Some 580 teachers from more than 300 private, public, and international schools across Qatar have completed the Haseen Internet safety and security awareness programme for students.
The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC) has collaborated with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEH) to make Arabic and English cyber safety multimedia content available which can be integrated into subject classes.
The joint efforts between the two ministries have produced a portal with a search engine for a number of educational activities related to Internet safety, designed using multimedia (video, animation, written and audio files, online self-assessments etc.), said Fawzia Al-Khater, Assistant Undersecretary for Educational Affairs at the (MoEH).
Training workshops were recently held by (MOTC) and (MoEH) where teachers have been educated on the cyber safety topics that Haseen covers along with best practices and the use of Haseen search engine.
The participants are now ready to act as Haseen ambassadors and cascade the training to other staff within their schools.
The two ministries emphasizes the importance of cyber safety education for all, especially children, who should be able to learn and develop in safe, supportive and respectful environments. Schools also have a responsibility to provide safe online environments and teach children how to use technology in positive and productive ways.
“We are glad to have achieved our goal; providing such a number of Haseen ambassadors, which deeply reflects the importance of raising cyber safety awareness amongst young people, as well as instructors and parents,” said Reem Al Mansoori, Assistant Undersecretary of Digital Society Development at MOTC.
Haseen targets students from grades 1 to 12. It provides students with fundamental ICT competencies and knowledge to safeguard the responsible, safe, and ethical use of technologies.
It offers teachers an online portal, which has almost 150 learning resources on cyber safety topics in different formats. The portal also provides over 350 detailed learning activities that use the learning resources and can be used with children at schools during Arabic, English and Ethics classes.
Teachers can choose the educational resources (animation, video, worksheets, audio clips, animated quizzes and interactive web programs) that provide cyber safety content integrated with into the lesson, and the student can then practice using the activities attached to the resource.
