17/07/2015 15:47
Ayb Educational Foundation present Global Teaching Labs in Armenia
In celebration of the collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the world’s leading technology university, the Ayb Educational Foundation, the Luys Foundation, the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) and representatives from MIT held a joint press conference.
Fr. Mesrop Aramian, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Ayb School, Advisor to the President of the Republic of Armenia and member of the Luys Foundation's Education Board, said that, in cooperation with the Luys Foundation and AGBU, Ayb School has presented a most important initiative.
One of the MIT-elaborated programs has effectively been disseminated worldwide.
This new form of learning involves the Flipped Classroom concept: students learn on their own, using MIT's rich database of online educational materials, and then use that knowledge to work with young lecturers of MIT, among whom are Luys scholars. Students are asked to build something with the theoretical concepts they are learning on-line. It is a combination of learning and doing. Going from theory into practice. During the course of the program, students study entirely new disciplines, including neurocomputing, machine learning, and electricity and magnetism, among others.
The course was launched on June 22 and will end on July 31. The classes take place at Ayb School, which is equipped with proper laboratories needed for this learning process. One hundred and ten students from different communities of Armenia and Artsakh participate in the program and are hosted by the Armenian General Benevolent Union at the Vahe Karapetyan Center. AGBU also organizes everyday extracurricular activities for the students, introducing them to a variety of interesting cultural centers.
“Under the program we trained students from the best schools for them to tell about it to their teachers, who may later alter the widely applied methods,” Mesrop Aramian said.
Vasken Yacoubian, Member of the Central Board of Directors of AGBU, said that the aim is to preserve Armenian identity in the Armenian Diaspora.
“The recent 20 years have seen more and more successful programs, particularly education programs,” he said.
Serenella Sferza, MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives program director, said that the aim of the program is to enable children to apply their knowledge. She is impressed by Armenian students.