USING TECHNOLOGY CREATIVELY TO KEEP EDUCATION ON TRACK AT DOHA COLLEGE
BY : BRIAN KERR
With so many groups represented in our school , we have a truly international perspective . And it is perhaps thanks to this global-facing , outward-looking stance that we have always been open to fresh ideas , issues and solutions .
Technology has long been central to our success as we strive to open new horizons for our children .
It was in 2013 that the college took the decision to issue iPads to all our students in Years 3-13 to enhance their learning – this at a time when tablets were still something of a novelty .
Brian Kerr , a history teacher and Head of Digital Learning at Doha College in Qatar , explains the ways in which creative use of technology has – and is continuing – to keep education on track at his school .
Few would argue that this year has been a severe test for us all .
Who would have imagined as 2020 dawned that just a few short weeks later , we would be struggling to cope with the devastating fall-out of the first major global pandemic in more than a century ?
It was in late January that the first hints of anxiety began to surface here at Doha College . Like the rest of the world , we watched as coronavirus cases were confirmed in Japan , the United States , Australia , Canada , Germany , Sri Lanka , Cambodia , France , Singapore , Vietnam … every day , the list of countries affected grew longer .
Then , on January 29 , as the US and Japan began evacuating their citizens from Wuhan in China , the first Covid-19 case was confirmed in the UAE .
As worldwide infection rates and deaths began to soar and states of emergency were declared , we knew it would only be a matter of time before lockdown restrictions were imposed in Qatar .
The news we had all been dreading came on March 9 when the Ministry of Education announced that all nurseries , schools and universities were to close with immediate effect .
We assumed – naively as it turned out – that we ’ d be shut for a month at the most . In reality , it was to be September before we eventually reopened and were able to resume face-to-face teaching with reduced class sizes .
This year is Doha College ’ s 40th anniversary . Many events had been planned to mark the occasion , culminating in the opening , in September , of our new school here at Al Waajba , just a few miles from the old campus at Al Waab that had served us so well for many years .
But as the coronavirus pandemic continues to have a catastrophic impact on countries across the globe and we all learn to live with the ‘ new normal ,’ our anniversary celebrations have had to be put on the backburner .
Of greater concern has been ensuring we continue to offer the outstanding education we have become renowned for to our 2,500 students drawn from 65 nationalities .
When I took over as Head of Digital Learning in 2016 , we had had three years of assimilating traditional and technological teaching .
We had successfully introduced and integrated online platforms , like GCSEPod , Firefly Learning and Class Dojo for our younger students .
We have a previous secondary school head to thank , for our openmindedness . He had the vision to see the vital role technology would play going forward . He understood that the jobs our students will be doing in 10 years ’ time don ’ t exist yet , but he wanted our children to be well-versed in everything technology has to offer , for when they head to university or into the workplace .
As such , we have developed our own eight-point digital learning model through which we aim to engender the use of technology in the classroom . It requires us to create responsible users , innovative leaders , organised scholars , engaged learners , collaborative participants , independent enquirers , creative explorers and to ensure everyone is digitally literate .
Our willingness to explore and create new learning opportunities was instrumental in helping us to very rapidly adapt to remote learning , when we had to abandon face-to-face
28 Term 3 Apr - Jun 2021
Class Time