Evaluation of the Jordan Education Initiative Report: Task 2 AN EVOLVING PARTNERSHIP FOR CHANGE: STAKEHOLDERS’REFLECTIONS ON THE JORDAN EDUCATION INITIATIVE April 17, 2008 This publication was prepared by Education Development Center, Inc., for the United States Agency for International Development. Report: Task 2 An Evolving Partnership for Change: Stakeholders’ Reflections on the JEI April 17, 2008 Page 2 of 17 Report: Task 2 An Evolving Partnership for Change: Stakeholders’ Reflections on the Jordan Education Initiative Submitted to: USAID/Jordan Submitted by: Daniel Light, Education Development Center Charles Rockman, Education Development Center Project: Evaluation of the Jordan Education Initiative Prime Contract: Assistance to Basic Education / Basic Education, EDH-I-02-05-00031-00 Task Order: 02 The Authors’ views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government. Cover Photo Credits (Clockwise from top left): G.M. Cressman, G.M. Cressman, G.M. Cressman, D. Light Report: Task 2 An Evolving Partnership for Change: Stakeholders’ Reflections on the JEI April 17, 2008 Page 3 of 17 Acknowledgements The EDC Research Team would like to acknowledge the gracious support and advice we received throughout this project from HE Dr. Tayseer Alnoaimi, Minister of Education. We would also like to acknowledge the support we received from Dr. Mohammad Ahmad Alzu'bi, Managing Director of training, supervision and qualifications and Dr. Mohammad Ahmed Abu-Ghazleh, Head of the supervision of the primary stages, grades 1 to 3. The Authors would also like to thank Adrian Godfrey from Cisco Systems for his support and interest in this evaluation. We acknowledge and thank the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for providing the support for this assessment. Finally, we would like to note that this report would not have been possible without the support and cooperation from the Office of Her Majesty Queen Rania. Report: Task 2 An Evolving Partnership for Change: Stakeholders’ Reflections on the JEI April 17, 2008 Page 4 of 17 Abbreviations EDC ............Education Development Center, Inc. e-Arabic…... Electronically mediated learning of, or electronic content for learning, Arabic e-content.....Electronic content e-learning....Any technologically mediated learning e-math……..Electronically mediated learning of, or electronic content for learning, math e-resources. .Any resource delivered electronically or to support electronic learning ERfKE.........Education Reform for a Knowledge Economy HMQ……….Her Majesty the Queen ICT ..............Information and Communication Technology IT…………..Information Technology ITG..............Integrated Technology Group JEI...............Jordan Education Initiative MIS…………Management Information Systems MoE.............Ministry of Education MoICT.........Ministry of Information and Communication Technology NGOs..........Nongovernmental Organizations NCHRD…...National Center for Human Resources Development PMO............Project Management Office PPP………..Public-Private Partnership USAID.........United States Agency for International Development WEF............World Economic Forum Report: Task 2 An Evolving Partnership for Change: Stakeholders’ Reflections on the JEI April 17, 2008 Page 5 of 17 Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 3 Abbreviations................................................................................................................................... 4 1 Introduction................................................................................................................................ 6 2 Background on the Jordan Education Initiative......................................................................... 7 3 Vision and Motivation ................................................................................................................ 8 3.1 Vision and goals.................................................................................................................. 8 3.2 Motivation for participating .................................................................................................. 9 4 Collaboration............................................................................................................................ 10 4.1 Ministry of Education......................................................................................................... 11 4.2 E-content providers........................................................................................................... 11 5 Activities, Outcomes and Products.......................................................................................... 11 5.1 Curricular materials........................................................................................................... 11 5.2 Professional development................................................................................................. 12 6 Benefits and Challenges.......................................................................................................... 