Meeting on idea generation, and structured consulting for creating and enhancing the National Electronic Center of Excellence for Educational Environment

The first meeting on idea generation, and structured consulting for creating and enhancing the National Electronic Center of Excellence for Educational Environment was held on 14 August 2018 at Payame Noor University, South Tehran branch. A group of researchers, professors, graduates and experts in the field of environment and other related fields attended the meeting.

At the outset of the meeting, Dr. Seyed Mohammad Shobeiri, Chairholder of UNESCO Chair on Environmental Education at Payame Noor University, welcomed all the participants to the meeting and highlighted the importance of environmental education, hoping that the meeting will lead to significant achievements in the establishment of the National Center of Environmental Education. He also referred to the goals, plans and actions undertaken at UNESCO Chair on Environmental Education. Then, the vision, missions and plans of the National Center of Excellence for Educational Environment were presented.

Head of the Science Department of the Iranian National Commission for UNESCO spoke about the history, goals and role of UNESCO and its twin universities in scientific capacity building and development of international inter-university cooperation as a bridge between decision-makers, scientific community and civil society. He explained that exchange of information in different specialized fields are the most important necessities for the formation of UNESCO Chairs. The main aim of the Workshop he said is to promote information sharing.

In the second part of the meeting, participants exchanged their ideas and suggestions on the following topics:

• The programs proposed for developing communication and interactions in National Center of Excellence for Educational Environment, in formal and informal education sectors
• Policy making methods
• planning and implementation of training programs
• Different approaches to providing educational contents
• educational evaluation methods
• Various educational tools and their application in Electronic Center of Excellence for Educational Environment

It is worth noting that all the audience presented their opinions in 3 minutes, and at the end of the session, the ideas and proposals of the participants were summed up.

Organizing seminar series on the specialized fields of environmental education was put on the next agenda of the meeting.