August 2022

For almost fifteen years, we at Athena Fund have been busy empowering teachers – providing technological solutions, closing the digital gap, and restoring the appreciation of students and their parents for the teaching profession.

Already close to 30,000 school and kindergarten teachers, including over 10,000 in special education, have received our "Digital Toolbox" and acquired skills relevant in the age of technology. These teachers are now using their acquired tools and knowledge in their classrooms on a daily basis, revolutionizing education and implementing new digital learning methods.

While we continue providing teachers with laptop computers and training, in the last three years we've taken another step forward. Today, more than ever, I'm excited to see our vision for the classroom of the future, ImagineBox, become a reality.

A few years ago we began paying close attention to immersive technologies, which entered our lives via museums, visitor centers, and special installations during events such as the Olympics. One such technology uses projection on simple surfaces to create special interactive environments that leave users speechless.

We invested many months in adapting these technologies for use in the education system and teacher empowerment. Teachers are now able to use these technologies to create innovative, cutting-edge lesson plans, which will improve learning and allow for better acquisition of 21st century skills that every student simply must have.

This coming school year, hundreds of teachers and thousands of students in tens of schools across Israel will begin using ImagineBox – immersive interactive classrooms where students experience the learned material instead of just memorizing it.

Tens of ImagineBoxes Installed Since the Beginning of Summer

There's nothing more exciting than seeing your dream become a reality.

This summer we began installing ImagineBox classrooms across Israel. From an initial assessment of three to five classrooms for 2022, today we're expecting around 30 by the end of the year.

During the summer, the first ImagineBox was installed and inaugurated at the WIZO Nachlat Yehuda Youth Village in Rishon Lezion. It includes an immersive room, a virtual reality (VR) station, an interactive sandbox, and a robotics zone.

ImagineBox classrooms with immersive rooms were also installed in Ma'ale Adumim, Afula, Mateh Asher, Kokhav Ya'ir – Tzur Yigal, Ganei Tikva, Petah Tikva, Ofakim, Rehovot, Netivot, and Beer Sheva, as well as at Bar-Ilan University and Sakhnin College.

By the end of September, additional ImagineBox classrooms will be installed in Eilat, Drom Hasharon Regional Council, Rishon Lezion, Lachish Regional Council and other municipalities. Next year we expect many more municipalities to establish ImagineBox classrooms at their schools to benefit teachers and students alike.

ImagineBox comes equipped with hundreds of ready-to-use virtual environments, and we're working on creating additional content to be available in an educational database. We also set up a training program to provide teachers from schools entering the program with the tools needed to create lesson plans using innovative technologies.

We want to wish all the best to the teachers joining us as we realize our dream for the classroom of the future.


ImagineBox in the Media

Last Thursday, Israel's Channel 13 main daily newscast aired an item about projects that are going to change the Israeli education system. Among these was our ImagineBox. We were excited about this media coverage. It showed teachers and students of different ages experiencing the immersive classroom, and it looks like they, too, were very impressed by this technology and understood the possibilities it brings into the learning process. 

I (Uri) was also interviewed for the item, where I shared my vision of the classroom of the future.

Unfortunately this item is only available in Hebrew. You can watch it here

Looking Ahead

We're only at the beginning of our journey. ImagineBox, the classroom of the future, is already here, and in the not-so-distant future I believe every teacher will have such a classroom and every student in Israel (and hopefully worldwide) will learn this way.

We have been approaching businesses, philanthropic organizations and private donors asking for donations to establish more "ImagineBox" classrooms at schools in the periphery. If you would like to adopt a school and sponsor an "ImagineBox," I would love to meet you in person.

I want to thank you for your support for Athena Fund and our work, and for your willingness to invest in the teachers of our children and grandchildren. I would also like to thank the wonderful team of Athena Fund – Daphna, Inna, Katy and Sivan – for their enormous investment and fruitful collaboration in all we do.

Together we will empower teachers and revolutionize the education system.

Wishing you a successful and groundbreaking school year,

Uri Ben-Ari
Founder & President
Athena Fund