An expert from Microsoft will address two plenary sessions at the Global Education Forum, being held in Dubai from January 22 to 24.

The forum will be held alongside the Gulf Educational Supplies Show (GESS), the region’s premier educational supplies and solutions event, at the Madinat Jumeirah.

Mike Lloyd, a schools solutions specialist at Microsoft’s Worldwide Education Group, will address the sessions under the theme “Addressing the challenges in education through the power of ICT” and “Schools of the Future” respectively.

GESS is an open forum to enable regional governments and educational institutions ensure their populations have access to the world’s best education resources, technologies and facilities.

“The forum gives rare opportunity for the education professionals to meet international experts in the educational sector. This is an opportunity for them to learn first hand from Microsoft on how to cope and manage education with the current technologies,” said Virginia Kern, Chairman of F&E, the event organiser.

GESS being held with the support of the UAE Ministry of Education aims to bring the latest international education products and methodologies to local and regional education professionals as the Gulf’s education sector undergoes substantial re-engineering.

A former teacher, lecturer and IT consultant, Lloyd has been involved with Microsoft for nine years. He joined their UK Education Group six years ago as education marketing manager.

Based in London and a member of the International Society for Technology in Education, Lloyd’s current professional interests centre on how IT can be used to personalise and accelerate learning, and how technology is transforming education.

Before joining Microsoft, Lloyd wrote “The National Grid for Learning” and “Fresh Approaches to Funding ICT”, both published by Pearson Publishing. He is also the author of “Internet for Beginners” published by the Association for Information Management.-TradeArabia News Service