(The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Al-Fanar Media). Since the mid-1900s, technological inventions have drastically reshaped modern life. With the release of any technological advancement that shakes things up locally and globally, public reactions typically range between complete support of new phenomena and extreme opposition to the changes. So it is with artificial intelligence (AI) today. Clearly, AI has the power to reshape the future of education. The question is, how should educators respond? The case of artificial inte ..read more

Many universities host job fairs, or career expos, that give students and other job seekers a chance to meet potential employers. Al-Fanar Media has gathered some advice on how to make the most of these opportunities. We recommend a structured approach, following steps divided into three stages. 1. Before the Job Fair Get Prepared. Learn about the companies participating in the job fair before attending and familiarise yourself with their products and services. You can learn about the companies by visiting their websites and social media pages, and reading their customers’ comments and opinion ..read more

(The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Al-Fanar Media). The Covid-19 pandemic has been a learning experience in educational technology for me and many other instructors around the globe. My university and I personally have acquired brand-new hardware and software beneficial to students during periods of online learning. With the return to in-person instruction, however, I have also regained appreciation for old-fashioned classroom materials. In part because of more time spent indoors during pandemic-related lockdowns, nearsighted ..read more

Award-winning Egyptian writers and artists have been telling Al-Fanar how awards have boosted them personally and their craft generally. The Arab world has many awards celebrating achievement in many genres of creative work. These awards receive great attention, reflected in the high number of annual applicants and the controversy that sometimes accompanies the results. Amongst the most prestigious Arab awards for writers are the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), sometimes referred to as the “Arabic Booker”; the AlMultaqa Prize for Arabic Short Story; the Katara Prize for Arabic N ..read more

Saudi Arabia’s Subol platform, which wants to help students, graduates, and job seekers make better learning and career choices, recently invited users to explore more than 1,900 training opportunities on its site. The platform, which has been operating since 2019, is an initiative of the kingdom’s Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF). The 1,900 new opportunities recently announced on Subol are internships provided by employers in both the public and private sectors, said Noura Mohammed, the platform’s communication officer. Saudi Arabia’s Tamheer Training Scheme Helps Graduates Enter the ..read more

On November 30, the California research company OpenAI released an artificial intelligence chatbot called ChatGPT that can generate answers to questions, among other capabilities. Using the AI chatbot, anyone can enter a question and have a unique answer generated. This is different from an internet search, which identifies already existing text. ChatGPT draws upon available information and generates a unique response, including to multi-part and complex questions, along with references. There are limitations; however, these are likely to be addressed swiftly. Alongside amazement, these develo ..read more

University life is a time rich in opportunities for students who aspire to be global changemakers and help create a better world. Several international organisations sponsor activities that students around the world, including in the Arab region, can join as volunteers, teachers, or social innovators and entrepreneurs. In this article, Al-Fanar Media presents a short list of four such organisations. Hult Prize for Social Entrepreneurship The Hult Prize challenges young people to propose creative ideas for solving pressing world issues through social entrepreneurship. Every year, one team recei ..read more

Al-Fanar Media has been researching the many ways of studying archaeology in the Arab world, as well as the best job opportunities for archaeology graduates. The Arab world has many faculties of archaeology, such as those at Cairo University, the University of Mosul, and the University of Jordan. However, archaeology students and students-to-be often worry about what jobs await them in the labour market after graduation. Al-Fanar Media presents a brief review of the reality of studying archaeology in universities of the Arab world and the job prospects of archaeology schools’ graduates. While ..read more

A research project at Georgetown University Qatar is seeking to map “language landcapes” in Qatar and explore how language use intersects with aspects of culture and identity in the multiethnic country. Yehia Abdel-Mobdy Mohamed, an associate professor of Arabic, is leading the project, titled “Narratives of Language Landscapes in Qatar,” which is based in the university’s Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS). In a Zoom interview, Mohamed told Al-Fanar Media that the “lack of an introductory map of the reality of linguistic policies and their relationships with other sciences i ..read more

In an interconnected world facing common problems that recognise no boundaries, global citizenship concepts have become common topics at scholarly conferences and in educational discourses. However, many Arab schools rarely tackle these concepts. A recent study led by Naima Al-Husban, an associate professor of education at the Arab Open University, in Jordan, found that global citizenship concepts were only superficially integrated into Jordanian textbooks, “and this was done in a limited, unsystematic and inconsistent way with a reference to national or regional meanings rather than to a glob ..read more