ITA holds session on adopting virtual and augmented reality

Muscat: As part of its Shurkum Initiative, Oman’s Information Technology Authority (ITA) held a session at its headquarters in the Knowledge Oasis Muscat on ‘Adopting Virtual and Augmented Reality Applications in Education,’ in the presence of Deputy CEO for Operations, Omar Salim Al Shanfari.
The session, sponsored by the National Bank of Oman, was attended by 90 participants from The Research Council, Ministry of Education, Middle East College, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman Association for Education Technologies and Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel).
The session focused on a number of topics including opportunities to leverage the applications of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in educational environments and enhancing awareness of the opportunities and possibilities of adopting VR and AR in education either in schools or colleges. Some suggestions were put forward for projects and applications utilising AR and VR technologies, that can be implemented to serve education institutions as well as for training objectives for government and private
entities.
A discussion panel that hosted Dr Mona Al Siyabi from the Ministry of Education; Moneer Al Mahrooqi from the Military Technology College; Mona Al Shidhani, ITA’s senior project specialist; and Shatha Al Subhi, SME owner in VR and AR technologies was
also held.
On the sidelines of the session, an accompanying exhibition was organised with the participation of four SMEs operating in the field of AR and VR, in addition to showcasing four projects implemented by the graduates of the SAS Centre for Virtual Reality.
ITA reportedly started the implementation of the Shurkum initiative in 2014 to reinforce community e-participation in the projects it carries out.
The initiative aims to achieve interaction between ITA and the different segments of the society to take their opinion for more transparency and positive effective participation, thus improving the projects, initiatives and policies of ITA.
The project started with open discussion sessions through which ITA’s top management met with different target groups of the community face-to-face in order to take the public’s opinions and suggestions.
The event was also broadcast live through ITA’s different social media channels. All suggestions and proposals were gathered to be presented to the management based on which they will take appropriate decisions. Eight open discussion sessions have been held so far.