AJMI -Doha

Al jazeera Media Institute concluded its contribution to media and information know-how in Qatar, in cooperation with UNESCO Office for the Gulf States and Yemen, Ministry of Education and Higher Education and Qatar National Commission for UNESCO and the second national workshop that held on April 29 and April 30 with active participation of media professionals, journalists and writers interested in the field of media and information.

 Montaser Marei, Manager of Media Initiatives Department, said: "For 20 years, Al jazeera Media Institute has practiced media know-how or what is called media education, not at the level of journalists or at the level of journalism students, but also at the level of institutions and society, accordingly it always exists on the ground, and as usual the Institute is always getting closer to the public and we had this opportunity to contribute to this consultation to correctly frame knowledge in an organized and sustainable manner.

For his part, Ali Al-Maarafi, Secretary-General of the Qatari National Commissions at UNESCO, explained that during the two days of the workshop, many sessions were held on media and information know-how in Qatar in order to draw a preliminary roadmap to promote media and information know-how, with the aim to protect students and citizens from the risks of technology and cyber piracy and spreading awareness of dangers of fake and false news.

Maha Abu Halifa from Ministry of Education and Higher Education described launching of this national workshop as an important event in partnership with effective institutions in the country, and said discussion in the workshops dealt with initiatives of the Ministry in the field of maintaining information security and enhancing digital competencies of students and teachers so that they live in a safe digital world where they can express themselves easily.

Bilal bin Obaid, supervisor of Institute's e-learning website, highlighted the role played by the Institute in promoting media and information awareness, and how the website detects false news and obtain it from its official sources, as well as obtaining evidences to refute these news, adding that we are working to create a new generation capable of analyzing media message in an organized and proper manner, and explained that discussions were very rich with regard to media educational content.

On the second day, the workshop reviewed the UNESCO study on media and educational know-how in 12K-schools, focusing on how to integrate media and educational know-how into the education system in a better way and exploring the role of teachers, parents and librarians in disseminating media and educational know-how among their students.

 Participants also discussed measures that can be taken to support more education in the field of media and educational know-how. Participations of the second day was mostly from specialized academics: Maha Mousa Abu Halaiqa, e-learning expert at Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Farida Abu Dan, Education Programs Specialist from UNESCO, Rabie Abu Al-Zulf, from Al-Manar International School, Maha Al-Rumaihi from Tariq Bin Ziad School, and Dr. Marek Millan, Head of Digital Communication and Media Production, Doha University of Science and Technology.

The second day consisted of two sessions, the first dealt with media and information know-how education in Qatar and media and educational know-how and digital citizenship. Participants of this session were: Dr. Rayan Ali, Professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University and Director of Programs at Qatar National Research Fund, Professor Eddie Borkhessary from Northwestern University Qatar, and Tatiana Murovana, Professor at the Digital Education and Educational Materials Unit, UNESCO Institute for Information Technology in Education.

The second session aimed to discuss existing initiatives in Qatar and how they can complement formal education and how they can be a major support within the multi-stakeholder approach. Participants of this session were: Abeer Al-Kuwari, Director of Research and Learning Services, Qatar National Library, Sawing Jarjour, Learning and Solutions Specialist on behalf of Microsoft, Jack Taylor, Co-Curator and Director of Exhibition Planning, Media Council at Northwestern University in Qatar, and Bilal Bin Obaid, E-Learning Supervisor at Al jazeera Media Institute.