12 6.1 Benefits ............................................................................................................................. 12 6.2 Challenges ........................................................................................................................ 13 7 Conclusion............................................................................................................................... 14 Annex A: Schedule of Meetings and Names of Primary Contacts.............................................15 Report: Task 2 An Evolving Partnership for Change: Stakeholders’ Reflections on the JEI April 17, 2008 Page 6 of 17 1 Introduction The Jordan Education Initiative (JEI) was created in 2003, with the assistance of the World Economic Forum (WEF), to apply public-private partnerships to improve the application of information and communication technology (ICT) in grades 1–12 in Jordanian schools. The four primary objectives of the JEI are as follows:1 1. Improve the development and delivery of education to Jordan’s citizens through public￾partnerships, and, in the process, help the government of Jordan achieve its vision for education as a catalyst for social and economic development; 2. Encourage the development of an efficient public-private model for the acceleration of educational reforms in developing countries based on unleashing the innovation of teachers and students through the effective use of ICT; 3. Build the capacity of the local information technology industry for the development of innovative learning solutions in partnership with world-class firms, creating economic value that will lead to mutually beneficial business opportunities; 4. Leverage an environment of national government commitment and corporate citizenship to build a model of reform that can be exported to and replicated in other countries. This global-local, public-private partnership represents a novel approach to creating public-private partnerships in emerging markets to promote social and economic development. In 2005, consulting firm McKinsey & Company conducted a study of the lessons learned to date on the successes and challenges of the JEI as a model of public-private partnerships. As a follow up to that study, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)asked Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) to conduct a study to determine, through a series of interviews with JEI’s local and global partners, how the JEI and the Ministry of Education (MoE) can strengthen this partnership into the future. This report presents the findings of that study, which is the second part of a four-part assessment of JEI program strategy and implementation. The four parts of the assessment are as follows: ƒ Task 1: Assess the impact of using e-learning modules on students/teachers, schools, and the overall educational system; ƒ Task 2: Assess the role of public-private partnerships; ƒ Task 3: Assess the hardware and delivery infrastructure employed to deliver e-learning; ƒ Task 4: Assess the total cost of ownership for employing e-learning as a core part of instruction within the schools. EDC conducted interviews, in person or over the telephone, with representatives of key partner organizations of JEI. The interviews focused on four key themes: 1. Vision and motivation: each representative’s understanding of JEI goals and objectives, and their own organization’s goals and expectations for participating in the JEI; 1 Jordan Education Initiative Brochure, October 2004. Report: Task 2 An Evolving Partnership for Change: Stakeholders’ Reflections on the JEI April 17, 2008 Page 7 of 17 2. Collaboration and communication: organizations’ involvement in the JEI, the definition and assignment of roles and responsibilities among partners, and the collaboration across organizations; 3. Activities, outcomes and products: the activities, projects and products each organization was responsible for and whether they had met their commitments; 4. Benefits and challenges: what the benefits and challenges of participating in the JEI have been for each partner organization. EDC worked with the JEI staff to identify a list of 35 individuals at 20 partner organizations to be interviewed.2 EDC researchers interviewed 28 of these representatives during a visit to Amman in June 2007. An additional eight interviews were conducted over the phone between June and November 2007. One person was interviewed twice. Table 1.1: JEI Partners interviewed for this report Private Sector Government Non-Governmental Organizations Computer Associates MoE JEI Cisco Systenms Office of HMQ World Economic Forum France Telecom ERfKE World Links Intel NCHRD International Relief MicroSoft USAID ITG e-Dimension Fastlink/Zane Jordan Telecom Menhaj Rubicon 2 Background on the Jordan Education Initiative The Jordan Education Initiative grew out of the 2003 World Economic Forum, where CISCO and the government of Jordan launched an effort to support a number of broad social and economic initiatives to foster Jordan’s transformation to a globally competitive country in the 21st Century. Housed in