When computers first came out, the computer lab in school was merely an elective that taught students the difference between a 51/4 inch and 31/2 inch floppy drives, how to turn the PC on and off and how to use the mouse. The PC was used as a replacement to a typewriter, simply because it was easier to erase the letters without making the page look untidy.

Today's students are from a fast-paced, multi-tasking generation that has grown up with multimedia, video games, mobile phones, and the Internet. This has changed the way they absorb and process information, changed what it takes to engage them and changed what is required to equip them with the 21st century skills needed for academic excellence and success in the global workforce.

The pressure is on for primary and secondary school educators to keep up with a technology-enabled world. This is the new digital divide-the gap between children who use technology as a matter of course, and schools that are just beginning to understand the powerful potential of digital learning.

Technology has changed learning and teaching processes significantly over the last few years, bringing improved teaching methods, one-to-one computing, interactive classrooms, and homework that is uploaded onto the schools main database.Black or white boards are being phased out,and the term 'notebook' doesn't refer to bound paper anymore.

Improved teaching methods have significantly aided in the development of children.Teachers can instantly identify which students are weaker than others and in what subjects.The days of taking home papers to grade are slowly diminishing, and tests are taken on tablet PCs and notebooks and corrected immediately using specially tailored software.

Over the last few years the Intel® Education Initiative has helped many countries make great strides in improving teaching and learning techniques.

The Intel® Teach programme prepares educators to effectively develop innovative learners and critical thinkers who can successfully compete in a 21st century economy. Teachers trained through the Intel® Teach programme are better prepared to support today's students in developing 21st century skills, particularly digital literacy, problem solving, critical thinking, and collaboration.

It is the most successful programme of its kind, building student skills for the 21st century through quality teaching. It has already trained more than 4 million teachers in more than 40 countries to create environments where students work collaboratively developing skills to address real-world concerns. The programme also improves educators' ability to incorporate technology in their curriculum and instruction.

Designed for both pre-service and in-service K-12 teachers, programme participants learn the optimal ways to integrate technology tools and resources into their own lessons to promote student-centered 21st century learning. The programme also supports the implementation of peer review and collaborative problem solving.

Globally, the Intel® Teach programme has strong success rates, with 84 percent of teachers indicating increased use of technology for lesson planning and preparation. Ninety-one percent of teachers said students were “motivated and involved in the lesson.” Eighty-one percent of teachers reported that “student projects showed more in-depth understanding” than other, comparable work.

The Intel® Teach programme in the Middle East has trained over 150,000 teachers in seven countries since its inception in 2003.

Through technology-enabled classrooms, students can instantly engage with educators and other students across the world, exploring different topics and more challenging arguments. The availability of online content makes answers easier to find; conversely, students need to be posed harder questions to keep them engaged.

The use of technology in the classrooms is enabling learners to be smarter and faster in finding answers and formulating discussions. In addition, it's imperative that children be exposed to these advanced methods of teaching and education at a young age so that they are conditioned to using IT in education and the workplace.

A prime example of e-learning, enhanced student-teacher interaction, interactive classrooms and one-to-one computing has been implemented in Al Mawakeb School in Dubai. With Intel's help, Al Mawakeb has implemented an initiative - “Notebooks for Books” - involving technology and digital integration that is the first of its kind in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the world.

Yet, some educators are still questioning the benefits of ICT in teaching and learning. This is a valid point, because a carefully considered approach is required to get the expected benefits from ICT deployments in schools.

In a well planned ICT deployment, buyers need to make sure the design is flexible, costeffective and is meeting the pedagogical needs of learners and enabling teachers and administrative staff in education institutions work effectively. They also need to make sure the design provides anytime, anywhere learning - both within the school and in the wider community; personalised learning where each learner can deepen their knowledge at their own pace and using their learning style, with the help of learnercentred one-to-one mobile computing.

As ICT deployments are long-term investments, the overall design must take into account the required level of manageability, power consumption, mobility, wireless connectivity, security and safety.But even a perfectly design IT deployment will not help to improve teaching and learning if educational institutions do not adapt their curriculum to take full advantage of the technology, and train their instructors to modify their pedagogy to take full advantage of the interactive environment and provide relevant e-content.

These considerations form the pillars of our World Ahead programme; accessibility, connectivity, education and econtent. As part of the Intel World Ahead programme,Intel will train an additional 10 million teachers over the next five years in developing communities on the effective use of technology in the classroom. The programme will also provide 100,000 free PCs to classrooms in those communities to improve learning skills. Intel is working with developing country governments to ensure that these PCs are utilised within a holistic, sustainable framework-focused on providing appropriate technology, teacher training, relevant content, and connectivity.

As part of our accessibility solution Intel has developed the Classmate PC - a small, mobile educational solution specifically for students in emerging markets. Intel has also joined the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Association, and has committed to collaboratively bringing the benefits of technology to children in the developing world.

The Intel® Teach programme is up and running in seven countries in the Arab World. Intel has also developed Skoool, a free online eLearning resource built on a library of cutting-edge, multi-media resources for mathematics and science teaching and learning. It is available in multiple languages including Arabic. Intel launched Intel® Teach in Saudi Arabia in 2006, and is now expanding it to Egypt and Libya this year.

There are four main stages of Digital Education penetration and most of the countries in the Arab World are in phase two, while some have moved to phase three (for instance, Jordan is running Intel's 'Computer on Wheels' project). Intel's goal is to help countries in the Middle East transition to phase four in coming years.