24 June 2021 - Birzeit/ Jerusalem: The Palestinian Museum and the Consulate General of France in Jerusalem announced the launch of a new Digital Educational Platform Project. The project targets children, adolescents, families, and those engaged in education and learning about Palestine's history and culture. Work on the project will run from July 1, 2021, until December 31, 2022, so that the platform is ready for release to the general public by the end of the next year.
The project is launched with a grant from the Consulate General of France in Jerusalem. It consists of two main components, the first concerns capacity-building for the Educational Programmes’ teams at the Palestinian Museum. This is carried out through a training programme pertaining to museum education with the support of French museums specialized in this domain. The project also includes building strategic partnerships between the Palestinian Museum and French institutions, and museums that offer distinguished museum learning programmes. The second component concerns developing a digital platform with an interactive content through collaborative learning methods.
The project realizes one of the objectives of the Museum’s five-year strategic plan which entails establishing a comprehensive educational digital platform for students, families, pedagogues, and people with special needs. It offers interactive wide-ranging educational materials, including animation films, virtual reality, educational video games, chronological timelines, interactive boards, and other materials that engage learners with content adapted from the Museum's various programmes. The project promotes the use of vibrant interactive methods that transcend conventional learning approaches. It builds upon the Palestinian Museum’s current education programmes launched in 2017. New content produced for the digital platform will significantly build upon existing paper and video Palestinian Museum education content.
The platform will be accompanied by a series of educational activities taking place within the vicinity of the Museum in Birzeit, at schools, and in marginalized Palestinian areas where students and teachers are unable to access necessary resources needed for extracurricular digital and interactive learning activities.
Adila Laïdi-Hanieh, PhD, director general of the Palestinian Museum, expressed her gratitude to the Consulate General of France in Jerusalem, adding: “This project constitutes a quantum leap in the work of the Educational Programme at the Museum, firstly, through the institutionalization and sustainability of developing original Palestinian practices in museum education. And secondly, in presenting comprehensive knowledge about Palestine and its history for Palestinian children around the world, and children sealed behind walls and checkpoints, using innovative methods that interest children and youth."
In this context, the French Consul General in Jerusalem said: “We are honored to contribute to this ambitious project in the educational field. It will benefit the young generation of Palestinians. We are very confident that the Palestinian Museum will carry out this project successfully by providing high quality pedagogical content to children. Moreover, this project will foster exchanges and partnerships between the Palestinian Museum and renowned French museums and startups, in accordance with our aim to reinforce the relations between French and Palestinian people and institutions.”
Upon the completion of the project, the Museum will be keen to provide and to develop the content of the platform with interactive tools corresponding to the needs and feedback of its audience.