the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MoICT), JEI was to be a collaborative effort harnessing the entrepreneurial spirit of business to support the social objectives of the public sector, or as one interviewee told us, “to leverage the competencies of each partner” to improve the work of all. The JEI was essentially established to promote innovation in the use of ICT in schools by creating e-content resources and deploying them in a set of 100 pilot schools. The stakeholders we interviewed felt Jordan was a promising site for this public-private partnership 2 EDC was unable to complete an interview with the British Council. The JEI was to be a collaborative effort harnessing the entrepreneurial spirit of business to support the social objectives of the public sector. Report: Task 2 An Evolving Partnership for Change: Stakeholders’ Reflections on the JEI April 17, 2008 Page 8 of 17 (PPP) model because it has traditionally exhibited strong leadership and a stable governance structure. In addition, it is a country looking for, and open to, change and has proven to be a “hotbed” for innovation and creativity. In light of Jordan’s new Education Reform for the Knowledge Economy (ERfKE) policy, which fosters 21st century skills and supports Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in schools, they felt a project like the JEI would be a good fit. Additionally, the country is small enough that the participating partners and other stakeholders felt the initiative could work on a national scale. One interviewee said Jordan was a “promised land” for this unique PPP initiative. Once the JEI international board of directors, staff, and organizational structure were in place, the partners created a Project Management Office (PMO) to mediate among the diverse partners and to provide the necessary leadership to keep the project moving forward. While the PMO was not part of the original JEI plan, the stakeholders we interviewed came to consider it a key driver to the initiative. The JEI encountered significant challenges once the three-year commitment of WEF ended. The PMO was without a director for an extended period of time and stakeholders saw that the JEI was losing strategic focus. With help from USAID, the office of Her Majesty Queen Rania, and the MoE, the JEI was reorganized and re-energized. One of the key changes was the creation of a local board of directors in addition to the international board. While deeply appreciative of the international support, the Jordanian stakeholders felt that having a local board brought a different level of commitment and ownership. 3 Vision and Motivation 3.1 Vision and goals Developing an effective vision has been a learning process for all the stakeholders. The private sector needs to learn about quality education, and the public sector needs to learn how to work with the private sector. According to the people we interviewed and early JEI documents, the original JEI vision contained the broad social goal of preparing Jordan for the global economy by integrating technology into the education system and developing a local IT industry. Education and knowledge industries are considered to be crucial in Jordan; since the country’s natural resources are limited, Jordan relies on its human resources more heavily than many neighboring countries. Therefore, the ICT component of the JEI was designed to encourage creativity and innovation in the classroom. The initial vision was exciting to stakeholders from the private sector, both global companies with an interest in promoting ICT use and local companies that stood to benefit from the influx of resources. But other sectors – government agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)–needed more encouragement to “buy-in” to the initiative. One interviewee who had worked at the MoICT felt that the MoE saw the JEI as an intrusion of novices into their activities, for instance, and a representative from one of the corporate partners felt it took almost two years to really get the MoE engaged in the JEI and to see it as a valuable partner. Many of those we interviewed noted that, in the beginning, the JEI did not have a sufficient vision of teaching. The JEI leadership had not articulated how the new technologies might be integrated in the classroom. “The first thing the JEI learned was the importance of curriculum,” was one person’s comment. The initial objective had been to provide “ICT learning resources“ for classrooms and most of the private sector partners did not yet understand that the design of those resources must be closely correlated with how they will be used in the classroom. Report: Task 2 An Evolving Partnership for Change: Stakeholders’ Reflections on the JEI April 17, 2008 Page 9 of 17 Although the early absence of a pedagogical vision was noted by people from the private sector, it was more troublesome for the NGOs and the Ministry of Education. Initially these organizations had difficulty understanding how the JEI might benefit their work and what role they might play. An MoE contact discussed the initial approach of the JEI as being focused simply on getting IT materials into schools, and not sufficiently attuned to the model of teaching and learning embedded in those materials. According to most interviewees, the vision has finally evolved to incorporate appropriate models of student-centered learning under the current leadership of the PMO. According to one participant, the vision has moved beyond a focus on e-content to include teaching with ICT. ERfKE proposes a broader change in teaching and learning and the JEI now aligns with and supports these efforts. 3.2 Motivation for participating Though one long-term JEI participant felt that it was fundamental to be “upfront and clear” with the rest of the partners about expectations and motivations from the beginning in order to ensure a realistic commitment from each partner, partners’ motives and expectations for their involvement in the JEI were not always clear to one another. This was most apparent in the interviews with the private sector partners. After several negative experiences with partners failing to fulfill their commitments, the JEI leadership determined that transparency was the only way to improve compliance. The NGO stakeholders generally had a clear mission and were willing to participate with the JEI to the extent that its goals aligned with their own vision. The global private sector shared a common excitement about participating in the JEI as a case study for a high-profile PPP model that could work in an emerging market country and could be replicated elsewhere. One global partner was attracted to the JEI because “It’s the only such program that was national and with such high profile support - both within Jordan and globally through WEF.” By committing resources to the Middle East and to the JEI, these corporations were not only hoping to make the JEI a success, but also to create a PPP model that could be replicated in other countries, thus increasing their global presence. The flexibility of a PPP model like the JEI facilitates corporate participation because it allows them to contribute a number of resource types - funds, products, or programs. The JEI also facilitates collaboration with the government by creating a conduit for contributions that is not subject to the cumbersome bureaucratic procedures that ministries typically require for tracking funds and allocating resources. While the private sector cannot maintain social change on a larger scale as the development community can, the private sector can play a role in the process. One executive spoke about participation in the JEI as helping to establish the company’s credibility with governments and other international players, stating, “the JEI has made us a credible partner in development.” Still other global companies were interested in creating new products and capacity through their participation in the JEI. For the Jordanian partners, participation in the JEI meant an opportunity to develop new capacity and products, as well. Only one of the e-content developers had experience in the education market prior to the JEI; now they all have a portfolio of educational offerings. The JEI for them meant access to capital, and more importantly, external expertise in IT and education through entities--including universities, international NGOs and world-class experts in education--brought in to provide advice and assistance. The stakeholders hoped not only to make the JEI a success, but also to create a public-private partnership model that could serve as an example to other countries. Report: Task 2 An Evolving Partnership for Change: Stakeholders’ Reflections on the JEI April 17, 2008 Page 10 of 17 4 Collaboration An initiative like the JEI brings together organizations from very different spheres of activity – business, government, education and non-profit work – to work on a joint enterprise. The stakeholders we interviewed considered the collaboration and communication among the partners as one of the most challenging areas, and one that, even though there are still rough spots, the JEI has been successful at facilitating. One way the JEI facilitated and coordinated collaboration was through the development and emergence of the PMO. Most stakeholders hailed the creation of the PMO as the key element for the long￾term success of the JEI. One stakeholder from the NGO sector who had been involved in the early phases of the JEI said that there had been a lot of conflict among the different partners about how to proceed and fulfill the mission and vision of the JEI, while also fulfilling their own agendas. The NGOs and the private companies all had pre-existing programs, goals and work styles, which they wished to promote through the JEI. An initial expectation from the private sector and the NGOs was that the MoE would mediate, but the MoE, which had not initiated the JEI, was involved in its own ERfKE process and not willing to divert its resources to lead the JEI. The PMO was created to mediate among the diverse partners and to provide the necessary leadership to keep the overall project moving forward. The PMO was not part of the original idea for