The Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ICT Department) held, on February 9, 2023, a Symposium on “the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Education in the Arab World, jointly with the Qatar Commission for Education, Culture and Science and the Qatari Ministry of Education and Higher Education. Over one hundred participants took part in this symposium, representing several relevant academic and research institutions.
In his opening remarks, delivered on his behalf by Dr. Mohamed Jemni, Director of ICT Department, the Director-General of ALECSO, Dr. Mohamed Ould Amar, highlighted the trend towards technological advancement through the implementation of major groundbreaking projects in the field of artificial intelligence and its application in education. This, he added, helps to face education-related challenges, adopt innovative teaching and learning practices, and accelerate progress towards achieving SDG4. He stressed the key role of artificial intelligence in tackling unequal access to knowledge and in reducing technological gaps within and between Arab countries.
Dr. Mohamed Jemni offered a lecture in which he emphasized the importance of keeping pace with modern technologies and digital developments, and the need to enhance technological awareness among young generations. He recalled, in this context, the holding, in 2021 and 2022, of the Arab Code Week, on the theme of “Artificial Intelligence and Environmental Protection”, with the participation of two million Arab children.
Dr. Jemni highlighted the key projects launched by ALECSO in the field of Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Metaverse and NFT. Foremost among these are the Blockchain-based certificate authentication project, recently launched as a pilot experiment with the participation of a number of Arab countries; ALECSO’s Metaverse Laboratory, the first Arab laboratory that uses the latest Metaverse technologies; and ALECSO’s NFT project, a qualitative leap in terms of protection of digital items and property and also in terms of virtual currency (The Organization is currently working on creating the ALECSO digital currency).
Following the presentations, the floor was open for discussion on the use of artificial intelligence in education and how to incorporate it into school curricula.
