EdTech MindCET - Shaping The Future III

EdTech Mindset
your must-have educational guide to the future

June 2015 | MindCet.org
SPECIAL
EDITION
SHAPING
THE FUTURE |||
EdTech beyond the screen from virtual to tangible reality
The Editorial
EdTech Mindset 2015 Special Edition offers a taste of a very
special EdTech event:
Shaping the Future lll
EdTech beyond the screen, from virtual to tangible reality
that took place on June 1-4, 2015, in Israel.
A four-day powerful event that merged generations and cultures,
bringing together artists, students, scholars, programmers,
educators, politicians - different people interested in offering new
insights to the education world.
The almost 1,000 participants moved around dynamic settings,
especially designed for truly interactive and collaborative activities kicking off with a Hackathon, followed by a showcase of ventures,
lectures and workshops led by thought leaders and representatives
of all stakeholders currently interested in the future of technology
& learning.
Dr. L. Cecilia Waismann, Editor
Editor Cecilia Waismann ceciliaw@cet.ac.il

Art Director Danny Zavaro
Digital Editing Ran Magen, Gilad Nass
Graphic Design Sarit Youker
Photographers Sefi Shlevin, Gadi Ohad
Video p.19 Nir Weiss
Image Rights Dvora Gruda, Laliv Gal
English Editing Nechama Unterman
Translation Hebrew-English Perry Zamek
Images
Popperfoto/Getty images/Image Bank Israel: p. 6; UniversalImagesGroup/Getty images/Image Bank Israel: p. 4, p. 8-9
shutterstock.com: 5, 29, backgrounds of pages: 22-23, 24, 26-27, 28, 31; istockphoto.com/Martin Wimmer: p. 17 (background);
istockphoto.com/Plus: p. 32-33; istockphoto.com/ rbirch1: p. 35 (background)
Picture on the cover Leslie F. Miller
General Enquiries mindcet@cet.ac.il
Content Contributors:
Akin Ajayi, writer British Broadcasting; Dr. Ilan Ben Yaakov, Pedagogical Director MindCET; Prof. Walter
Bender, founder Sugar labs- MIT Lab; Dale Dougherty, founder Maker Media; Robert Gehorsam, CEO Institute
of Play; Prof. Renee Hobbs, Head Media Edu Lab Rhodes Island Univ.; Steven Hodas, Edu Entrepreneur - NY
iZone; Ido Keinan, Journalist; Dr. Orna Lavie, Math Teacher and researcher; Guy Levi, Innovation C.E.T.; Gilad
Nass, Marketing MindCET; Prof. Miriam Reiner, Technion Neuroscience Lab; Dr. Jeremy Roschelle, Director
Tech Learning at SRI International; Dr. Cecilia Waismann, Head R&D MindCET; Avi Warshavsky, CEO MindCET;
Dr. Peggy Weil, Digital Media Artist; Dr. David Weinberger, Harvard Innovation Library Lab
content
04

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12

13
Spatial Turning Point

Avi Warshavsky
Meet the participants

Bringing the Maker Mindset to transform education
Q&A with Dale Dougherty
A new generation of true makers

Cecilia Waismann
14 Virtual Reality, a personal experience beyond technology

(extracts from Prof. Miriam Reiners talk)
16 Teachers need to expose students to powerful ideas

Q&A with Walter Bender
17 Coding: Making better learners

Ilan Ben Yaakov
18 Allowing a Hackathon to provide

Megalomanic Answers to Childlike Questions

Cecilia Waismann
20 IoT: Interaction between human and machines

Gilad Nass
22 Creating an Educational Innovation Zone

Guy Levi
24 Constructing ones own learning experience

Q&A with Robert Gehorsan
25 Gaming, a global grammar of youth

(extracts from Robert Gehorsans talk)
26 The world beyond the screen - The educational perspective

