When I was first pitching my ideas for what was to be IZWAYZ, I needed to set out a one page synopsis of what I hoped to achieve. As this was essentially going to people whom I already knew (media, academia, politics), I allowed myself to express my hopes with great latitude of imagination and a certain humorous irony which I knew they would recognise. In point of fact, the technological imaginings no longer seem far fetched (although they would have been dependent on a degree of financial support for the manpower and technical facilities involved that are no longer even in my list of hoped for possibilities), but the extent to which they seemed outlandish at the time can perhaps be judged by seeing them as equivalent to the megalomaniacal musings expressed in the last few sentences. Nonetheless, although reduced in my imaginings to what I can achieve on my own with my home-made computer and a few bits of fairly ancient software, the heart and soul of my intentions for IZWAYZ remain the same. But as I suggested on the Welcome page - at this rate it could be a while yet.
 

A Dream of Education Future


Let me begin by outlining what I mean by education. (Though most of the next few paragraphs is lifted almost verbatim from Syed Naquib al-Attas in “Aims and Objectives of Islamic Education” – one of the books published summarising the deliberations of the First World Conference on Muslim Education held in 1977)

At the moment we have a crisis in our secular-humanist education system, not just for the children of believers, but for all of western civilisation. When rational man discarded his faith he lost touch with an essential element of what is required to truly educate a man - values.        

There is a difference between education and instruction. Education helps in the complete growth of an individual personality, whereas instruction is training to do some mental or physical task efficiently. A person may be a fine doctor or lawyer, engineer or accountant, and still be ill mannered, unjust, amoral, cruel, dissatisfied, unhappy, and obviously only partially educated. When we see an educated person what we recognise is their "goodness". A "good" person does not mean a "complete" person, as there is no end to human growth throughout a life, so educated people are outward looking, modifying their understanding and behaviour as their life is enriched with knowledge and experience.

This knowledge and experience, as well as the basic values and assumptions on which it is based, people learn from the society that surrounds them. We are individuals as well as part of a structured community - and both are necessary to the survival of each other - as unfettered individualism means anarchy and the breakdown of all systems, whereas excessive social control leads to stagnation, degeneration, and violent social upheaval (for what is rigid shatters like glass, rather than bending like steel).

Education preserves societal structures, conserves basic values and understandings, and transmits them to the next generation, while at the same time looking to the reality of human needs and interests in all their variety, by nurturing personal growth, helping man to satisfy his yearning for a quality of life through the understanding of fundamental values - a quality of life which satisfies man's yearnings on many different levels. How you understand this quality of life, this aim of education, is basic to the way your education system works.

If I am to give my vision of a future for the education of muslims in Scotland, it is these principles that I will keep in mind, for the mechanics and details of systems and situations can rapidly change. But, while using poetic licence to choose a preferred future, I will restrict myself to what is clearly a possibility – though considering the speed of transformation in the field of IT, my imaginings are unlikely to break beyond the bounds of future possibilities.

In my future, muslim children go to the same school as everyone else, but that school is much better equipped to meet their needs and the needs of their parental community. It will be much better equipped to enable parents to communicate their ethos, and their understanding of the life context in which all education must be set. Resources will be available by means of which muslim children will be able to add the whole of muslim history, geography and heritage, to that of their multicultural home.

Multiculturalism will be a cumulative heritage, adding to children’s awareness of the global dimension of humanity. Information drawn from the world of Islam will be available to supplement classroom resources. There will be images and sounds to show how muslims live in deserts & jungles, tents & cities, boats & tower-blocks – have palaces & forts, public baths & libraries, schools & hospitals as well as mosques & minarets. As surgeons & scientists, poets & patternmakers, cooks & gardeners, muslims have been involved in all the vast arena of knowledge that is the National Curriculum. A muslim child will be able to see how.

As will a non-muslim child, and perhaps more importantly – a teacher. The muslim interface will be a ready source of ideas and material for teachers developing single subject or cross-curricular projects. Guidance and advice will be available from the system support staff via a video-conferencing help-line, or from fellow professionals in virtual discussion groups. There will be much more classroom involvement by the community, with parents and others trained in teacher support skills, as well as the IT system.

Schools will be open for longer hours to allow and enhance that greater community involvement (it will increase costs for heat and light, but provide employment for an army of janitors). Teachers will work more flexible hours, and have an opportunity to develop their learning and teaching skills along with other adults.

Muslims will learn about their Faith and Heritage through a self-motivated course of learning, presented (where preferred) with all the bells and whistles attraction of Nintendo or Kids TV, yet with sufficient depth of knowledge to warrant endless investigation.

Adult muslims and young muslims will be in the school, learning teaching skills, learning study skills, learning Islam, and helping guide those younger than themselves. Muslims will be learning information technology skills and building a virtual muslim community centred on life-long learning, while sharing in that framework with fellow learners from other faiths, with whom they will form a faith-based multicultural local community.

Children will have access to individual computers, but be encouraged to work in groups and develop projects away from the computer interface. The essential software will carry a range of Islamic understanding and heritage sufficient to exhaust the most avid student, and ultimately open out to links with other muslims in Europe, America and around the World.

The software will look as good as television, with the interactivity (and demand and search facilities) of the computer, and a wide variety of material in different presentation styles. Games, puzzles, mystery and wonder, humour and loving-kindness will be there. Animation, video clips (colourful or cool), photographs & video links, self-tests, virtual seminars and tutorials, all keyed to the subject areas and attainment targets of the various stages of both the muslim Curriculum and the local National Curriculum.

The software will be a three dimensional virtual world big enough to get lost in, with five levels and a complex set of links to the outside (the participant being free to leave the world at any time). Each level will be designed to follow the same basic structure of subject areas related to the muslim Curriculum. It will be possible to explore the maze on one level, or alternatively it will be possible to follow one subject through the levels in depth. The geometry of the five level structure will not necessarily be possible in real space. All areas will be connected directly to a common starting point, the Heartscore, where records are kept.

The paths through each level from the Heartscore will lead from the simple to the complex, as the divisions of the Curriculum branch into more and more diversions, with stories and jokes, and puzzles, and moments of mystery and wonder along the way. And when the trail comes to an end it will be at a set of doorways leading into endless knowledge, as well as a button that takes you home to start again.

The software will be available for use in homes, mosques and community centres, and people will be able to dial in to study, discuss or chat. It will be possible to approach it with a simple attitude of unhurried exploration, or approach it as a competitive game. It will be written from a standpoint of portraying the broadest area of agreement in the muslim world, written with a clear commitment to Islam, yet tolerant of opposing viewpoints.

From the release of the initial pilot programme, overwhelming public enthusiasm in the muslim and non-muslim community will ensure rapid and widespread implementation. The system’s popularity and beneficial effects on the community will mean that it can be seen as self-validating and financially self-sustaining. The system will be seen as a model for multicultural integrated community education, and will be rapidly translated and adapted to link with the curricula of other countries. A billion humans in the Muslim World will use it as the basis of a pan-Islamic education system.

Well, I did say it was a dream! – But it’s not impossible.