BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.0.5//EN TZID:America/Detroit X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Detroit BEGIN:VEVENT UID:422@test.arabamerica.com DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20150220T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20150220T160000 DTSTAMP:20150217T032407Z URL:https://test.arabamerica.com/events/e-learning-egypt-harnessing-digita l-revolution/ SUMMARY:E-Learning in Egypt: Harnessing the Digital Revolution DESCRIPTION:WASHINGTON DC\n\n\n\nThe Middle East Institute is pleased to ho st Ahmed El Alfi (Nafham Education)\, Sherif Kamel(American University of Cairo)\, and Simon Thacker(World Bank) for a panel discussion about the op portunities and challenges posed by the rise of online education tools in Egypt and across the MENA region.\n\nAmid growing concern about the state of public education in Egypt and throughout the Middle East\, online platf orms seek to offer alternatives to weak public curriculums and poorly trai ned teachers. However\, structural and social barriers\, such as the lack of widespread Internet access\, have challenged their utility. Ahmed El Al fi will discuss his online learning platform\, Nafham Education\, which of fers free interactive classes to Egyptian students. Kamel and Thacker will examine the policies and changes in digital media that have made online e ducation a potentially transformative tool for the region's development.\n \nBiographies:\n\nAhmed El Alfi is the founder of Sawari Ventures\, a Cair o based Venture Capital firm established in 2010 with the goal of transfor ming Egyptian and MENA region economies through creation of high-impact bu sinesses. In 2011\, Sawari created Flat6Labs\, its own startup accelerator . Flat6Labs immerses startup entrepreneurs into real-world challenges of c reating and managing sustainable enterprises\, supported by a dedicated st aff\, mentors and has launched 57 companies in Egypt and Saudi over the pa st 3 years. He also founded Nafham\, the top online video educational plat form covering the Egyptian public school curriculum. Nafham currently offe rs over 100\,000 video lessons per day. In 2013 he established TATP\, whic h took over a large part of the American University Cairo's downtown cam pus to form the GrEEK Campus\, a 250\,000 square foot office park near Tah rir Square where over 100 startups work and collaborate. He has extensive experience in creating and nurturing early-stage companies\, as well as st ructuring international M&\;A transactions. 
He is or has been a mem ber of the Board of Directors or Advisors of Waqf Endowment\, Polytechnic School Pasadena\, Claremont Graduate School of Religion\, several for-prof it corporate boards. and is also an avid collector of Islamic coins.\n\nSh erif Kamel is professor of management information systems and former found ing dean of the School of Business at the American University in Cairo\, w here he led a major repositioning of the school by focusing on entrepreneu rship\, innovation\, leadership\, and responsible business. Kamel created the school’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the universi ty’s Venture Lab investing in Egypt’s young promising entrepreneurs an d future leaders through supporting start-ups\, business plan competitions \, bootcamps\, and mentorship becoming Egypt’s primary university-based incubator and the main educational partner in the entrepreneurship ecosyst em. He was associate dean for executive education (2008-2009) and director of the Management Center (2002-2008).  Before joining the university he was director of the Regional IT Institute (1992-2001) and training manager at the Cabinet of Egypt Information and Decision Support Center (1990-199 2). He is the executive VP of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt\; board member of the Egyptian American Enterprise Fund\, member of Egypt-U. S. Business Council\, and founding member of the Internet Society of Egypt .  His research and teaching interests include management of IT\, IT tran sfer to developing nations\, electronic business\, decision support system s and entrepreneurship.  His work is broadly published in IS and manageme nt journals.  He is the editor of three books and the associate editor of the Journal of IT for Development and the Journal of Cases on Information Technology.\n\nSimon Thacker is an Education Specialist in the Education Global Practice in the Middle East and North Africa Region at the World Ba nk Group where he works on a number of initiatives\, some involving ICT. B efore joining the Bank\, Mr. Thacker was a teacher in Japan\, several coun tries in Africa\, France\, and the US. A Canadian national\, he holds an E d.M in International Education Policy from Harvard.\n\nKate Seelye (Modera tor) is senior vice president of The Middle East Institute\, where she ove rsees MEI's programs and communications. Prior to joining MEI\, Seelye wor ked as a radio and television journalist covering the Arab world from 2000 -2009 from her base in Beirut\, Lebanon. She reported on the region for NP R\, BBC's The World\, PBS' Frontline/World and the renowned Channel Four B ritish investigative news series\, Unreported World. Prior to that she wor ked as a producer for the Newshour with Jim Lehrer on PBS.\n\n \; ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://test.arabamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/ 2015/02/Onlineeducation1.jpeg CATEGORIES:Community LOCATION:SEIU Conference Center\, 1800 Massachusetts Avenue NW\, Washington \, DC\, United States GEO:38.9089576;-77.04220049999998 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=1800 Massachusetts Avenue N W\, Washington\, DC\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=SEIU Confer ence Center:geo:38.9089576,-77.04220049999998 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Detroit X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Detroit BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20141102T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR