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IC has done it again. It can proudly boast
that it has taken the lead in guiding all
Arabic and French speaking schools
around the world into following educa-
tional technological guidelines.
These guidelines, called NETS, are is-
sued by the The International Society for
Technology in Education (ISTE), which
specializes in advancing the effective use
of technology in schools.The NETS,
more specifically, sets various levels of
standards (for teachers, students, and
administrators) to efficiently integrate IT
into the classroom.
Mahmud Shihab, IT‘s Educational
Technology Program Administrator, came
across the NETS in 1999 when the IT
component in the Lebanese curriculum
had not yet been updated. In search of
new guidelines, “I started exploring and
came across ISTE’s books and standards,”
recalled Shihab, “and we started using
them a little bit.”
In 2000, IC rewrote its entire curriculum
and subsequently initiated the gradual
disintegration of stand-alone computer
classes and the introduction of fully inte-
grated IT classes.
Ten years later, the school began revising
the curriculum again. By this time, IT was
fully and successfully implemented into
the classrooms with Shihab adhering to
the NETS guidelines. Over the past few
years, he has attended many ISTE confer-
ences and workshops and, in 2010, was
appointed as an ISTE Ambassador for
the Middle East region.
While revising and developing the IT
component of the curriculum, Shihab
came across a considerably large obstacle.
The NETS were only available in English,
therefore excluding their application to
the school’s French and Arabic programs.
“How could we ask French and Arabic
language teachers to revise their curricu-
lums using English language standards?”
he said.
Shihab quickly realized there was only
one thing to do. “We had to translate
them ourselves,” he said. ISTE seemed
thrilled with the idea and asked Shihab to
later share the translations.
This was easier said than done.The project
may not have seemed much at first glance
but saturated with highly technical IT
terminology. “Every single keyword in the
NETS could be expanded into books,”
said Shihab. “Standards are supposed to
expand into activities. If you don’t use the
right word, you have the wrong activities.
It was a big responsibility to find just the
right word, especially in Arabic.”
With the aid of Ghinwa Sabra, IC’s on-
site translator, Shihab threw himself into
the task. He admits to being stumped
many times but “it was a challenge,” he
said. “There wasn’t a reference or diction-
ary that I didn’t look into.”
After two months of intensive researching
and writing, Shihab finally announced the
completion of the translation. IC could now
move on with writing its IT curriculum.
In April, ISTE published the translated
NETS on its website for the use of all
Arabic and French speaking schools
worldwide. Shihab was profiled in the
prestigious Learning and Leading with
Technology Magazine with an article aptly
titled “Bringing the NETS to the Middle
East and Beyond” (March/April 2012
issue)
“I experienced how wonderful the NETS
can be,” said Shihab. “Other schools
many not know about it because it wasn’t
written in their language. But now they
can see for themselves. IC has indeed
pioneered the use of NETS standards in
French and Arabic worldwide. It feels re-
ally good to have had a hand in it.”
The NETS in English, French and Arabic can
be found: http://www.iste.org/standards.aspx
IC translates NETS
into Arabic and French
10
SUMMER
2012