Ido Keinan
28 Girls & STEM: A collective concern

Orna Lavie
29 Teachers as Makers: Content Creation as a Pedagogy of Learning

Akin Ajayi
30 A learning space that goes beyondand meets the learner

Q&A with Jeremy Roschelle
31 Thickening the spread of Education

David Weinberger
32 3D Printing if not already, soon in a school near you

Gilad Nass
34 Sharing real stories through virtual environments

Q&A with Peggy Weil
35 Thoughts on Shaping the Future III

Peggy Weil
////EdTech MindSet /Special Edition/2015
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Avi Warshavsky
Technology and knowledge have always gone hand in

hand. It is hard for us to describe our knowledge world
without the technologies that surround it. The history
of human knowledge runs through major technological
revolutions: the transition from an oral to a written
culture, the shift from scrolls to paged books (codices),
and the move from manuscript to the printed word.
Each of these revolutions not only constituted a new
medium but, largely also served to shape knowledge
itself - the system of values that it carries and the
manner in which we remember, express ourselves and
learn. The technologies used at our daily practices
have become almost transparent. For example the
action of writing cursively is not perceived as a use
of technology. Pen and paper are almost like a part
of the human body, while the act of writing is almost
automatic. We are so well adjusted to writing that we
are not even aware that, when we write the letter T,
we are initiating the action of writing a vertical line,
lifting the pen, placing it on the paper again, and then
writing a horizontal line. We are also unaware of the
fact that the ballpoint tip of the pen puts out an exact
amount of ink in response to the pressure we put on it.
We write just like we ride a bicycle the technological
instrument becomes almost like an extension to our
bodies, and its use like a basic bodily function, such as
breathing or walking.
One of the most fascinating dynamics is that of the
replacement of one knowledge technology with
another. Amazingly, not too much time is required
before we readjust to the transparency of the new
technology.
It only required a few decades for many of us to treat
the keyboard with the same automaticity as we treated
the ballpoint pen. Sometimes, when looking from the
outside, the new technology that we have adopted is

less effective at being transparent: for example, the
transition from writing with pen and paper to writing
on the computer is a transition from objects that are
inexpensive, easy to carry, and uncomplicated in
operation, to heavy, expensive objects with significant
potential for going wrong.
However, the evolution of the technological device,
along with our human capacity to adapt, makes even
the most complicated technology, automatic and
transparent. The amazing human capacity to adapt
to a new technology and make it transparent, also
conceals within it a major shortcoming we tend to be
blind to the limitations that the knowledge technology
imposes on us. The more successful the technology is
at being transparent and invisible, the more blind we
are to the price that we pay for its use. The ability to
perceive these limitations is generally found within two
fundamentally different populations the conservative
Luddites, who oppose the adoption of technologies,
and who are thus able to look at them from the
outside; and the futurists, who look forward to the
paradigm that is yet to come, and so are able to adopt
a perspective of foreignness toward that which we see
as obvious.
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Looking at knowledge
technologies like a science
fiction writer
If we wish to look critically at the transparent

technologies around us and at the directions in which
they are developing, we may adopt an enjoyable
exercise that science fiction writers sometimes perform
a supposedly retrospective examination by people
of the future on the civilization of our own day. This
perspective puts things that appear to us to be natural
or logical into a different light. For example, todays
learning appears slow and clumsy when compared
with the possibility of loading our brains with a large
amount of knowledge within a few seconds, as in the
world conceived by the creators of The Matrix. How
would our descendants in another 400 years look
at todays educational technology? Let us imagine,
for example, a student at the Education Dept. of an
University on Planet Kepler 452B (a planet similar to
Earth, discovered in mid-2015) looking at images from
the 21st century that depict educational technology.
If that student would have to describe educational
technology in the 21st century based on pictures, she
would note with a measure of surprise combined
with the patronizing smile reserved for those who look
at the past that most of the pictures include one
image that repeats itself over and over. It is that of a
student sitting in front of a computer screen, alone or
with friends, smiling and showing interest. Towards
the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st
centuries, thousands of such images were created
intended mainly for marketing purposes.
These pictures are so common that they could be

defined as a genre of images in its own right, similar to
those works that depict the Madonna and Child, or
portraits of the families of nobility in the 17th century.
As with the 17th century family portraits, these pictures
may be read both naively and critically. When we look