the JEI, and it emerged six months after the JEI was established, according to one of the interviewees. The stakeholders consider the PMO as a key driver to the initiative. The PMO activities have been: ƒ developing the Master plan ƒ providing leadership ƒ keeping momentum going ƒ coordinating partner commitments ƒ acquiring and maintaining infrastructure The PMO was initially staffed with people with ICT backgrounds, but over the years the PMO has developed and brought on board staff with pedagogical training as well. The JEI has put in place standard technical and maintenance procedures for the JEI’s pilot schools - Discovery Schools - to improve the JEI’s ability to monitor and maintain the infrastructure in the schools. The PMO also conducts site surveys to identify when and where assistance is needed in the schools. Participants reported that having objective data about challenges helped facilitate collaboration by allowing the partners to focus on finding real solutions to concrete problems. The PMO staff also facilitates communication between the MoE and the various partners developing content. It is considered important to the JEI and its partners that the PMO is external to the Ministries since this gives the initiative more flexibility in its operation and allows them to experiment and pilot new activities. These are two key aspects that, potentially, support the JEI’s success. The JEI was essentially established to promote innovation through the use of ICT in schools, which implies experimentation, risk and both failures and successes. The JEI must have the ability to create and develop innovative projects that have promise, but then have the ability to shut them down if they are not successful. Stakeholders identified collaboration and communication as the most challenging issues among partners. The JEI identified this problem and has been successful in improving the cooperation in the partnership. Report: Task 2 An Evolving Partnership for Change: Stakeholders’ Reflections on the JEI April 17, 2008 Page 11 of 17 4.1 Ministry of Education The participation of the MoE, which is an integral part of the JEI’s activities, was not always easy. The JEI and the MoE worked hard to establish a solid working relationship. The JEI started in 2003 with strong backing from the King and private sector and was closely connected with the MoICT. At the same time, as one interviewee described, the MoE was deeply involved in their ERfKE reform – a five-year, multi-level reform – and did not have resources to extend to ICT. According to one interviewee who was involved at the MoE and the ERfKE reforms, the initial years were difficult because the partners had very different ways of viewing the issues: “It was awfully frustrating, the lack of coordination, different vocabulary, different starting points....” The JEI was perceived as a “business solution approach” that was not necessarily always guided by a vision of teaching and learning. Representatives from the private sector also realized that the ministry was skeptical of their motives; they had to assure the ministry that they were not only interested in selling products to the MoE. The PMO staff set out to ensure that the JEI activities would be of value to the MoE, so that the MoE would begin to recognize JEI as an ally in meeting the MoE goals of educational improvement and reform. The PMO collaborates closely with the office of the Minister and the secretary general and the directorates for training, curriculum and digitalization. Another challenge for the JEI and the MoE is that responsibilities for e-learning fall across multiple divisions of the ministry: infrastructure and buildings, curricula, ERfKE and teacher training and preparation are all addressed separately. The JEI staff must coordinate across all of these areas because, within the MoE structure, these different divisions did not necessarily have pre-established channels for communication and coordination. To provide a solution, the MoE created the Deployment Group to oversee the integration of e-content in the Discovery Schools. But there are still reported challenges for the day-to-day activities because all communication has to go through the Deployment Group meetings. 4.2 E-content providers The PMO staff also plays a role in the collaboration around the production and deployment of the e-content materials. These are perhaps some of the most complex collaborations since they span the globe, bringing together financial resources and oversight from abroad with inexperienced local IT companies and pedagogical expertise from both inside and outside Jordan. One stakeholder with a global corporation identified multiple challenges inherent in this collaboration: the corporation had almost no Arabic language capacity; it had never developed an educational product before; and the “cross-cultural nature of the partnership was a challenge.” “First thing we had to imagine was how to work in this multicultural context.” The company’s representatives had doubts as to whether they would even be able to complete the project. 