5 November 2024, Tue |
3:25 PM
Microsoft at the Global Educational Supplies and Solutions (GESS) conference in Dubai emphasis about its ongoing messages of lifelong learning and youth empowerment. GESS Dubai has been running for 14 years and is recognized as a regional focal point for the business. It is organised in conjunction with the UAE Ministry of Education.
“Microsoft is a leader in the education space, having empowered tens of thousands of students and teachers to continue their education journey through Microsoft’s tools, most notably Teams, at the height of the pandemic,” said Ahmed Ameen Ashour, Regional Education Director, Microsoft, Microsoft UAE.
He added, “We are excited to be back at GESS Dubai, the biggest education event of the year in MEA, focusing on the next chapter in blended learning and how the lessons of the past period can help us shape the teaching and learning experience of the future.”
Mark East, Microsoft’s Education Industry Group’s Worldwide General Manager (EMEA and Asia), offered a keynote at GESS Dubai 2021 on post-pandemic transformation and how to plan for a skilling journey that will deliver regional economic growth in the aftermath of COVID’s adjustments. “Skills for Employability — Enabling the Workforce of the Future,” said Microsoft’s Jaye Richards-Hill, Senior Education Specialist with the MEA HQ Education Team, addressing Future Leaders Track delegates.
Microsoft’s Harb Bou-Harb, Senior Director of Education MEA, spoke to delegates as part of the Leaders Track about the workforce’s skilling and employability and how advances in technology, the rise of cloud, socio-economic and demographic changes are shifting expectations and placing new demands on society.
Microsoft demonstrated solutions in the fields of security and analytics at its GESS 2021 pavilion, emphasizing how technology can increase learning in the hybrid era. It also showed how Windows 11 can be used in conjunction with Surface Hub and Minecraft to improve teachers’ and students’ educational experiences. Clasera, GamaLearn, and Impero, all Microsoft partners, also had booths at the event.
Microsoft’s participation at GESS Dubai 2021 comes just weeks after the company partnered with Expo 2020 Dubai to launch an interactive Minecraft platform for touring the Expo site, demonstrating how blended learning can expand beyond classroom walls.
Minecraft: Education Edition (M:EE), which is geared towards students in kindergarten through grade 12, includes lesson ideas for teachers to use in their classrooms, allowing students to dig deeper into Expo 2020 Dubai‘s subthemes and ways to create a more sustainable future. The subjects covered in class span from artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to culture and migration studies. All of the lessons connect to Expo 2020, whether it’s through an activity that asks students to build something new inside the site or research some of the structures and pavilions.