at these portraits naively, what we see is a family of
noble lineage, perhaps with a hunting dog or servants,
grouped in front of the painter. When we look at them
critically, we see that the painter is trying to make
a particular claim, or tell a particular story. A critical
reading, may reveal that this is actually a bourgeois,
middle-class family, and it is the painting that allows
them to represent themselves as something they could
never be a family of noblemen. The visual image has
the ability to tell an alternative story to a less sparkling
reality. If so, what is the story told by those common
images of educational technology? In most instances,
we see a gender and racially balanced group of
students, smiling and engaged in front of the screen.
If our student from Kepler 452B looks at pictures of
the joy of educational technology genre through
those same critical lenses, she would conclude that
the picture is gender balanced because in reality
this is a field dominated by boys, that it is racially
balanced because it is mainly accessible to higher
socioeconomic classes, and that the kids are all
smiling because the outside viewer may suspect that
computer assisted learning is actually quite boring.
As with many pictures, the most problematic aspect
is that it expresses something that was obvious to the
contemporary viewer, but only with the perspective
of time that it is revealed as problematic. In the
case of our picture, the problem lies in the situation
itself a kid sitting in a room, concentrating on an
isolated object in which only his intellect is involved.
To emphasize how grating this image is as a learning
method, we should recall what Jean Jacques
Rousseau, a leading thinkers of the Enlightenment,
wrote about optimal learning as a combination of three
elements: nature, other people, and the interaction of
our own bodies with environmental objects. To create
proper learning, according to Rousseau, there has
to be the right combination of these three elements
the body, the space and the society around us.
Educational technology, in its initial stages, did not
meet any of these conditions: in the early days other
people were not involved in the learning process the
learning machine would not require interaction with
a human teacher; it was designed as a technique
that only involved our mental presence: disembodied
awareness viewing a screen, based on a technique
that takes place not in a closed room and in a single
position.
Makers
Two turning points
We have put on the glasses of a science fiction writer

so as to look beyond the surface and identify the
limitations of the transparent knowledge technologies
that surround us. Now we can take another look at
those limitations, this time from the perspective of
some of the trends developing in the tech culture
around us, pointing at two turning points: the first
took place at the beginning of the 21st century, and
the other may take place in the coming years. The
first could be called the human turning point. For
the last decade, we have witnessed the entry of
interaction with people into the learning processes.
With the widespread penetration of the internet and of
social networks, educational technology has ceased
to be a technology that merely provides interactive
eduware, and is instead establishing itself more
as a communications technology. From learning
management systems, through forums, to social
networks, communication between teachers and
students, among teachers themselves, and among
students, has become an important component of
the value offered by educational technology. From a
paradigm that views technology mainly as a teacherproof interaction, we have shifted to a vision that
views technology as a communications tool, one that
produces learning communications that are far more
powerful than those made possible by simple human
learning communications.
The second may be called the spatial turning
point it hasnt yet taken place, but certain of the
developments of recent years hint at its imminent
arrival. The first and most significant is the massive
deployment of smartphones, creating a situation in
which computers have come off the desks, shrunk,
and moved into the pockets of each of us. The
computer goes everywhere we do. It now also has
capabilities that can give expression to that movement,
such as GPS, gyroscope, and so on.
The Makers Movement blurs the distinction between

lo-tech and hi-tech, between professional and
amateur, and lessens the distance from planning to
production.
The Maker culture matured about a decade ago,
and has flourished in large part because of tech
developments such as 3D printing and laser cutters.
These technologies reduce time and space allowing
for a complete production process. Using traditional
means, these processes had required, until recently,
industrial tools, specialist expertise, and a division
between design and production, with industrial
implementation being feasible only at the mass
production level. In the Maker space, the whole of the
process shrinks to one relatively small space, to short
periods, as well as simultaneously plan and design
using relevant software, and physical outputs. The
Maker space brings together an infrastructure that is
ideal for learning- the process is focused on a product,
creating a direction for a project that demands learning
while doing similar to that taking place in projectbased learning.
The connection between the planning, preparation
and implementation stages creates an interface
The next stage in the lead up to the turning point

includes a number of developments that substantially
change the three-fold relationship: man-spacetech tool. Among them, we should include the
Makers Movement, the maturation of Virtual Reality
technologies, and what is commonly referred to as the
Internet of Things. At first glance, these developments
do not connect with one another, and do not appear to
belong to the field of educational technology. However,
all of them are trends that blur dichotomies that block
the connection between technology, body and space.
London, England, 2nd June 1970, Cartoonist and zany inventor
Rowland Emett demonstrate his latest invention the 'lunascycle'
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between the virtual and the real and an unmediated

understanding of the physical sides of what is learned
for example, a different understanding of spatial
engineering. If the maker culture were a religion, then
its religious ceremonies would be the hackathons
intensive development marathons operating at a fast
pace, on the basis of teams working together toward
completion of a shared task.
Samsung, and others. It appears that we are only a few