5 Activities, Outcomes and Products The JEI has supported the development of e-content in eight subjects: Math, Science, Arabic, English as a Foreign Language, MIS, Civics, ICT and Kindergarten. The projects are at various stages of completion but two, e-math and e-Arabic, are complete sets of resources for all grades. 5.1 Curricular materials The stakeholders’ perceptions of these resources were complex. Most partners were proud of the resources that they had developed and yet were hesitant to say the resources were well used in the classrooms. Indeed, some expressed reservations about the materials and shared ideas Report: Task 2 An Evolving Partnership for Change: Stakeholders’ Reflections on the JEI April 17, 2008 Page 12 of 17 about what they would do differently the next time. One of the global partners cautioned that, in the end, the materials might not be “what one would have hoped for”. They considered the materials a “tremendous first step” but the whole endeavor was new to all the partners – the local partner had never created educational material before, for instance, and the global partner had never worked in Jordan or an Arabic speaking country before. Another challenge was that the teaching strategies necessary to deliver the e-content appropriately were generally unfamiliar to Jordanian teachers. “The teachers and curriculum developers sent from the MoE to work on the curriculum did not understand the pedagogical philosophy underlying the materials, or even the philosophy underlying the MoE’s stated reform goals,” observed one interviewee, and that undermined the long term quality of the materials. They felt that this was such a rich learning process, however, that the next generation of materials would be much better. This idea that the developers are improving with experience resonates with what we heard from the PMO staff and from teachers in the school who comment that the e-content materials developed more recently are better than the earlier materials in that they are more interactive, are less like the textbook, and allow the student more of an opportunity to explore and experiment with the content. A challenge reported by most of the content developers in creating materials was connected to the technical specifications they were given which limited the type of materials they could produce. In particular, they felt the limitations placed on maximum file size prohibited them from creating rich multimedia materials. The limitations, in their minds, were connected to the current structure of the MoE’s intranet platform, EduWave. This concern is further analyzed in the Task 3 Report of this assessment, “Review of the Technology Employed to Deliver E-Learning”. 5.2 Professional development Leaving aside the training that comes with each e-content package (subject specific training), the JEI collaborates with four professional development programs that are working with the MoE and schools throughout the Kingdom. Unlike e-content, where the JEI undertook the development of materials, the JEI has not generally created its own professional development materials. Almost all stakeholders identified teacher professional development as a key concern and a task still to tackle. They expressed interest in having the JEI develop professional development experiences for teachers and for principals. The Training Directorate at the MoE has primarily played a logistical role in relation to professional development for the teachers in Discovery Schools, but has not been involved in developing programs. 6 Benefits and Challenges We asked the stakeholders to identify the benefits and challenges they experienced in participating in the JEI. While the private sector’s motivations for participating reflect the central benefits, challenges such as collaboration and communication are constant in a complex partnership like the JEI. Though many of these points have been mentioned in the previous sections, we felt it important to discuss them briefly here, as well. 6.1 Benefits Flexibility is one of the main benefits that the stakeholders mentioned, but this flexibility manifested itself in different ways. First, the private sector values the JEI as an easy and flexible Almost all stakeholders identified teacher professional development as a key concern and a task still to tackle. They expressed interest in having the JEI develop professional development experiences for teachers and for principals. Report: Task 2 An Evolving Partnership for Change: Stakeholders’ Reflections on the JEI April 17, 2008 Page 13 of 17 way to participate with the public sector. The JEI can accept funds, product donations, or actual programs. Additionally, the JEI offers a way to collaborate without some of the bureaucratic challenges of working with the MoE. Second, the JEI has the flexibility to experiment and pilot innovative activities without the same repercussions that ministries face if they expend resources on a project that “fails”. Finally, stakeholders in the MoE appreciate the support the JEI gives in overseeing complex infrastructure and logistic issues. For example, the JEI