Innovation Culture for Youth Empowerment in the UAE by Racha Mourtada - Article Example

Article Critique Sheet: Student Name ID Number Article # 1 Article Title: Innovation Culture for Youth Empowerment in the UAE:The Role of ICT. Author: Mourtada, Racha Source: World Bank database, Knowledge Assessment Methodology (KAM) Web site: http://info.worldbank.org/etools/kam2/KAM_page5.asp Date Published or Accessed: March 2010 1. Synopsis This article is about the role of ICT in youth empowerment. The author believes that with youth empowerment, the rate of unemployment will be reduced, the economy of a specific country that implements youth empowerment strategies will improve, and there will be global competitiveness and more entrepreneurship opportunities. According to the article, a culture of innovation can help achieve all the above and in order to achieve such a culture, those factors that can help achieve it have to be identified and made use of. One of such factors is Information and Communications Technology (ICT) which the author believes has an important role to play in the education system as well as in business operations. The ability of Information and Communications Technology to create or build an innovation culture is however affected by factors such as internet censorship, access to and utilization of the ICT tools and the inability of the educational systems to teach entrepreneurship and innovation skills. The idea of dealing with these factors that hinder ICT’s capability in building an innovative culture is only focused on Arab countries especially the GCC countries and the UAE. It is because, as according to the author, of the inability of even the countries with high internet penetration, to make use of available ICT infrastructure. They show low use of internet. The countries have highly developed ICT infrastructure but does not make use of the appropriately. 2. How does this article pertain to the UAE? UAE is considered as one of the regions that need youth empowerment as well as development of an innovative culture to improve its economy. The article does not argue that UAE has a poor economy but indicates that with an innovative culture, the economy can be improved. The problem however, as identified in the first section of the article is the inability of ICT to create the innovative culture it has the potential to create. UAE has well developed ICT infrastructure even more than the GCC countries, but still, it cannot exploit that available resource to create employment opportunities, improve its economy, empower its youth and develop a creative and innovative culture which influences all the factors mentioned previously. There are three factors that hinder the region from making use of that potential. These are; The inability to properly utilize knowledge, information and Information and Communication Technologies Censorship and The inability to teach entrepreneurial and innovation skills by educational institutions Inability to properly utilize ICT infrastructure: According to the author, having one of the most advanced ICT infrastructures, this region should be able to develop methods of creating innovation and creativity through internet and new technology use. It has pervasive internet connection in schools, homes and business institutions yet the rate of usage is still low. It means that the region invests in keeping up with the current technologies but does not exploit the opportunities provided by the resource to increase the revenues that can be received from such investments. Governments should be aware of such opportunities and make use of them. Censorship: This is another problem with the UAE ICT infrastructure usage. The author acknowledges the importance of a country’s cultural and ethical standards but maintains that these should be balanced with the use of available ICT infrastructure for the sake of the country’s youth empowerment and economic development. The people should be protected from harmful or offensive contents but sharing platforms that encourages innovation and creativity should also be encouraged. Teaching Entrepreneurial and Innovative skills in educational institutions: In UAE, the mode of teaching does not support creativity and innovation at all. It is more of text book centred than being student centred and job market oriented. This article suggests that instead of creating users through education, education systems should be used to create producers. Because of such factors, the Author recommends the following: Access and Utilisation: Since the problem in UAE is utilization of the available ICT infrastructure, the author proposed that a national strategy on e-learning should be developed so that development of ICT infrastructure is schools incorporates creative and educational uses of the internet. The UAE should promote digital Arabic Content which will also encourage educational and creative use of internet Censorship: In order to allow important information to pass through to the people and avoid over blocking, the government should: a. Create policies that guide the filtering process. The UAE according to the author already has an Internet Access Management policy and only remains to comply with the international guidelines so as to raise its status to the international level. b. The government should also ensure that the policies that guide what contents should be accessible so that the religion, moral standards and ethical standards are maintained are different from those that totally block the entry or use of a specific technology. c. Participation among users should also be encouraged. In this case the users are the youth who needs to be guided through innovation and creativity and the parents, teachers and guardians who need to use censor ware to help block restricted internet use. Youth Innovation: The UAE schools do not fully equip the students with the right skills in order to be creative and innovative therefore the government should form policies ensuring such skills are incorporated in the curricula. It is important to first determine what skills are important in making the students innovative or creative the how the students can achieve such skills developed. According to the article, one of such skills is ICT skills and so the government should create policies that ensure such skills are integrated in the curricula. Currently in most UAE schools, development of ICT skills is taught as a different subject, an approach that the author disagrees with proposing the creation of a digital learning environment. 