A Facebook-based group of Israeli and Arab youth called YaLa Young
Leaders is planning in 2013 to launch the first virtual pan-regional
academic institution for Middle Eastern and North African youth, to be
called YaLa Young Leaders Online Academy, or YLOA.
YaLa Young Leaders is an online, Facebook-based movement launched in May 2011 and dedicated to empowering young people in the Middle East to lead their generation to a better future.
With about 183,000 members from across the Arab world, Israel, the Mediterranean and the wider international community, YaLa Young Leaders is a broad-based and fast-growing Middle Eastern peace movement.
The plan to open the online joint Israeli-Arab academy was announced at an August YaLa peace and economic cooperation summit held in Berlin and attended by 18 of the most active of YaLa's Facebook members from Israel, Palestine, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq and Kuwait, according to a report on The Daily Dot.
“From the Yasmin and Tahrir revolutions, the struggles in Syria, Libya and Yemen, the struggle for social justice in Israel, the MENA [Middle East and North Africa] youth has shown its ability to mobilise for greater freedom and equality. YaLa is the place where these revolutions meet,” states the YaLa Young Leaders Facebook page.
The YaLa Young Leaders group calls for action to advance a peaceful and democratic Middle East and North Africa. Former Israeli diplomat and politician and founder of the YaLa Young Leaders movement, Uri Savir, is quoted as saying the YLOA “can revolutionise relations between young people of the Middle East”.
The planned academy is in line with the YaLa Young Leaders view that education is the number one priority for investment in the region – and hence the necessity to make high quality and market-relevant higher education accessible to the region’s youth.
Through convergence with the online education revolution, the YLOA will serve as an academic platform that is open and accessible to all YaLa members for free enrolment, according to the concluding statement from the group’s Berlin peace summit.
YLOA will provide education and training in the areas of business, technology and social media; negotiation, mediation and good governance; and regional culture and peace studies.
To ensure quality and credibility, YaLa will partner with top regional and international universities and top companies such as Facebook, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard, on the development and delivery of online courses that are enriching and relevant to the social, political and economic necessities of the region.
YLOA will emphasise the Mediterranean Basin as an area of great potential for social and economic cooperation projects, and will be closely linked to other YaLa projects, including online technological accelerators and online language training in English, Arabic and Hebrew.
Mayadah Shehadeh, associate dean for student affairs in the faculty of pharmacy at the University of Jordan, Amman, cautiously welcomed the e-academy initiative, saying to University World News: “The idea is appealing, as higher education in the whole region needs dramatic upgrading to meet the modern issues and procedures.”
John Daly, a science and technology consultant and former director of the office of research at USAID, was enthusiastic about the YLOA initiative.
"This is a wonderful idea, especially so since it comes from young people themselves, and from young people already using the internet for networking and learning about each other," Daly told University World News.
"There is a huge need in the region to provide opportunities to learn useful things. Obviously promoting peace in the region through mutual understanding is also critically important.
"Within the proposed fields of interest in YLOA teaching programmes, perhaps training in business entrepreneurship, good governance and ‘culture of peace’ might be especially useful."
Daly continued: "The most important thing is to assure that the courses meet real needs, are effective in reaching out to the students, and use the best online techniques.
“Recruiting really good people with MENA experience to plan the course offerings, teach the courses, and advise on online learning approaches will be urgent and important.”
Asked about political readiness in the region for such a joint Israeli-Arab venture, Daly said: "There have been Joint Israeli-Arab programmes for decades. A recent one is the UNESCO-sponsored project of Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME), which is backed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority as well as Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey."
Daly concluded: "Young people learning together via online courses should be perfectly feasible."
But Yasser Gaber Dessouky, a professor at the college of engineering and technology at the Arab academy for science and technology and maritime transport in Alexandria, Egypt, told University World News that despite the fact that “the e-academy would be useful for students”, especially given that they are spending a lot of their time on the internet already, “the MENA region is not ready at all, from what I see”.
