The Role of E-Learning in Supporting Knowledge Communities

III International Conference

on e-Learning

"The Role of e-Learning in Supporting Knowledge Communities"

A key note speech by

Talal Abu-Ghazaleh

Founder and Chairman of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Group

Chair of the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development

"Educational Proposals for Consideration"

University of Bahrain

Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Khalifa Auditorium

Educational proposals for Consideration

- What you cannot measure you cannot manage. The Arab Organization for Quality Assurance in Education (AROQA) was established in Brussels in 2007 with the support and honorary presidency of the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Mr. Amro Mousa, to measure education for better management. I am pleased that it is supported by my deputy in its chair, Dr. Saleh Hashem, the Secretary General of the Organization of Arab Universities. (

- Research is the highway to development: Therefore, I launched, with my brother Dr. Saleh Hashem, in Brussels on 31.3.2010 "the Arab Organization for Research and Education Networks" at the invitation and support of the European Union. The Organization aims at supporting research centers in the Arab universities and elsewhere by networking, coordination and exchange of knowledge; and spurring more joint research. Greater research efforts will lead to innovation and development (

- The development of knowledge societies aims at moving ahead to a world of knowledge. The invention of the computer and the Internet was the beginning of the information age: the age of easily inputting and outputting information. Then, the world entered the beginning of the knowledge age: the age of using information to produce more knowledge. Still the world is going to enter the age of wisdom: the age of using knowledge to serve the humanity. For this, we signed a partnership agreement with UNESCO to work on measuring knowledge in all Arab countries to facilitate upgrading its levels in the various indicators (

- The transition from teaching to learning: The information and communication technology provided us with an opportunity to teach “how to learn”. The most important role of institutions is to train the capability to self-learning. Therefore, we have established in the graduate programs of Talal Abu Ghazaleh College of Business a board to be in charge of implementing the “case study”approach in education. (

- Knowledge Centers are the students’ route to be part of the world of knowledge. That is why we have establishedTAG-Knowledge centers as unique oases, first of the kind in the world,to provide studentswith all needed toolsto facilitate knowledge exchange and self-learning. (

- Arabic content was rich in the past but poor in the present,especially on the Internet. Therefore, we have carried out the TAG-pedia program, an information search engine toaddapproved Arabic contentso as to ensure credible and useful materials. (

- Education is a basic tool for development: This was emphasized in the core of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s). During our meeting on 8/2/2010, the UN Secretary-General assigned me, in my capacity as the Chair of the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development, to chair a project to accelerate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals under his honorary chairmanship through information and communication technology. The goal of learning is fundamental to achieve all goals and information technology is the means. We will present to the World Summit in September 2010 an integrated plan to achieve the MDGs by 2015. (

- Fromread write literacy to digital literacy: Furthermore, we have developed, ten years ago, a program to teach computer and Internet skills in Arabic to qualify trainees to obtain a joint certificate approved by the University of Cambridge and TAG-org. Although the rate of Arab connection to the internet was one of the lowest in the world (less than 10%), but it had grown by 1200% during the period from 2000 to 2008 while the world’sgrowth average was 300%, i.e. four times the world average. (The Economist)

- The transfer of technology as a way to build national technology: The Licensing Executives Society International (LESI), in conjunction with the Licensing Executives Society - Arab Countries (LES-AC), the Federation of GCC Chambers,and the Arab Foundation for Science and Technology, is organizing an International Arab Conference in Bahrain during the period 11-13 May 2010 as the first annual conference entitled the "Licensing Opportunities Forum" to discuss franchising,industrial licensing andinnovation and how to convert them into commercial marketable products. (

- Graduation is the beginning of qualification and continued education: That is why we have established in TAG-orgprofessional training programs for graduates in all areas of business, as well as continued education programs utilizing the most recent trends in applied education. (

- The importance of responsible business administration education: In 2006, I worked with the United Nations Secretary General at the time, Mr. Kofi Annan,on the establishment of the UN Global Compact. He asked me to be his deputy in its chairmanship. One of the most important programs that we have worked on wasthe responsible business administration educationsystem with the objective of making it meaningful under specific criteria. (

- Science / knowledge / informationare like an island in an ocean of ignorance. The larger the island is and the more its beaches extended, the more the island would be overlooking the vicinity of ignorance. Thus, the more we learn the more we discover how little knowledge we know.