years away from the point where VR glasses will be
an inexpensive, accessible product, which will provide
a variety of human techniques for communication,
information and leisure. VR platforms allow us to
overcome limitations of space, and to put ourselves
in places that we would have no opportunity to reach,
either because of their physical or historical distance
This activity develops tools for working in a group,
from us, or because they are not accessible to human
as well as the opportunity to empower and offer
beings. These platforms allow us to deceive our
expression to participants with a broad spectrum
senses in such a way that we can, in a very concrete
of skills and abilities. An instructive example of an
industry that has developed based on the fundamental way, move between galaxies, travel through the
assumptions of the Maker culture is the drone industry, bloodstream, or walk through Louis XVIs palace.
which has taken off in recent years. This industry
owes a great deal to a community of amateurs who,
The Internet of Things
programming in open code, provide the means to
If the Maker culture makes space available to us
control and operate drones from the ground, while
through physical contact, and VR platforms make
in parallel creating and improving the physical
space available to us by means of virtual illusion, the
components for these drones. The community of drone
Internet of Things offers us that which is in the interval
enthusiasts is, in effect, duplicating the model known
between the physical and the virtual.
to us from the open code programming tradition, into
a world with physical outputs. The educational context The term Internet of Things is, in effect, a metaphor
of this development falls naturally into place within
that describes an almost evolutionary development
it. Chris Anderson, who to a large extent, has been
in the realm of communications. This evolution may
identified with drones over the past decade, began
be described in three stages. In the first, there was
his involvement in the field when he was looking for a
interaction between man and computer. Man was
suitably challenging activity for his children.
assisted by the computer, programmed in advance
by other people to fulfil tasks and solve various
problems. In the second, with the penetration of
Virtual reality
the internet, networks were created that connected
Apparently, the field of Virtual Reality contradicts
people by means of a connected computers. The
everything offered by the Maker culture. If the latter
first generation of the IoT is the generation in which
requires us to interface with the physical world, VR
computers communicate with one another without
technologies seek to eliminate this connection, while
people participating in this communication. If this
offering us a strong enough illusion that masks the
mythic formulation sounds abstract, we may make it
lack of connection with the real world. However, it
clearer by referring to some expressions that already
would be more accurate to say that the field of VR
exist around us. For example, smart houses, in which
also expands our contact with space, only from a very the thermostat can tell the air conditioner to turn itself
different angle. VR and the technologies connected
on, are an example of this communication between
with it have been around for about three decades, but computers with does not pass through specific human
until recently they have been so heavy and clumsy that mediation. This vision is still in its inception, and it
they could not be implemented outside professional
has already become an important element in turning
research laboratories. A sequence of events has
all of space into a technologically sensitive place. A
led to them becoming applicable, accessible, more
place which has a kind of ability to sense, to express
compact, and, most importantly, of interest to the
itself and to interact. In the world of the IoT, even the
software giants who are leading the industry. What
supposedly inanimate objects around us, become
got the ball rolling may have been a crowdfunding
animated. In such a world, the concept of research
project led by a startup that offered goggles with a
based learning takes on a totally new meaning very concrete illusionary experience - Oculus Rift,
students, parents and teachers can obtain information
bought by Facebook in 2014 for the immense sum of
in real time, not only about school work, but also about
2 billion dollars. This acquisition marked the beginning levels of students physical activity, blood pressure, or
of an arms race joined by Microsoft, Google, Intel,
a host of other data (which may or may not interest us).
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WHAT DOES THE
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Three men sit on couch wearing virtual

reality goggles. Glastonbury 1993
In this world, technology will function as a tool

that offers the optimal conditions for learning that
Rousseau formulated it will be a world in which the
body will be active, in which we will experience space
with an intensity that we have never before known, and
in which we will have the conditions and opportunities
for discourse with others. The learning environment in
a world such as this will be the whole world, with the
technology being transparent and invisible.
If we attempt to imagine a world in which these

technologies are more mature, it will be a world in
which there is no single workstation or anchor point
for technology, no single object, large or small, into
which everything flows. The whole environment will be
full of sensors, expressive instruments, and the means
to allow us to move in time and space comfortably.
In this world there will be sufficient room for the body
and for physicality, for creativity and activity. We will
be able to turn our virtual creations into 3D products,
the programming activity will be integrated with the
research, design and production of physical objects.
Only a few years after the first Morse signals were

