Queen Rania Launches ITN, Lauds Innovative Efforts in Education

(Office of Her Majesty – Press Department – Dead Sea) - Innovation and creativity are the new buzz words of the 21st century classroom, and with those buzz words comes a new way of doing things.

Long gone are the days of traditional ribbon cutting ceremonies—on Wednesday, with the click of a mouse, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah cut a virtual ribbon to launch the new Innovative Teachers’ Network (ITN) in Jordan. Her Majesty lauded the pioneering effort at the ITN launch in the Dead Sea which, she said, leads to people connecting all over the world.

ITN is a network that connects a global community of educators who share a common interest in enhancing teaching and learning through the use of technology.

"Our focus has been ensuring we take care of our teachers- ensuring that they have the right tools, the right training and a supportive environment to achieve excellence," said Queen Rania. ITN brings together a comprehensive collection of resources created for teachers by the most highly regarded organizations in the field of education. In the past two weeks, 50 teachers have already registered with ITN Jordan and 30 lesson plans have been uploaded. "The launch of ITN is a milestone… it is a celebration of the success of yet another public private partnership," said Queen Rania as she recognized and thanked all the entities involved including the Ministry of Education.

At the event, two teachers, who earlier this year had been awarded the Queen Rania Award for Distinguished Teacher, demonstrated the functions of the web portal. Her Majesty told them "we are proud of your profession and we want you to be proud of it". Jordan is the second fully Arabized Innovative Teachers’ Network on the web. Members are free to express opinions; conduct research; search for key information; access media-rich content; seek accreditation; explore curriculum materials; and personalize their experience. While in the Dead Sea, Her Majesty also attended the World Family Summit +2, Investing in Development and Mobilizing for Action. Held under Queen Rania's patronage, the summit is focusing on sustainable economic and social development; efforts to alleviate poverty; universal education; primary health care; partnerships for development; and growth stability.

The World Family Summit constitutes the biggest partnership towards making the present and the future world more peaceful, secure, just, tolerant, prosperous and integrated by mobilizing and promoting the basic cell of society – the family.