3. Do you agree or disagree with the author, or are you neutral? Explain why There are so many ideas about the article to be considered when asked about the questions of “do you agree with the author”. Yes I agree with the author that UAE needs more ideas about how to maintain its current position as the best in innovation among other UAE and other Arab countries, and even how to improve it. If such ideas can help like the proposed proper utilisation of the ICT infrastructure, then yes I agree with the author. The importance of ICT infrastructure in innovating the youth and encouraging creativity should provide all the answers to saying yes to the author’s idea about incorporating ICT infrastructures in schools or not. The world is continually changing and new technologies are emerging. When the children and the youth are taught about ICT and Learn with ICT, they are being provided with the skills to participate in the constantly changing world. This means that they learn the new technology skills and the new emerging careers which help them adapt to the changing technology environment (Learning Matters, p.1). It is indicated in the Learning Matters sample chapter article that ICT skills are important since they give the youth the capability of handling data in an easy and quick way, that is, access, sorting, processing and analysis of data (Learning Matters, p.1). The use of ICT gives the youth important information about which is important for a specific purpose therefore discriminates information based on their purposes. It makes them creative and risk takers, makes them develop learning skills that are cross curricular, increases the youth’s independence and confidence, makes them communicate effectively, provides them with hypothesis, modelling and prediction skills and also gives them the capability of producing quality work through reviews, evaluations and modifications (Learning Matters, p.1). Teachers and curriculum developers should therefore know the importance of ICT and incorporate it in the youth’s learning programs. Yes I agree with the author when he says ICTs should be incorporated in schools and utilization improved. Since the world is constantly changing with the emergence of new technologies, the educational systems have to change to cope with the changes. ICTs are changing the curriculum. This is through the new software, online project based resources and other new ICTs that form part of learning activities that promote high order of thinking skills (UNESCO, p7). Because of such influences, the curriculum in secondary, primary schools and colleges should be changed to incorporate Information and Communication Technologies (UNESCO, p7). The author proposed an approach where the ICT infrastructure and skills be incorporated across the curricular so that a digital learning environment is created. I agree with the author on this. From the above statement, it is clear that part of learning the ICT skills is making use of the developed software, online based project resources and other important ICT infrastructure. These have to be incorporated across the curricular so that the curricular can be a dynamic and interactive one (UNESCO, p7). Quality deficit is also a challenge in Arab education and one of the factors contributing to such a deficit is the lack of freedom in the society and the education system. The contents available to the youth or teachers for education purposes are restricted although bad content also contributes to such restrictions as well as poor quality education. The current learning and evaluation methods in the countries do not support critical and analytical skills therefore do not support creativity (Fergany p.5). The Author proposed development of policies that can identify the skills that can make the youth creative and innovative and incorporation of such skills into the curricular. ICT skills have proven to be necessary skills for student creative and innovative development therefore should be incorporated in the curricular but contents regulated appropriately. The author also proposed formation of policies that guide censorship so that the right information reaches the right people and used for the right purpose. 4. What have you personally learned from the article, how has it expanded your scope of knowledge? Or, how has the article reaffirmed something that you know from personal experience? This article has reaffirmed my knowledge on change in the society. People have to adapt to the changing systems and in order to do that, they have to learn how to cope with the changes. One new idea however that the article has made me aware of is the role of ICT in innovation and creativity. Although the information about the skills that ICT provides is obtained from another article, the article made me curious about how ICTs can make the youth innovative and creative. It is an idea I have never thought of although I have the knowledge of the importance of ICT in the changing world. Works Cited Fergany, Nader. Educational Reform Can Empower Youth In Arab Countries And Help Build Human Development. Background paper prepared for the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2009. 2008.Viewed on 10th November, 2010: Learning Matters. The Place Of ICT In School: Planning And Managing ICT.2010. Viewed on 11th November, 2010: UNESCO. Integrating ICTs into the Curriculum: Analytical Catalogue of Key Publications. 2005. Viewed on 11th November, 2010: < http://www.unescobkk.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ict/e-books/Catalogue/Catalogue-preface.pdf> Read More