Eyad Alsouqi 

Thanks to an inspirational teacher who got him interested in science subjects in his youth, and another professor who encouraged his progress in computing at university, Eyad was set on a path towards teaching.  

Passing the recruitment exam for selecting teachers he worked as a community orientation teacher, although his main interest was in the computer department where his burgeoning love for teaching and learning proved the strongest. Eyad’s school worked on projects to promote e-learning and partnered with the Al Amwaj project for science, receiving support, computers and equipment. Eyad focused on a range of educational, psychological and health aspects across disciplines, and in particular the strategy of self-education and the development of engaging educational resources, as well as contributing to an educational channel on YouTube. 

During 2017-2018 he supported an interactive forum with the strategy of gamification in education, creating special topics for fifth grade mathematics so students could learn indirectly, with fun and prizes part of the mix. He supported Silat Al-Harithiya Girls School in completing the Chemistry 1 competition for secondary school students and created a special section for programming with interactive forums, launching a Programmers Club on Facebook in 2017, further spreading his methods of gamification in education, with students playing at the same time as learning programming logic and techniques.  

His education journey with students, via technology enabled interactive education, blended learning, gamification and digital empowerment for remote learning, proved very useful during the coronavirus pandemic, when the reservoir of interactive lessons and books he had created really came into their own. Thanks to efforts like this, during pandemic school closures, all students and teachers in his school – and across Palestine – were able to teach remotely. Eyad and his students have managed to increase their global outlook and experience even during lockdown situations thanks to teaming up with Microsoft to participate in virtual classrooms since 2018, visiting classrooms and sharing experiences in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, the United States, Russia and Mexico, while 12 interactive English language books he made for his students have also been circulated to schools and students in India, Indonesia and Bangladesh, as well as being made available on Facebook.  

Eyad’s displays of creative learning and student success have been repaid by businesses and NGOs awarding them a range of tablets, flash drives and free programming courses over recent years. He established the Microsoft Palestinian Team to help further spread the culture of digital empowerment in Palestine. In 2019 he set up a Global Programming Award which 30 countries competed in, launched a coding conference and established Programming Excellence awards for schools in the Arab world. A Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Expert for the sixth year in a row, Eyad is also a Minecraft Mentor. His inspirational ideas have also reached international audiences via education conference speaking engagements and winning Certificates of Excellence in Coding Literacy from the EU. His many awards include the European Union sponsored Distinguished Teacher Award on World Teachers' Day, where he was among the top ten and the Shield of the General Coordinator for Programming from the Arab Programming Week during the closing conference at ALECSO headquarters in Tunisia.