Dr. Cindy Gunn, Director of the Faculty Development Center at American University of Sharjah (AUS), has been selected as a speaker at the Eighth Ankabut Users' Meeting to be held at Paris Sorbonne University, Abu Dhabi, February 20-21, 2013. Ankabut is the UAE's Advanced National Research and Education Network (NREN) offering academic institutions connectivity to other education networks around the world. 

Dr. Gunn, Associate Professor of English, will give the presentation "American University of Sharjah Faculty's Current Practices and Perceptions of Technology Use in the Classroom." In Academic Year 2011-2012, a comprehensive survey was sent to the faculty and academic teaching staff at AUS to gather data on their current use of technology in the classroom, their preferred technology tools, their level of comfort with technology in the classroom and their perceived training needs to effectively incorporate technology into their classes. The presentation will discuss the research findings and their implications regarding technology use in university classrooms.

"We are delighted Dr. Gunn will be presenting her findings of AUS use of classroom technology to our growing community," said Fahem Al Nuaimi, Chief Executive Officer of Ankabut. "We received a record number of submissions and are excited to have members of the UAE community wishing to share their work with fellow colleagues." 

The Eighth Users' Meeting is being held under the Patronage of His Highness Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and His Highness will give the opening address on the morning of February 20. 

The keynote address will be given by Patrick Donath, the General Manager of the National Research and Education Network for France (RENATER).

Dr. Thomas Zacharia, Executive Vice President of Research and Development at the Qatar Foundation, will speak the next morning and following his presentation will be the Ankabut roundtable sessions.