He argued that in particular the current political situation does not promote higher education cooperation.
Article from: http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20120901092507912
YaLa Young Leaders is an online, Facebook-based movement launched in May 2011 and dedicated to empowering young people in the Middle East to lead their generation to a better future.
With about 183,000 members from across the Arab world, Israel, the Mediterranean and the wider international community, YaLa Young Leaders is a broad-based and fast-growing Middle Eastern peace movement.
The plan to open the online joint Israeli-Arab academy was announced at an August YaLa peace and economic cooperation summit held in Berlin and attended by 18 of the most active of YaLa's Facebook members from Israel, Palestine, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq and Kuwait, according to a report on The Daily Dot.
“From the Yasmin and Tahrir revolutions, the struggles in Syria, Libya and Yemen, the struggle for social justice in Israel, the MENA [Middle East and North Africa] youth has shown its ability to mobilise for greater freedom and equality. YaLa is the place where these revolutions meet,” states the YaLa Young Leaders Facebook page.
The YaLa Young Leaders group calls for action to advance a peaceful and democratic Middle East and North Africa. Former Israeli diplomat and politician and founder of the YaLa Young Leaders movement, Uri Savir, is quoted as saying the YLOA “can revolutionise relations between young people of the Middle East”.
The planned academy is in line with the YaLa Young Leaders view that education is the number one priority for investment in the region – and hence the necessity to make high quality and market-relevant higher education accessible to the region’s youth.
Through convergence with the online education revolution, the YLOA will serve as an academic platform that is open and accessible to all YaLa members for free enrolment, according to the concluding statement from the group’s Berlin peace summit.
YLOA will provide education and training in the areas of business, technology and social media; negotiation, mediation and good governance; and regional culture and peace studies.
To ensure quality and credibility, YaLa will partner with top regional and international universities and top companies such as Facebook, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard, on the development and delivery of online courses that are enriching and relevant to the social, political and economic necessities of the region.
YLOA will emphasise the Mediterranean Basin as an area of great potential for social and economic cooperation projects, and will be closely linked to other YaLa projects, including online technological accelerators and online language training in English, Arabic and Hebrew.
Mayadah Shehadeh, associate dean for student affairs in the faculty of pharmacy at the University of Jordan, Amman, cautiously welcomed the e-academy initiative, saying to University World News: “The idea is appealing, as higher education in the whole region needs dramatic upgrading to meet the modern issues and procedures.”
John Daly, a science and technology consultant and former director of the office of research at USAID, was enthusiastic about the YLOA initiative.
"This is a wonderful idea, especially so since it comes from young people themselves, and from young people already using the internet for networking and learning about each other," Daly told University World News.
"There is a huge need in the region to provide opportunities to learn useful things. Obviously promoting peace in the region through mutual understanding is also critically important.
"Within the proposed fields of interest in YLOA teaching programmes, perhaps training in business entrepreneurship, good governance and ‘culture of peace’ might be especially useful."
Daly continued: "The most important thing is to assure that the courses meet real needs, are effective in reaching out to the students, and use the best online techniques.
“Recruiting really good people with MENA experience to plan the course offerings, teach the courses, and advise on online learning approaches will be urgent and important.”
Asked about political readiness in the region for such a joint Israeli-Arab venture, Daly said: "There have been Joint Israeli-Arab programmes for decades. A recent one is the UNESCO-sponsored project of Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME), which is backed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority as well as Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey."
Daly concluded: "Young people learning together via online courses should be perfectly feasible."
But Yasser Gaber Dessouky, a professor at the college of engineering and technology at the Arab academy for science and technology and maritime transport in Alexandria, Egypt, told University World News that despite the fact that “the e-academy would be useful for students”, especially given that they are spending a lot of their time on the internet already, “the MENA region is not ready at all, from what I see”.
He argued that in particular the current political situation does not promote higher education cooperation.
Article from: http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20120901092507912
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