Description
This may be the first time in history that the world has united around a single word and a single position: how to confront the coronavirus that swept the world in 2019. This imposed a new reality on us that we had never imagined. Therefore, we sought out everything that could help us, and we relied on satellite communications and modern technology that brought the distant closer, along with the internet, which has turned the world into a small village. But we never imagined that we would cease our normal activities, and that our children would stop going to school. The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed new challenges on us that we must adapt to. Perhaps the most significant problem facing the world is the closure of schools in all countries. However, the creation of new ideas has transcended borders. Many around the world have turned to creating educational platforms and developing various applications to support distance learning. Here, satellite communications and their development have become a new goal and purpose: to utilize them in education. They have even transcended borders. Any student can join a university-like class if they meet its requirements. They can even conduct experiments, operations, and tests from their home, while the university is located on the other side of the world. Because we in Syria lack many capabilities, and there are many obstacles imposed on us by the war, despite all the difficulties we have faced over the past ten years, our activities at the Syrian Astronomical Society have not stopped. How could they have stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic, given our lack of advanced equipment for satellite communications and satellite internet? We have shifted part of our activities to learning through social media such as WhatsApp and Facebook. We created WhatsApp groups for children aged 6 to 15, starting a new experience in Syria: remotely teaching space and astronomy using the simplest technologies and capabilities.
Our experience using communications technology and the information revolution to simplify and educate children about space and astronomy may be simple and modest, limited to applications such as WhatsApp and others. This science, considered one of the most demanding of practical applications, is a simple experiment with its tools compared to the experiences of other countries. However, it has yielded an information-rich project focused on teaching children the foundations and principles of astronomy.
My research will be a message for the future: Using space, astronomy, and artificial intelligence technology and disseminating them in our Arab schools and universities, in light of what all countries are currently striving for, compared to global experiences such as Japan, China, Singapore, and others. This will enhance efforts to explore outer space and motivate our youth to experiment, innovate, develop thinking, and work within a team.
This adds a new dimension to education.