transmitted, Henry David Thoreau noted that the fact
that a person from Maine could communicate with
someone from Texas did not yet mean that there
would be something important for them to say to
one another. This statement may be understood as
a sarcastic comment that accentuates the cultural
emptiness that technological capabilities bring to
the fore. Neil Postman interpreted this statement
differently. According to Postman, the medium has
a great influence on the content and values of what
we say. Entry into a new communications medium is
not only the use of a new instrument to transmit all
that had been transmitted previously; it is a profound
change in the content and functionality of what is
worth communicating. Those who have experienced
the introduction and adoption of mobile phones, of
instant messaging and of social networks will easily
identify with Postmans words. It is no less true when
we come to decode the learning framework following
the spatial turning point. Each of the trends that we
described embodies within it a world of values whose
implications are hard to discern without experiencing
it. The world of makers offers a new hierarchy of
trades, and repositions trades that are currently labeled
as low-tech; this world also offers a new perspective
on the concepts of purpose and need much of what
is being done in the makers movement is not intended
to solve problems or to fulfill a particular purpose. The
world of virtual reality once again raises questions of
manipulation and illusion, and regarding the internet
of things, one may ask paraphrasing the words of
Henry David Thoreau if the fact that the refrigerator
can converse with the washing machine means that
they will have what to say to one another. At the
Shaping the Future lll conference, we attempted to
touch on some of the issues raised by the world that
comes after the spatial turning point the world
beyond the computer screen.
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/2015
with
Dale Dougherty
Bringing the
Maker Mindset
to transform education
D. Dougherty with his Hackathon partners

Y.Warshavsky, O.Stettiner, R.Knoll.
Father of the Maker

Movement. Founder
of Maker Media, Media
Magazine and Makers Fair
How do you see the Maker Movement

as part of education?
>> There are key concepts here. One

is the creation of maker spaces fab
labs, kind of like libraries have been
to schools, a place where you have
machines, you have computers,
learning new skills but also being able
to apply them creatively, do work
that is of interest to you hands-on
learning.
Schools should be more about a set

of contexts for learning and the
experiences one has in those contexts
instead of content that we try to
deliver to students.
I want students to feel more like they
are playing and enjoying something. If
you have ever been around machinery
you know there is risk involved, there
is danger potentially, so it is also about
being responsible for taking those risks.
Another part is having their own ideas.
You often learn from someone else
and you imitate what they do but I
hope it also begins to stimulate new
ideas: This is what I would like to do,
This is what interests me. I think
we can get a more engaged student,
motivated students who begin to
figure things out for themselves.
If there is one thing that schools
should accomplish is creating good
learners. Not what they learn but the
ability to learn, to be self-directed
learners. So they are ready
when they get out in the world.
Technology is changing in the world

very rapidly. The things that I went
to college for computers werent in
college pretty much, so I had to learn
those later, on my own. This happened
a lot in that generation we figured
things out. For example, we didnt
take a class in cell phones. So a lot
of what Im interested in, you might
call it informal learning, things that
occur outside but we have the right
motivation to learn them. You have
the motivation to learn about your cell
phone because its powerful and does
things for you, and I think that getting
that to other areas as well is important.
The Maker Movement is gaining voice
within the educational system, how do
you see that?
>> I think the Maker Movement is

changing
education in a
somewhat quite
subversive way.
First of all, its
coming up from
the bottom,
not coming
down from
governments or
bureaucrats. It is teachers, students,
and parents saying, We want our
students to be engaged. We want
them to be creative. We want them
to learn new ways of doing things.
Instead of having only pencil and
paper to work with, we have 3D
printers and laser cutters and all
kinds of technology like band saws,
that engage students. I think that

the Maker Movements long-term
impact is on transforming education
from a classroom passive experience
to standing on your feet, moving
around, touching things, interacting
with things, interacting with people,
building things, creating things,
sharing that with other people.
To be a maker is to create projects
and to share them with other people.
They make connections because of
that sharing, so it is inherently like the
real world, its about doing things that
you touch and interact with and part of
that is with people.
My hope is that we can turn education
from this passive experience of sitting
in chairs and listening to someone
talking to being much more forward
and engaging, driven by students
towards goals that they
and their teachers work
on.
To have a sense of
progression that you are
developing capabilities,
that you are learning
to do new things,
and it is that confidence
what we call the maker mindset
that is ultimately even more important
than what you are making.
bit.ly/Daled
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new
generation
true
makers
A
of
Hacking, Gaming and Entrepreneurship three powerful activities

youngsters are turning to
in order to actively engage
in new market opportunities.
Cecilia Waismann
Looking at the spectrum of learning spaces

