Dr. Mansour Al Awar, Chancellor of the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU) and the Chairman of the Governing Board of the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education(IITE), called on the necessity to urgently move forward towards smart education to transform the future of education and secure learning opportunities for all. Such a move supports the fourth objective of United Nations Sustainable Development Plan 2030 to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all.’ Dr. Al Awar made the appeal during his keynote speech centering on ‘Education for All: Smart Education Shaping the Future’ delivered on the sidelines of the International Forum on ICT and Education 2030 recently organized by the UNESCO in Qingdao, China.
During the event, Dr. Al Awar provided deep insights on key factors that leverage the value of the Lifelong Learning Model adopted by HBSMU. He underscored the inclusiveness and flexibility of the model which he explained was developed specifically to help learners of all ages gain knowledge and spur positive change across society.
Dr. Al Awar also shared the best practices and the most successful initiatives undertaken by HBMSU under the visionary leadership of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashed Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince and President of the University, to reinforce the UAE’s position among nations making major contributions towards the evolution of higher education. He discussed the main features of the roadmap of the future of education which revolves around Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), Cloud Computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Dr. Al Awar said: “We want to help secure educational opportunities to guarantee a better life for all by 2030 by utilizing the Lifelong Learning Model which drives our philosophy of employing smart technology, innovation, quality, and scientific research to advance the process of inclusive development.”