Texas A/M at Qatar Hosts Annual Education Technology Education Conference

Texas A&M University at Qatar

Texas A&M University at Qatar, in partnership with Education City and Hamad Bin Khalifa University, will host the third annual Technology in Higher Education (THE) conference 16-17 April at Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC). The theme for THE 2013 is ‘Today, Tomorrow and Beyond: Innovation in Teaching, Technology and Learning.’

THE conference, co-chaired by Dr. Othmane Bouhali, research associate professor and director of Research Computing at Texas A&M at Qatar, seeks to encourage attendees to explore how to effectively meet the challenges and opportunities in education practice today while anticipating the possibilities of tomorrow.

The annual (THE) conference is an opportunity for educators, IT professionals, and students to get together and discuss educational and technological advancements. The conference focuses on identifying the shifts, challenges, and opportunities for educators and IT professionals as they explore ways to adapt and innovate their practice in a constantly changing technological and higher education landscape.

It is designed to foster learning, innovation and practice in the use of technologies in higher education and discuss challenges and strategies for technology integration. As a peer-focused conference, THE serves faculty, instructional designers, administrators, librarians, support personnel, technology leaders and enthusiastic users of technology who recognize the need to remain current on technology issues related to the higher education community.

Dr. Hamid Parsaei, associate dean of Academic Affairs and professor of mechanical engineering, said, “Technology is reshaping education at all levels, and this conference will be a forum for important conversations about how we can maximize technology’s positive impact on teaching and learning.”

Sharon Hollinsworth, director of Education Computing at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar and co-chair of THE 2013, said, “THE conference is a joint effort of the higher education institutions in Qatar Foundation and aims to bring regional peers together to learn from world class colleagues, get hands on experience, foster networks of interest groups – all in the interest of enhancing today’s teaching skills with technology, so that our regional learners embrace learning beyond what the traditional classroom has to offer today.”

THE aims to encourage usage of technology in teaching and learning in higher education and facilitate the dissemination of knowledge on best practices and research in the area of academic technologies. The conference is a forum for all institutions of higher learning in Qatar and the region to hear from leaders in the field of technology, learn about the latest applications of technology in teaching and learning in higher education and inspire educators and information technology professionals to make effective and intelligent use of technology in learning environments.

This year, the conference focuses on mobile devices in classrooms, cloud technologies, virtual reality, the next generation of information technology infrastructure and many more topics of today, tomorrow and beyond.

Key topics at the conference will include iPads in the classroom, mobile devices in education, e-learning technologies and emerging educational technologies.

THE is an initiative by the Information Technology Services office at Texas A&M at Qatar and is jointly organized by Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar Foundation, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Northwestern University in Qatar, Georgetown University in Qatar, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, University College London Qatar and HEC Paris.