used by the youth today, a varied, complex,
apparently endless and scarily unknown
picture stands in front of us. The education
systems capacity to respond to their needs
became scarce - kids are looking beyond
the formal education screen offers and
are actively and collaboratively seeking,
finding and creating new learning
spaces to meet their real-time needs.
No delays, no waiting, no barriers just
be active and you will find an answer
to any doubt within this immense and
infinite digital space.
It is interesting that this is not a trivial
task, but youngsters are dedicating
time and effort in developing expertise
to make efficient and innovative use of
digital information and possibilities. They
are developing new spaces to prepare
themselves for this new world, reshaping our
culture and educational standards.
Hacking, for example, once upon a time,
an activity with negative connotations, is
being turned into a highly valued skill, not
only for developing witty and innovative
programmers, but moreover, as an essential
activity for any product development.
Hacking became almost like the

immune system test crucial to detect
the weaknesses and develop the
strengths of any product.
Gaming, another example, is the current

generations main activity across devices,
time and place. Undeniably, today gaming is
a significant space for kids to develop digitalrelated skills, as well as internet culture,
and, surprisingly enough, social interactions
not only for pleasure but also as a valuable
resource for training and information.
Entrepreneurship is yet another example
of a fast-growing culture, rooted in business
but flowering at the heart of youth who wish
to be relevant, independent, creative and
autonomous.
The startup boom has provided
a professional alternative to a generation
needing flexible learning systems that are
adapted to the fast and constantly moving
environment they inhabit. Moreover, it
enables them to be active contributors to
and not merely recipients of the dominant
(mostly obsolete) status quo.
/2015
Virtual/Augmented Reality
provides new exciting
opportunities for designing
experience, and tailoring the
experience according
to the user, context
and goals.
(extracts from Prof. Miriam Reiners talk)

Traditionally, Virtual/
Augmented Reality has
been aiming at optimal
resemblance to the
physical reality, looking for
technologies that enhance
visual, haptic and auditory
display, and adding new
sensory channels such as
Prof. Miriam Reiner
smell and temperature.
Yet, the potential of Virtual Reality goes beyond
mirroring reality sensory cues activate brain
mechanisms to create the sense of being
there, and the degree of immersiveness we feel
in a virtual world.
By orchestrating the sensory stimuli in VR/AR we
turn the synthetic world into a powerful catalyst
for activating brain areas that are correlated with
learning and enhanced cognition. We know now
how to fabricate core experiential interactions
that lead to enhanced cognitive functions,
such as faster brain processing time, improved
accuracy, and enhanced memory consolidation.
We (at the VR & NeuroCognition Lab, Israel
Institute of Technology) tested combinations
of sensory affordances, which provided a new
ecology that talked to the brain mechanisms.
R
The level of the experience in V/A
ology.
is not determined only by the techn
It is the brain that determines
our experience.
Our results showed EEG-based mechanisms
for measuring mental load during learning,
conditions for activation of mechanisms related
to mental rotation and spatial reasoning, the
mirror neuron system for learning through
mimicking, and human-human enhanced
interactions via VR/AR environments.
Human-human interaction
through VR
Why when you learn, when you teach, is it

important to interact face-to-face? The reason
is because only 10% of the information is
conveyed through words (there are people
who say that its even less, 3%). So, how is
everything else perceived? Some of the cues
are perceived without awareness on our part
and some are under the threshold of perception
(what we call subliminal). Therefore, it is very
hard to create this human-to-human interaction
with an avatar or robot but we can create
a VR image of the real teacher (overcoming
distances when is needed).
I think VR can help us understand learning
and have the potential to enhance learning.
There are obvious applications (for education),
for example, you can navigate inside an electric
magnetic field; you can look at interactive
molecules and be part of them; you can interact
with people who lived in Jerusalem 2000 years
ago; you can discuss science with Einstein.
VR BeAnotherLab project participating at the Hackathon
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ce
MEMORY
EnhANCING
erien
p
x
e
l
a
person
ogy
chnol
e
t
d
n
o
bey
with
VR
In lab conditions, you can orchestrate stimuli in order to activate the relevant
brain mechanisms, and generate a situated environment for powerful emotional
multi-sensory learning.
"During your sleep, an interesting process of memory consolidation occurs.
My question in this study was: Will I be able to create memory consolidation
without sleep?... we can create a small app where people will be able to play
a game and consolidate memorymemory is a major issue in learning".
"We also know how to look at the errors. Do you know the feeling when you are
talking and while you speak, you know you should not have said something,
and you'd like to stop and not to say it, but it is too late? There is a distinct error
potential (brain potential) that I can measure which happens even before you
actually perform that mistake, that error. We can use that in education as well".
The advantage of VR is not only to
create worlds that do not exist, it
is much beyond. It is the first
time that we have a way to
orchestrate stimuli in order
to enhance learning.
bit.ly/Miriamr
/2015
with
Walter Bender
Teachers need to
expose students
to powerful ideas
Founder of Sugar Labs,
One Laptop per Child,
ex-Director of MIT
Media Lab
How do you see the future of learning?
>> A natural evolution of the way we

