29 August 2003
Afghan Math, Science Teachers Introduced to Computers
Nine college professors study in U.S. to broaden skills
By Judy Aita
Washington File Staff Writer
Hoboken, New Jersey -- On a warm mid-August day, in a sleek, modern college classroom with windows facing the New York City skyline, nine Afghan science and mathematics professors one-by-one stood before a group of visitors and used computers to present reports on their intensive summer training program. The nine women were completing a course that would enable them to return home, train other math and science teachers, and help education in Afghanistan leap into the 21st Century.
The majority had never used a computer before arriving at Stevens Institute of Technology eight weeks earlier.
The Stevens Institute of Technology program gave the nine women instructors from universities in Afghanistan the opportunity to learn how computers can support classroom learning in Afghanistan so they can train others to use technology to teach math and science in girls schools throughout the country.
Since 1982 Stevens has required its students to own a computer, making it the first institution of higher education in the world with such a requirement. As a result, Stevens has developed more than two decades of expertise in integrating education and computer technology. Working with more than 700 schools in five states, Stevens has helped more than 10,000 teachers master technology to improve the teaching of math and science. Now Stevens, with the help of a J. William Fulbright grant from the U.S. State Department, has added Afghanistan to that list and re-established a lost connection with the country.
Edward Friedman, director of the Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education and head of the program, lived in Afghanistan from 1963 to 1973 establishing a college of engineering. At the time he left Kabul and Stevens Institute turned the school over to the local administration, Friedman says, there were 500 students studying all phases of engineering and the curriculum met international standards. The top 10 percent of graduates were able to enter graduate schools anywhere in the world.
"I had women engineering students in Afghanistan five years before women entered Steven's engineering programs," Friedman said during the farewell program for the Afghan professors.
With the new training program, he said, "I hope we can begin to re-invigorate the level of professionalism that was there before" the Soviet invasion and subsequent Taliban takeover of the country.
There were three components to the program: English as a second language, leadership training, and, of course, learning how to use computers and the Internet, Friedman said. They began classes within 24 hours of arriving at Stevens.
Joshua Koen, an Internet science education specialist and former Peace Corps volunteer, said he understood what it's like to be in a foreign country and not understand the language. And he had high praise for the women's efforts to learn the language and culture along with the new technology in such a short time.
The language classes, Koen said, focused on conversation and practical English that could be used right away and then to communicate with Stevens staff and faculty after they returned to Afghanistan. "For better or worse the internet is an English language experience," he said.
The Stevens faculty, Koen said, learned just as much, perhaps more, from the women. With English conversation sessions and going on excursions to Washington, D.C. , the United Nations, and New York City, and forays into Hoboken "we learned what life in Afghanistan was like and is like now."
The women lived in a dormitory on the Steven campus, which is located on a bluff above the Hudson River directly across from New York City.
Carol Shields, program coordinator, said that when the group arrived only one woman had ever used a computer, but by the second day of classes everyone was e-mailing relatives in the United States and Afghanistan, including adding attachments and files, something that many Americans who use computers regularly have difficulty doing. They then moved onto learning to use word processing programs and spreadsheets and searching the Internet for free science materials to use in their classrooms.
Gulalai Babak, a pharmacist and instructor at Pharmacy College, said that she learned grammar in Kabul but didn't know how to converse in English nor use the Internet.
"Now I use the internet very well," Babak said. "English is so helpful for using the computer and Internet. There are no Dari or Pashto sites so (English) will be useful for my field of pharmacy so I can read and translate."
Maweza Aziz, a physics and mathematics professor at Jalalabad University, said that computers are important for Afghanistan to grow as a nation. But, she added, Afghanistan urgently needs more English teachers, books, and computers.
Computers are very important for the development of children and people in Afghanistan, Friedman said. "It signals to the rest of the world that resources are available and investment in the facilities are worthwhile."
Mercedes McKay, a computer instructor said, "the computers provide a means of communication to get in touch with experts around the world and link to other universities."
The power of e-mail allows students to communicate and share information and projects, McKay said. Teachers can share data bases and students' work can be published on the Internet "for the whole world to see."
Since 1994, the Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education has pioneered the development of Internet-based lessons. Using real-time data and global projects, students can take part in authentic science investigations in which they perform experiments, collect and record real data, make predictions -- becoming real scientists. Through e-mail and other Internet forums they are able to communicate and work with other students and scientists around the world.
Shajan teaches physics at Education University. She said that material she found on the Internet will help her explain atoms, light, motion and electric charges to students and other teachers. "We don't' have materials -- textbooks, blackboards, chalk. Once computers are there it will be great," she said.
Friedman pointed out that it is more efficient and quicker to have a computer, printer, and stack of paper to print lessons from the internet than to wait for books to be printed, bound, shipped and distributed in Afghanistan.
Maweza Aziz, a physics teacher at Jalalabad University, said, "physics is a very broad based science with new developments by the minute. Books are important for basic requirements, but just a click of the Internet and I can get new information."
"If I use computers and the Internet then in a very short time I can maximize my output," Aziz said.
Joining in the program were two not-for-profit organizations already active in Afghanistan. Schools Online -- based in Redwood Shores, California -- donated laptop computers and software for the professors to use in Afghanistan. Relief International --located in Los Angeles, California -- is helping coordinate and implement program activities in Afghanistan.
Participating in the program were: Gulalai Babak, Pharmacy College, Kabul; Tafsera Joyan, Kabul University; Sabera Halim, Polytechnic Kabul; Zarghona Popal, Polytechnic Kabul; Narges Najafi, Balkh University, Mazar-I-Sharif; Maweza Aziz, Jalalabad University; Shajan, Education University, Kabul; Wahida Rahim, Polytechnic Kabul; and Kahlida Popalzai, Education University, Kabul.
Stevens Institute of Technology was established in 1870. It currently offers baccalaureate, master's and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science, management and technology management, business, the humanities and liberal arts. It has a total enrollment of about 1,740 undergraduates and 2,600 graduate students.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=August&x=20030829130554atia0.5473749&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
