Nader Habib attends a pioneering class in virtual school Understanding and creativity seem to be at the bottom of priorities in our current educational system. What our educationalists seem to overlook, critics say, is that the capacity to memorise is a gift not everyone has. And some students who have poor ability to memorise may actually be skilled in various scientific and artistic endeavours. According to operational manager Mahmoud Yaqout, ostazonline is one of the most progressive educational approaches being tried in a virtual school to upgrade the educational system. On this site, explains Yaqout, students are allowed access to interactive education that approaches science fiction. No longer is the Arabic teacher a person wielding a piece of chalk and scribbling on a blackboard. "Teachers in this virtual school offer various lessons via the Internet and students are allowed access to class through headphones and other multimedia tools. Students no longer need to go to school to have an education," adds Yaqout. The Ministry of Education is sponsoring ostazonline as part of a bid to expand the scope of remote learning. Yaqout told Al-Ahram Weekly that remote learning is more cost effective than classroom education because it reduces the need for physical schools and requires no commuting. "This pioneer experiment is likely to change the face of education in this country. Online communication is by nature favourable to exploration rather than rote learning," he points out. Ihab El-Agroudi, marketing manager of ostazonline, says that in the project, which started in 1996, several Egyptian school programmes were developed in a multimedia form and placed on CDs as a way of helping students with their studies. However, the problem with that method was that it was too one-sided, for the students had access to the information, but not to the teacher. In 2000, the company went a step further and made the CD material available on the Internet. Still, teachers remained absent from the process. By 2003, the company decided to engage in a higher form of e-learning. The aim was to alleviate the burden of private lessons, which devours a major portion of family budgets. It is estimated that Egyptians spend up to LE15 billion a year on private lessons. The company began devising a project that would incorporate the four elements of education: the student, teacher, earning material and parents. The current e-learning project was launched in 2004. The launch was preceded by long preparations involving teachers, virtual classrooms, and model building. Ostazonline is using technology developed by a US company and is normally employed for remote learning and video conferences. But ostazonline officials say that one of the current hurdles to this type of learning is that Egyptian telephone exchanges are not yet up to speed. Often, the sound is unclear and connections get cut off. The spread of ADSL lines may make things easier in the future, El-Agroudi says. So far, most users rely on dial-up connections. The most difficult thing facing the new project was the choice of teachers. "We needed teachers of an exceptional calibre, people who are familiar with digital technology and have excellent communication skills," says El-Agroudi. As teaching goes, it is easier to interact with the students face- to-face than online. Teachers of ostazonline went through a screening process that involved assessment of their scientific, educational and communication skills. Then they were trained to use the special interface of ostazonline. One of the people currently working for ostazonline is Ahmed Suleiman, an Arabic language teacher. It took Suleiman four weeks to learn how to use the computer interface programme and he says he is pleased with the result. "Most teachers often complain that they don't get enough chance to improve themselves." With the interactive technology, this problem is solved. Teachers will be able to add to their knowledge and experience the challenge hi-tech education has to offer. Ostazonline is a virtual school and as such involves marketing and communication with parents. Those wishing to join classes offered by the school must create a username and password. The service is provided at a fee paid monthly or per semester. Once the student is online, he or she would see a lessons schedule, showing the titles and times of classes. In each virtual classroom, each student would be able to learn the names of his or her follow students and communicate with them. There has been much demand for the programme, El-Agroudi says, because it costs less than 50 per cent of the fees of face-to-face private tuition and it eliminates the cost and time of commuting. Students can follow the classes from home, which means that they do so under parental supervision. This is particularly comforting to parents, El-Agroudi notes, although some students may still prefer face- to-face tuition as it gives them an opportunity to leave the house and engage in extra-curricular activities. Fadel Tawfiq, father of two children, says his children can now attend classes at home. He does not need to drive them around to lessons anymore or worry about them commuting on their own. Teacher Suleiman says e-learning offers two valuable things to the students: the chance to learn in a stimulating environment and the chance to stay abreast of technological experience. "I have discovered that many students are enjoying the experience and making progress," he remarks. Inside the virtual classroom, just under 30 students are attending. Although seated at distant computer terminals, they can communicate through icons on the screen. One icon allows them to ask questions while another icon allows them to cheer on a student who gave a brilliant answer. A happy face symbolises a student who is pleased with his performance or acknowledges a witty answer. An icon shaped as a keyboard allows the student to ask a question unrelated to the topic of the class without having to interrupt the proceedings. On the screen, a box is set apart as a whiteboard. On that box, teachers offer their illustrations through the use of a light pen or pre-designed multimedia and graphics. Teachers do not just explain the lesson; they keep an eye on the students and keep them attentive. They do so by asking surprise questions and demanding that a specific student provides the answer. Teachers also send test material through the system to the parents and ask them to supervise their children while taking the tests. The tests are corrected at ostazonline and the results are sent to students along with the right answers. The teacher interface differs from that of the students in that it has additional icons through which the teacher can start or discontinue the class. Students can record the classes and use the recordings for revision purposes. Teachers can also expel students from the class by pressing a certain icon, a measure they resort to only after giving a warning. Mona Abdel-Hamid, social studies teacher, used the threat of expulsion effectively in one of her classes when she noticed that some students were not paying attention. She warned them that unless they pay attention, they'll be sent out of class. They apologised and paid more attention and since then they've become more disciplined in class. Teachers, Abdel-Hamid says, can keep track of their own performance through a questionnaire that students fill periodically. "This increases interaction between student and teacher and helps teachers improve themselves," Abdel-Hamid notes. At this stage, there is no visual interaction between the student and teacher. The only visual link between each is the photos of teachers posted on the website. The original plan, says El-Agroudi, was for the students to be able to see their teachers live in a box beside the whiteboard. This proved difficult for technical reasons, as the bandwidth conveying the data could not support the service. Some students have already asked the school to arrange gatherings where they can meet their teachers face to face.