think about school and schooling, in
fact, is actually a throwback to the
olden days, ancient ways where the
teacher is not pouring information into
the students ears but the teacher
is there to mentor and to expose
students to powerful ideas that they
might not stumble across on their
own. Calculus, to my knowledge,
has only been invented twice in the
history of humankind by Leibniz
and Newton. They invented it, each
of them, and nobody else has ever
invented it that I know of. I dont
expect all these kids, however
bright they are, to be reinventing
calculus.
Calculus is a powerful idea. We
need to expose the kids to these
powerful ideas. But that doesnt
mean that the way we expose it is
by pouring differential equations
into their ears. Rather, we can
engage them so they begin to
work with those principles that led
to Newton and Leibniz to invent
calculus.
Therefore, the teachers have a very
important role; but it is no longer
a role of instruction, its a role to
foster construction by the students
and enhance that construction by
introducing powerful ideas.
W. Bender working with his Hackathon

partners A.Hershkovitz, R.Rauchwerger, S.Sagi
Theyve got to be very attuned to what

is going on. They do not necessarily
have to have deep knowledge in
computation, deep knowledge in this
or that, but they do have to have a
sense of what are the powerful ideas
that are important to expose.
How will technology help teachers
do that?
>> In the mid 1970s Alan Kay coined
the phrase personal computer,

but he also said that computation
is going to be good for five things:
the first is getting and holding our
attention. Computation, computing
technology, is like candy to these
kids. Its really good at getting and
holding their attention that in itself
W.Bender, organizing a Turtle Workshop for kids

with I.Ben Yaakov and R.Magen
Id like to quip that the only time

collaboration is called cheating is
when you are at school, and in the
rest of life its called being smart
and getting the job done. That is
something that technology is going
to change. I guess that though now
schools tell kids to turn their cellular
phones off during class, that will
change and they will realize
that kids can use these devices to
collaborate.
They will use them to mess around too
because they are kids, but they will
also use them to be smart and get the
job done.
I think that the fundamental thing
that technology brings to the table
is this communication aspect,
this expressive aspect.
At the same time there is something
special about computation.
Computation gives us a place to
take risks we can take big risks
without worrying about breaking
anything or hurting anyone. We
can make things, we can break
things, and all we have to do is
to reboot the machine and we
are back to where we were. So
the idea that we can take big
intellectual risks within a context
of these new tools, I think is really
important.
is important. The next few things are

more mundane: word-processing,
simulation, database.
The fifth thing on his list which is
fundamental and grossly undervalued
in todays educational world is
interpersonal communication.
bit.ly/Walterb
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There are lots of reasons

why teaching coding to kids
is crucially important today,
but after this workshop
I realized how it can make them
better people, or, at least,
better learners.
Ilan Ben Yaakov
During the third day of the Shaping the

Future lll conference, I had the privilege of
moderating a Turtle Lab coding workshop for
5th-grade students from a local school, led
by Walter Bender. These are some important
things I learned:
The only rule Theres only one rule,
Walter said at the beginning. If you make
something cool you must share it with

everyone. When you learn how to code you
make amazing things each second, but dont

forget who inspired you to make them and
keep inspiring others.
With creativity comes responsibility One
hour into the workshop, Walter showed the
students how to make the drawing turtle
follow the mouse movement. You just
created your own Photoshop! Now youre
responsible for making it cooler every
moment. Being creative and productive
is not just showing off your creation. Its

a commitment.
Yes you can In the middle of the workshop,
Walter asked the students to fill two
whiteboards: one with things they already
know, and the other with things they want
to learn. While most of the students focused
on improving the basic skills theyd just
acquired,
Walter encouraged them to think big and

