I am visiting six Palestinian schools with Teachermate devices loaded with critical thinking math games and executive function assessment games along with other educational content in Arabic. The purpose of my first visit to Palestine is multifold. The first is to introduce mobile learning technology-based educational resources to resource-deprived schools in Palestine, as part of my ongoing research around the globe. I have visited mountain regions and urban slums in Latin America and extreme rural villages in India and jungles in Africa to conduct mobile learning research designed to mitigate the digital divide in marginalized communities around the world. My second purpose is to initiate a global storytelling project which involves sharing and understanding of children's life stories from multiple countries. I read stories collected from children living in regions such as Indian rural villages or Uganda refugee camps and also collect stories with TeacherMate's StoryMaker program I developed for children. The third purpose is to measure Palestine children's general digital competency, literacy, math proficiency, and executive function skill under the constant psychological trauma that many of the Palestine children experience on a daily basis. I met with the Minister of Education and Higher Education, former Minister of Telecommunication, Berzeit University officials, and various school operators and NGO administrators to discuss how my projects can be scaled up.
I was surprised to find that children attending public schools located close to the fence between Israelis and Palestinians or near Israeli settlements build quite strong resentment and hate from early childhood. I found that the personal life stories that children as young as 8 years old share in storytelling workshops are quite shocking and sobering. I also found that children living in such conditions demonstrate poor executive functions and low academic performance.
Mobile technology is a highly viable educational option that is exciting and fun for Palestine children and I wish to continue my research in Palestine as conditions permit. My hope is that mobile technology can be used to mitigate the digital divide, promote peace and a sense of global community, and educate marginalized children in the region.
