December 2022

Dear Friend of Athena,

2022 is almost over, and I'm excited to share with you a summary of Athena Fund's work over the past year.

30,200 laptop computers!!! This week we crossed the milestone of 30,000 laptop computers that we distributed to school and kindergarten teachers in 2,999 schools in 178 municipalities in Israel as part of Athena Fund's "Digital Toolbox for Every Teacher" flaship program.

At the beginning of the week we distributed 307 computers in Dimona, last Wednesday computers at Tzur Itzhak middle school in the Drom HaSharon regrional council and the Sunday before that at Benjamin Rothman Eshel Hanasi special education school.

I want to say thank you to our donros, who made this possible; to the mayors and the directors of education departments; to the Teachers Union, Bank Massad and the Ministry of Education. I would also like to thank the Athena Fund team lead by Daphna Tamir - Inna, Sivan, Shirley and Katy.

For us, this was a breakthrough year as the education system in Israel made a leap towards the classroom of the future. This classroom – or as we call it, ImagineBox – implements cutting-edge immersive technologies for enhanced learning.

The first ImagineBox was established back in June at the WIZO Nachalat Yehuda Youth Village, and since then we've already installed over 20 more in municipalities across Israel. At the same time, teachers from the schools that already deployed ImagineBox are going through training with Ministry of Education instructors. These teachers are learning how to use the immersive technology and create lesson plans adjusted to the learning programs at their schools. We believe that equipping teachers with this know-how will also promote the ultimate goal of Athena Fund – the empowerment of teachers.

In addition to our efforts in Israel, we continue to pursue several new opportunities with Jewish schools abroad that are seeking to cooperate with schools here in Israel.

This year we participated in several international conferences, including: the OECD's Biennale Conference in Jerusalem, the UN's COSP-15 Conference for the Rights of People with Disabilities in NYC, the Edutech Conference we organized with "People and Computers" magazine, and others. I also visited the northern East Coast in the US and Canada, where I met with people who love Israel and want to advance Israeli education.

We also hosted guests from all over the world at our ImagineBox showroom in Shefayim, alongside thousands of guests from Israeli municipalities and the local business sector. The potential for educational change offered by the immersive classroom is recognized immediately, and we see a great excitement among our visitors from the education system, the municipalities and the private sector.

This small step of integrating immersive technology in education can become a giant leap for every learning system in Israel and the world. We are thrilled to take part in this process of promoting the “classroom of the future” and introducing it into the lives of teachers and students in our country.

I want to thank you and all our Athena Fund partners and donors in Israel and around the world – for your encouragement, trust and support. Together we will continue making dreams a reality, strengthening and empowering the educators of Israel's next generation.

I wish you and your family a Happy New Year!

Uri Ben-Ari
Founder & President
Athena Fund

Now that ImagineBox has entered schools and teacher-training colleges in Israel, it's safe to announce: the classroom of the future is here!

This is the first time in centuries that the essence of the classroom we all know is changing. The desks, chairs and chalk board are giving way to active students participating in lessons and experiencing the learning, instead of passively listening to the teachers' lectures. Learning of any subject is transformed from theoretical to interactive and immersive, allowing students to dive into the learned subject and experience active learning.

Here's an inspiring note we received from Rayah Sinah, English Teacher, ICT Coordinator and the ImagineBox Director at Gevim Elementary in Beer Sheva:

Rayah and other ImagineBox directors are leading the revolution in the education system on a daily basis, constantly working to make learning accessible to every student and helping them build 21^st-century skills.

Soon, our country will have a network of teachers working together to create more interesting and more effective learning. The revolution has now begun!

During October, Athena Fund had the privilege of sponsoring the "COLORFULL" exhibition in Jaffa of the internationally acclaimed artist, Sam Halabi.

It was impossible to remain indifferent at the sight of the magic this young Druze artist created, whether it was a huge display or a smaller-scale painting. And so, every visitor was instantly smiling upon entry to the exhibit hall. It was a happy exhibit, full of life and color, with pieces that were surprising in both concept and beauty.

In the past, Sam Halabi participated in an Athena Fund project in which Israeli artists received a laptop computer and were asked to transform it into an art piece. Since then, Sam continues to support Athena Fund's work.

From the moment we launched the first ImagineBox it has made headlines, some of which we would like to share with you (in case you missed them).

• In August, Israel's Channel 13 aired an item about ImagineBox and two other technologies during their main evening newscast. Here is an edited item (with only ImagineBox) with English subtitles:

• In October, an article was published in The Organization Magazine, outlining the impact of ImagineBox on the lives of people with a mobility disability. You can read it here (in Hebrew).

• Maariv Online (one of Israel's major newspapers) also  the published a story about ImagineBox. You can read it here (in Hebrew).

You can find more articles about Athena Fund and our work on our website.

We have written extensively about the possibilities raised by ImagineBox and the immersive classroom in the education system. One of the bigger challenges of this future classroom will, no doubt, be the ability of teachers (and students) to create unique content and lesson plans (in addition to those that already exist in the system).

Thankfully, we already are seeing Israeli teachers and content creators who have risen to the challenge and created simple but spectacular lesson plans on a variety of subjects. Topics have included the Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Day, the Sigd Holiday, the 29^th of November (UN decision in 1947 to create a Jewish State) and more.

We are also looking into partnering with content creators in Israel and abroad to create content suitable for the curriculum in every available subject as well as content for children with special needs.

Of utmost importance is the fact that all content created by teachers will be available (with the creator's permission) in every existing and future ImagineBox. This will ultimately create a nationwide content library, which will be continuously expanding.