DOHA: Reach out to Asia (ROTA) recently organised a series of workshops as part of its International Education and Resource Network programme in the country (iEARN-Qatar).

The iEARN-Qatar Spring 2009 workshops, held at the Education City, were part of ROTA’s Knowledge Network initiative aimed at creating an online community of educators and students across the

Asian continent.

“The workshops sponsored by ROTA shed light on online collaborative projects and problem-based learning. They provided the teachers, facilitators and trainers with skills to enable the integration of Project Based Learning and ICT in their classrooms and teaching practices,” said Pascal Siegel, Connect ROTAsia Manager at ROTA.

“The iEARN Spring 2009 training is in line with our vision for the Knowledge Network and creating a sustainable, supportive community of educators and learners,” Siegel added.

iEARN is the world’s largest non-profit global network with over 120 communities around the globe, enabling young people to use the Internet as well as other new technologies and engaging in collaborative educational projects.

Among the various workshops organised as part of the Spring 2009 calendar was a workshop aimed at empowering the iEARN-Qatar trainers to provide the Introduction to iEARN Projects training. Also included in the training calendar is the new iEARN-Qatar Facilitators training, spread over two half days, focussing on honing the skills of the facilitators to help them support the teachers during the project implementation.

The schedule also encompassed an introduction to iEARN project workshop attended by 37 teachers from 17 schools of 14 nationalities. This workshop lasted over two and a half days and was aimed at introducing new teachers to iEARN projects and at the same time enabling them to participate in a project during the semester.