EdutExpo 2020

 

 

On the occasion of the International Day of People with Disabilities, which took place that same day, Athena Fund initiated a panel on “Special Education as a Leader of Transformation.” Panel participants included: Professor Adina Shamir, Head of Special Education Programs, School of Education, Bar-Ilan University; Racheli Avramzon, Director of Special Education Division, Ministry of Education; Rina Cohen, National Instructor for Special Education Computing, Ministry of Education; Shachar Bar-Yehuda, National Instructor for Autism Area in Special Education Division, Ministry of Education; and Dr. Orly Havel, Head of Special Education Program, Levinsky College. The panel moderator was Yehuda Konfortes, Editor of People & Computers.

 

“Adopting technology in education is important, but it’s not a goal in and of itself. It is a means of enabling innovative learning and adopting innovative methods in education such as virtual reality and augmented reality said Uri Ben-Ari, President & Founder of Athena Fund, at the EdutExpo 2020 conference that took place yesterday at the Lago event hall in Rishon Lezion. The conference was produced by People & Computers in collaboration with Athena Fund, that empowers school and kindergarten teachers in Israel via advanced technological tools, the Teachers Union, and Bank Massad. An exhibition of advanced solutions for promoting training and teaching was held adjacent to the conference.

 

The President of Athena Fund noted that 50% of professions today will disappear in the coming decade, and will be replaced by new professions – something that is happening already today. “The problem today in the education system is that we teach for the professions that will disappear, but do not know what new professions will develop,” said Ben-Ari. “We need to equip students for the 21st century so that they’ll be able to find work. Every student needs to learn programming since it is the language of the future; in my opinion, we should begin teaching programming already in kindergarten.”

 

Ben-Ari said that the role of teachers is changing today and they are becoming facilitators who much of the time guide students how to learn for themselves, and only then pass on knowledge and assess their students. “Teachers need to get used to the new era, avoid compressing knowledge, and become mentors and guides,” said Ben-Ari. “There is a revolution in the digital capabilities of students. They interact with the world through digital means, and they prefer interactive learning environments, and digital means such as YouTube, and not necessarily a learning environment based on listening. Students today are different, and the educational system must adapt itself to today’s students.”

 

In addition, various professional lectures and two other panels were held at the conference: the first on artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality, and the second on code and robotics.

 

 

Selected photos from EdutExpo 2020

 

To read an article (in Hebrew) in People & Computers about the conference click here

To view photos from the conference click here