staff has the flexibility to respond rapidly with special attention to the Discovery Schools, whereas the MoE has to treat all schools equitably, making it difficult to give the Discovery Schools special attention. In addition to supporting the infrastructure in Discovery Schools, there are also PMO staff dedicated to tracking and supporting the training of teachers in the Discovery Schools as well as overseeing the deployment and use of e-content. Resources for Jordan are a major benefit. The JEI helped attract and channel resources to Jordan and to Jordanian schools. Officials at the MoE valued the JEI as a way for the MoE to access resources from the private sector. This has brought hardware, software and professional development opportunities to Jordanian schools. Human capacity development was a benefit for all partners. On the Jordanian side, there was the development of an IT sector that gained experience in educational technology. The JEI also offered the educational entities in Jordan the opportunity to share and learn much more about ICT and innovative pedagogy through contact with experts from abroad, and the MoE gained more experience working with the private sector at different levels of its bureaucracy. The JEI allowed the global partners to develop the capacity to do business in the Middle East, giving them a larger presence in the Arab-speaking world. 6.2 Challenges Leadership of the JEI was cited as a challenge that may now have been resolved with the current executive director. Many of the stakeholders commented on the problems that emerged because the JEI went through various periods of change in the leadership and then a period with no leader. Additionally, the situation was aggravated by the turnover in the leadership of the MoITC. The JEI sits at the nexus of multiple collaborative relationships which all suffer if the PMO cannot play its role as facilitator. Expanding the partnership to teachers, principals and mid-level bureaucrats of the MoE has proven challenging. Some of the stakeholders had not reached out to include school-based educators and the middle level employees in the process. As one stakeholder said, “It was a top￾down approach; down to teachers, not with teachers.” The respondents felt that approaching teachers and principals as partners in the process would both provide feedback that could improve the projects and generate increased commitment and ownership of the JEI activities among the schools. Communication among the partners continues to be an issue. Although the PMO has worked to improve communication, there are still challenges on a number of levels that emerged in the interviews. First, there are remaining challenges in communication between and among the JEI and the different offices of the MoE that are involved in the project. There is a committee that oversees the different relationships, but there may still be a need to identify channels of communication and responsibility between mid-level bureaucrats who carry out much of the day￾Challenges: ƒ JEI leadership ƒ Expanding the partnership ƒ Communication ƒ Upgrading and maintaining the e-content Benefits: ƒ Flexibility ƒ Resources for Jordan ƒ Human capacity development Report: Task 2 An Evolving Partnership for Change: Stakeholders’ Reflections on the JEI April 17, 2008 Page 14 of 17 to-day activity. Second, there also appears to be little communication among the different partners unless they are working on the same content development team. The opportunity for effective synergies may be missed if the different content teams work in isolation. Upgrading and maintaining the e-content was a worry for many of the content developers and the MoE. Although one of the theoretical advantages of e-content is that it is easier to upgrade and redistribute than print based materials, there is no plan or process for the e-content to be upgraded and improved, nor is there a plan for on-going maintenance of the e-content. Interviews with both the private sector and the MoE highlighted the fact that the MoE does not have the internal capacity to work on e-content, nor the authorization to change the content. This point is particularly relevant for Jordan since the national curriculum is currently undergoing reform. 7 Conclusion The JEI collaboration emerged as a multi-player response to the pressing needs that many countries face as they adjust to the fast changing economy and the emerging global society. The path for the JEI has not been easy and the goals and objectives have evolved and changed over time in reaction to changes in Jordan and even to the success of JEI activities. The essence of the JEI as a collaboration and the constantly evolving nature of its work mean that communication among the partners is both challenging and critical to the JEI’s success. Probably the most valued “lesson” of the JEI for its stakeholders was the development of the PMO as an entity capable of facilitating communication and shepherding JEI activities through the complex stages of development and implementation. A second interesting finding is that a factor in the long