Tel-Hai Magazine 2022

model and a virtual tour of an archeo logical site, another student printing a 3-D model of the Kineret (the Sea of Galilee) to enable schoolchildren to gain a better understanding of its topography, a group of students creating virtual es cape rooms, based on specific areas of study, and an augmented reality map of Israel spread on the floor, brought to life with the scan of a barcode. Many further examples have been developed in the lab, providing new and exciting opportunities for students. Computational Thinking When asked which skills they think teachers-to-be should acquire, in order to remain effective in the future, both Segal and Bar-David agree that the skills must be dynamic and constantly evolving, so that students will have the ability to adapt to future developments. Segal and Bar-David see the key to this as possess ing technological know-how, especially, the ability to communicate with comput ers. “Computational thinking stems from the discipline of computer science, but our aim is to distil the essence of this thought process and language, and turn it into an elementary study-subject, in order to fa cilitate computer literacy for all. It took us a long time to devise a way to simplify

and we teach differently for different sub jects. This way, for example, a Bible teacher will be able to communicate flu ently with students who know how to program a computer, and ask them to convey stories from the Bible in a 3-D format. In this approach,” says Bar-Da vid, “I think we may be pioneers – and we already have school principals asking if we can recommend any of our ‘digital graduates’ for teaching positions. The news is already spreading.” “We are the only college that teaches computational thinking to all the stu dents on our campus. There are other colleges teaching computational think ing, of course, but it is limited to students in technological tracks. We can already see the advantages of our policy. We have graduates trained to teach various subjects in schools, who also act as tech nology instructors. In other words, we’ve shown that one doesn’t have to be an en gineer, or a student of computer engi neering to use or to make accessible ad vanced teaching technologies, and we believe that teachers of all subjects can and should do this,” says Bar-David. Teaching Programs and Professional Development: The Katzrin campus offers a range of programs, including undergraduate

Studies, Sciences, Biology, Mathematics, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Phys ical Education that offers tracks such as Sailing, Marine Education, Health Promotion in the Circle of Life and more. A new undergraduate program, designed for experienced preschool teachers, cur rently working in the field, was opened recently. The program is taught mainly in the evenings, to allow participants to continue work, and it provides compre hensive vocational training through a diverse range of courses related to Early Years’ teaching. In addition, there are five master’s programs offered at the campus: Management and Organization of Educational Systems, Preschool Man agement, Teaching Physical Education, Teaching and an innovative program - Design and Development of Teaching and Learning Methods. In cooperation with the Ministry of Ed ucation, Tel-Hai College also offers the Regev Program for Excellence. Regev is an acronym in Hebrew for rosh gadol be’horaah, which, loosely translated, means something like ‘teaching through thinking outside the box.’ This program is designed for students who excel and demonstrate a vision for education, chal lenge basic assumptions and break boundaries, students who initiate and innovate, and have a desire to influence the future of education and society in Israel. Alongside these innovative learning spaces and programs, staff at the Katzrin campus include internationally re nowned lecturers and leading research ers in Israel, who provide a direct link to the sphere of education, and can incor porate the findings of up-to-date re search in teacher training. The combina tion of these elements will enable students of Education and those in the Teaching Program to acquire the tools, the knowledge, and the hands-on skills that will prepare them to be the ground breaking teachers of the future, leading the changing field of education in Israel.

this language, so that anyone can under stand it (including the less technological teachers). We have also adapted our teaching methods to suit each discipline

studies in Education and Teaching in various tracks, such as: Special Educa tion, Early Years’ Education, Judaism, English (EFL), Hebrew Language, Israel

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