A speaker at a recent Educator Resource seminar warned that if computer education did not become prevalent in schools soon, it could hurt the country's economic system later. The seminars held last week at Smith's Info Village in Ras Beirut were sponsored by Lebanese-based Clicks Ltd., a software reseller and consulting company.
Throughout the presentations, Spiro Habash, founder of Clicks, underscored the importance of preparing students for the digital age. "If the Lebanese aren't ready for the digital age, we're going to have a problem" said Habash, who conducted seminars before an audience of private and public school administrators and educators.
He estimated that 65,000 of Lebanon's estimated 3.5 million residents have access to the internet, while millions are online globally. Citing the example of Amazon.com, the online bookseller which reportedly sold as many books last year as 212 franchised US book stores, he told educators that the economy was shifting to a digital platform. Because of this,
Habash said, educators need to put more computers in classrooms to teach students computer skills, including how to navigate the web.
In 1998, The Ministry of Education required that schools begin teaching students basic keyboarding, one basic programming language, word processing, database and spreadsheet applications. Mandatory Internet- browsing instruction is expected to be just around the corner.
Habash said he believed that he could help schools meet the government's mandate and prepare them for possible future ones. "We keep the ministry informed and involved in all our projects," he said. His company sells licensed Microsoft software, but it also sells an office suite that works on
pre-Pentium module computers which were common a decade ago. SchoolSuite, made by US-based New Deal, operates on the older computers with 286, 386 or 486 processors. The program has a word processing application, a spreadsheet, database, drawing tool, e-mail, web browser, and a web editing tool to help students create their own internet sites.
It retails between $30-$50 a unit, depending on volume. Habash also offers pre-Pentium computers with the program, which educators can procure for about $300, far less than the average price tag of $900 educators pay for mid-range Pentiums equipped with Microsoft software.
What Habash is betting on is that schools with pre-Pentiums might want to purchase the New Deal product. This may work with schools like the private College de la Sagesse in the Clemenceau district of Beirut, where Ranine Haddad, a computer lab instructor, said she now has options for the 20 older computers the school replaced this year with Pentiums.
While the school she works for is fortunate enough to afford such computers, Haddad said she is optimistic that Habash's less expensive line will be seen as an attractive choice for public schools without computers. "It's a well known fact that not all public schools have computers," she said. "We know that the government can't afford computers for every school. Maybe now with New Deal, they'll be able to do something."
At Hariri High School in Sidon, educators will probably not have a use for New Deal because students are taught on Pentiums, according to Fatim Siblini, a computer instructor there. However, she said she would like to use New Deal on her old home computer."I was going to sell my old computer," she said. "But now I'm going to keep it if I buy this software. I can take it out of storage."
But there is a snag to Habash's plan. The new curriculum so far requires that Microsoft's product line be used. "I feel it's totally unfair because they've told me that although my system works, we have to use the other program," Habash said. "It's a mini-crisis we have to live with and work through."
Nesreen Khashan
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