 Our conference today is being hosted by the Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology at Qatar and the College of North Atlantic Qatar. Our conference, before our individual sessions begin, we will now hear welcoming speeches. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Ghada Fakir, the education man. I want to thank you for taking the time to participate in this exciting event, exploring ICT in education. As you may all know, His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalif Al-Thani, the Emir of the State of Qatar, has put forward a progressive vision for the State of Qatar. With thought and creativity flourished on the basis of political reform and fair and sustainable economic and social development, where the citizens enjoy equal opportunities and have open scope for achieving high standards for living on a contemporary and modern economic basis. Guided by this vision, the Supreme Council for Communications and Information Technology, which is led by Dr. Hissa Al-Jaber, was assigned to organize the communications and information technology sectors in the States and draw up their respective strategies so as to provide opportunity for the different sectors of society to use information and communication technology and regulations, health, government and education to improve our quality of life and to effect social and economic development of the States and raise the community to become progressive and have a knowledge-oriented economy. We are here today because we are committed to be part of the solution. To be part of the solution that brings opportunity to the development of such a great country. If you were to ask me what is the one thing, the one thing that technology has really been about, I would say it's been about empowerment. It's been about helping people realize their potential. The computer, for example, has been different things at different times. It started as a programming machine. It became a work for setting machine, a gaming machine, a learning machine and a communication machine. But the computer, the personal computer, has always been a tool of empowerment. It is a general purpose device that extends the ability of the human being to work with information, to access the world beyond that which is physically accessible to them at the time. And in that sense, it's been about helping people realize their potential. Such empowerment can be realized through connected learning communities. When you see the interaction of schools with students at home, with parents, with the community, with higher education, this connection is incredibly important. Schools within themselves, schools outside of the community, teachers to one another, that sense of connection is very, very important. Technology is also shrinking the education world as it is shrinking the business world. Today, we are seeing a growing trend towards international collaboration and cooperation, such as the Transatlantic High Speed Link dedicated to research traffic between the UK and the US, higher education institutions. The same is also happening in Australia, which is bringing together geographically scattered researchers and educationists. Wouldn't this be a wonderful opportunity for our students to connect to, to learn from, to experience, explore, participate in such a learning experience with researchers, scientists and educators? Let me share with you an example that I find very intriguing. In Mexico, a village in Mexico, there's a school that has very limited access to books, no references. The school got a grant on both computers and was able to connect to the internet. The teacher of that school was able to access a retired astronaut in the US. The retired astronaut had a telescope. So the students in the classroom, in that classroom, were able to capture the stars, pictures of the stars through the telescope, through the internet. What a wonderful learning machine. So much potential, so many opportunities for our students. Now that is a real example of a community learning collaboration. Let me ask you this. Do you remember 20 years ago, how did you manage researching the meaning of a word? There were simple basic dictionaries that we were able to use that had the meaning of a word. Sometimes it had pictures. How about today? What kind of tools do you have available to find the meaning of a word? The Wikipedia. You have words, pictures, videos, translations, translations, links and graphs, et cetera. Technology has really changed the way we learn. I want to emphasize something that needs to be said. The boredom, the dislocation of students is not always because they just don't want to learn or don't want to be in school. In many cases, it's because they're not challenged enough. The students are not challenged enough. Effective user technology can empower the students by making them more engaged. Technology makes a difference to learners because it offers them stimulating challenges, engaging learning activities, a chance to explore, to experiment and to be creative. I believe that key learning can improve the experience for those engaged in learning and can actually hook those who are not interested in traditional learning. If you think about some of the challenges in the education field, yes, you want teachers to be able to be individually excellent practitioners, but how do teachers work with other teachers? How do teachers work with the parents and others in the community? How do we get great educators from around the world to be able to help one another? We need tools that allow the education community to realize that potential. Today, we have those tools. We only need to utilize it. Once again, I appreciate you taking the time to attend this conference.