Jordan Education Initiative

Today we had the good fortune to be hosted by the Jordan Education Initiative. The meeting and discussion, held after a shopping trip to Mecca Mall and lunch, was extremely interesting and engaging. After a large lunch, I always find my lids drooping, but not today! Rana Madani, the Head of Education Research and Innovation, was a delightful speaker and very obviously a gifted teacher. The JEI is funded in part by local and global businesses as well as public and private dollars. It's focus is to foster this partnership between business and education using information communication technology. They have begun this by identifying 100 "Discovery Schools" where new technology and teaching practices can be assessed in action. If it's deemed an appropriate and useful tool or procedure, it would then be adopted by all the schools of Jordan (theoretically). We discussed sustainability and the idea of teacher trainers. We discussed how these materials and workshops that are being distributed and offered to Discovery Schools could be spread out to include more of Jordan (currently all DS's are located near Amman). Part of the reason I find this work so exciting is that they are doing studies at these special schools to determine the effects of these new technologies and strategies on student learning. This information will be available, as soon as it becomes public domain, on their website. There are dozens of new gadgets, teaching strategies, gizmos, and ideas about how to effect student learning, but there really isn't a great body of knowledge that addresses whether a particular piece of technology or learning strategy actually affects student's outcomes. Maybe with further collaboration some truly innovative approaches to improving student learning, we can make some headway on things like the racial and gender gaps that still exist today in student achievement. Just as an aside, the plaque I'm holding is a verse from the Holy Qua'aran, which when translated, touched my heart. It goes:
Allah! None has the right to be worshipped but He, the Ever Living, the One who sustains and protects all that exists. Neither slumber nor sleep overtakes Him. To Him belongs whatever is on the earth. Who is he that can intercede with Him except with His permission? He knows what happens to His Creatures in this world, and what will happen to them in the hereafter. And they will never compass anything of His Knowledge except that which He wills. His Kurst (footstool) extends oer the heavens and the earth, and He feels no fatigue in guarding and preserving them. And He is the Most High, the Most Great.

From the Ayat-ul-Kursi of the Holy Qua'aran.