Al-Aqsa University, in cooperation with the Islamic University of Gaza, the University College of applied Sciences, and Palestine technical college of Deir al-Balah, organized the conference of “Educational Technology and Teaching Technology” ; aiming at Improving The Quality of Preparing The Teachers of Technological Education Programs in The Colleges and Universities of The Gaza Strip” ; and was funded by the World Bank and the European Union; and took place at Grand Place in Gaza City.
Participants of the conference recommended to adopt the international standards of the UNESCO to the technological education curriculum, confirming on the importance of increasing the students and teachers awareness of the e-learning essence and importance of the educational process.
The Conference asserted on: the need for effective functioning for “interactive default classes” service in public and university teaching; the coordination between universities and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to grant degrees of bachelor and diploma based on the technology of e-learning; establishing a permanent council gathering deans of faculties of education in universities and officials from the Ministry of Education to discuss and take actions to ensure the development of teacher preparation programs in general, and preparation of teachers of technological education in particular.
The participants stressed the value of a new vision that unites the academic plan and the graduation requirements the teacher preparation program to ensure the uniformity of the output and to get qualified teachers for technological education. The conference urged the teachers to join the practical aspects of teaching with the theoretical side.
The conference, in addition, called for: holding various agreements with schools to provide a training opportunity for the teachers- to be under the supervision of university teachers, reviewing the academic plan for the teachers’ preparation project under the lights of the suitable international standards, especially for the Palestinian society, establishing a new center for designing electronic supporting teaching materials, increasing the number of classes allocated to the technological education to two classes a week in public and UNRWA schools to enable the students to benefit and use them in the processes of learning.
Regarding to the role of media, the conference stressed the importance of the activation of media in: distributing different publications, holding meetings and media forums to break the barrier towards the culture of e-learning, preparing supporting books including all the experiments and online activities contained in the textbooks, and conducting field studies to identify the problems facing the application of e-learning and the development of appropriate solutions.
The conference drew the attention to the necessity of: inserting new items of the employee’s skills in the field of information and communication technology to the teachers’ job form; providing the libraries and the educational institutions with the needed sources for the e-learning; organizing regular exhibitions in coordination with universities, the ministry of education and higher education, and the interested institutions to show the latest developments in the field of technological education.