term success of the JEI was the establishment of a viable working relationship with the Ministry of Education, and the MoE’s commitment to the JEI and its goals. Surprisingly, the MoE was not initially involved in the formation of the JEI. Again, the role of the PMO has been fundamental in dedicating time and effort to establishing the JEI’s utility to and relationship with the MoE. Overall, the future of the JEI looks good. Although the Stakeholders identified a number of challenges for the future – expanding the partnership, developing leadership, and on-going improvement of the JEI e-resources – the benefits that they discussed are all directly relevant to meeting the challenges. The PMO has established improved communication among the partners, while the JEI has been flexible in its ability to respond to changing needs and successful in bringing both financial and human resources to Jordan. Those resources should continue to help the Jordanian partners learn from international experience, provide improving e-learning materials, and innovate to improve teaching and learning in Jordanian schools. Report: Task 2 An Evolving Partnership for Change: Stakeholders’ Reflections on the JEI April 17, 2008 Page 15 of 17 Annex A: Schedule of Meetings and Names of Primary Contacts Amman, Jordan, July 1 – July 11, 2007: Dr. Daniel Light Time Function Topic Attendees Title Organization Location Status Day 1: Sunday July 1 11:00- 3:00 Meeting JEI PMO meeting Haif Bannayan Luma Atallah Chief Executive Officer Project Coordinator JEI JEI MoICT ok 1:00- 2:00 Meeting USAID Peter Malnak Maha Sha’er USAID USAID 2:30– 3:30 Meeting Niveen Jum’a Technology Track Coordinator JEI 4:00- 5:00 Meeting World Links Hala Taher World Links Arab Region World Links ok Day 2: Monday July 2 9:00– 10:00 Meeting Private sector Othman Suqi Advisor Cisco Systems MoICT ok 10:00- 11:00 Meeting JEI Rana Madani E-curricula Track Manager JEI MoICT ok 11:30- 12:30 Meeting Private sector Luna Katbeh e-Dimension e-Dimension Private Sector Khuloud Totah Jordan Telecom 2:30- 3:30 Meeting Private sector Isam Ayoubi CET Rubicon MoE ok 4:00- 5:00 Meeting Private sector Ghassan Laham CEO Menhaj Menhaj ok Day 3: Tuesday July 3 9:00– 10:00 Meeting MoE￾ERfKE Ian McLellan ERfKE Director Ministry of Education MoE ok 10:00– 11:00 Meeting MoE Tayseer Al￾Nahar Secretary General Ministry of Education MoE ok 12:00- 1:00 MoE Khaled Toukan Minister of Education Ministry of Education MoE 1:00- 2:00 Meeting MoE Mazen Amarin ICT Department Director Ministry of Education MoE ok Day 4: Wednesday July 4 Report: Task 2 An Evolving Partnership for Change: Stakeholders’ Reflections on the JEI April 17, 2008 Page 16 of 17 Time Function Topic Attendees Title Organization Location Status 10:30- 11:30 Meeting Private sector Mohammad Zoubi Ahmad Ayasra Training Department Director Training Manager Ministry of Education MoE ok 12:00- 1:00 Meeting Private sector Batoul Ajlouni Vice President ITG ITG ok 4:00- 5:00 Meeting HMQ Hala Lattouf Mary Tadros Chief of Staff HMQ Office HMQ Office ok Day 5: Thursday July 5 9:00- 10:00 Meeting Faris Karsheh Training Coordinator JEI MoICT 2:30- 3:30 Meeting JEI Haif Bannayan Luma Atallah Chief Executive Officer Project Coordinator JEI JEI MoICT ok Day 6: Sunday July 8 10:00- 11:00 Meeting Private sector Razan Fasheh Microsoft Microsoft ok Day 7:Monday July 9 8:30- 9:30 Meeting MoE Qasem Moh’d Al-khateeb Head of Digitization Curricula Department Digitization ok 11:30- 12:30 Meeting Public Sector Dr Khaled al￾Qudah M&E Coordinator NCHRD National Center for Human Resources Development 2:30- 3:30 Meeting JEI Niveen Juma’ Technology Coordinator JEI MoICT ok Day 8:Tuesday July 10 1:30- 2:30 Meeting JEI Rana Madani E-curricula Track Manager JEI QRC ok Day 9:Wednesday July 11 11:30- 12:30 Meeting MoE Consultant Mohammad Majali E-learning Consultant Ministry of Education MoE ok Report: Task 2 An Evolving Partnership for Change: Stakeholders’ Reflections on the JEI April 17, 2008 Page 17 of 17 Additional Interviews: Dr. Daniel Light and Charles Rockman Date Function Topic Attendees Title Organization Location July 9 Meeting Private Sector Rula Habash Education Manager Intel Amman July 7 Meeting Government Victor Billeh Former Director of the UNESCO Regional Education Office and of the NCHRD Amman October 3 Interview Government Alain Maestracci Direction du Développement Professionnel, Directeur Développement Externe France Telecom Telephone October 12 Interview Government Andreas Cox Program Manager CA Telephone October 5 Interview Government Adrian Godfrey Director of Corporate Social Responsibility Cisco Systems Telephone October 15 Interview Government Michelle Selinger Education Strategist Cisco Systems Telephone December 10 Interview Government Samer Brazyan Public Relations Fastlink Telephone December 12 Interview Public Sector Nadia Boulifa Project Manager, Global Education Initiative World Economic Forum Telephone September 17 Interview NGO Basia Urban Consultant International Relief Telephone July 12 Meeting Government Peter Malnak Maha Sha’er Director of Social Development US Aid Amman