know how to use them.