write down even impossible things on
the board, because coding enables you
to do anything you can dream of.
Hard fun For most of the kids, it was the
very first time they were writing code, and
while most of them enjoyed the exploration
of this new world, some of them were
struggling, asking us for help every moment,
and always getting the same answer:
Coding is fun, but its hard fun. It should
be easy enough to engage you, but hard
enough to challenge you.
So what did we have? Kids learning,

working hard, believing in themselves,
taking responsibility and sharing
everything we want education to be.
Creating the ideal space for innovation

to occur is a challenge (as well as
a hopeful wish) for most industries today.
Where? How? Who? There is no shortage
of guidelines and experts on the
subject, but the spark that triggers the fire
of innovation is not often found.
Allowing
a
to
Hackathon
Provide
e
k
i
l
d
l
i
h
C
to
Questions
Cecilia Waismann
A daring experience was attempted on June

1-2, and the results blew the minds of all the
participants a Hackathon that allowed for
megalomanic solutions to basic educational
questions. The recipe, created by the vision
of Avi Warshavsky, included very interesting
ingredients.
The place chosen was an oasis at the heart

of the Negev Desert (called Yeruham). The
participants were a diverse group of people
(120 educators, artists, programmers,
students, scholars, politicians, philosophers,
craftsmen) from different countries,
backgrounds and generations, meeting for
the first time. The technological resources
included cutting-edge products like drones,

VR goggles, brain sensors, 3D printers as
well as low tech as Lego blocks or wood
saws.
The task was to collaborate in order to create

amazing EdTech products. The benchmarks
were wisely defined by the choice of the
judges a panel of kids.
The participants creativity and beliefs were
given a green light, while their expertise was
challenged by the power of the Hackathon
method
36 intensive hours of teamwork.
During the process, the awkwardness
of the scary unknown (where a mistake
hurts, especially ones pride) was slowly
transformed into strength to dare towards
the exciting unknown (where trying allows
one to create).
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Walking around, one could enjoy the

dynamic and optimistic atmosphere of
voices articulating their visions, of hands
drawing, building, of laughs, and of excited
people trying out things: People are very
focused on what they are doing and yet there
is a lightness about the possibilities (Peggy
Weil, interactive designer); you are kicking
the tires, you have this critical dialogue with
the other people, and then you have this
opportunity for reflection (Walter Bender,
programmer); very different backgrounds,
experiences and points of views, and
becomes very interesting when you merge
these people (Philippe Bertrand, artist).
After a very intensive one and a half days,
a panel of young students commented and
chose their favorite project from: VR goggles
to help students walk in someone elses
shoes and build empathy; AR glasses
providing an experiential opportunity for
students to interact with atoms and easily
understand science; digital storytelling
based on Google Street View to enable
immersive journalism; makers platform
specially designed for students; learning how
to code using drones; collaborative learning
of physics through a VR rollercoaster
experience and biofeedback response;
creating a community of students-coders
who collect data through sensors and
make sense of it; robot-car race to enable
students to learn physical laws; building
a flexible and relevant learning space;
among others.
The most exciting result

was the optimism generated
that will hopefully turn into
innovative EdTech practices.
bit.ly/http://bit.ly/Mindhack2015
/Special Edition/2015
The Internet of Things (IoT) is set to

drastically change the way we live.
In multiple markets security,
industrial, health, entertainment,
communication the fairly new-found
ability of devices to communicate
between themselves, to collect data via
a single sensor or an array of sensors,
and to crunch the enormous amount
of data derived from these busy
collecting and communicating bees
is considered by many to be the next
industrial (and personal) revolution.
I oT
G.Vardi at the Hackathon, connecting

a neuro-headband to a smartphone
Gilad Nass
Education is mostly regarded as

a content market, in which learners go
through various processes, resulting in their
exposure to content which, it is anticipated,
they will remember and use in the future.
Prof. N.Intrator with Hackathon partner

O. Shapir, developing an educational app
that detects attention response using
a headband that measures
brain function.
Therefore, you would assume that the

concept of data collecting by sensors and
machines talking amongst themselves
would not find a suitable home is such
an environment. There are, of course, the
logistics involved in running an education
facility, which can benefit from the IoT
enhancements from energy efficiency to
better security but thats because these
facilities are similar, in a way, to factories or
public offices, so they can benefit from the
same technology advancements.
We are less excited by IoT being used so that
school staff and students can avoid having
to rely on badges to access specific areas,
because their smartphone or a wearable
device can be used to authenticate them and
give them clearance to enter.
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What we want is
n,
an education-centered IoT innovatio
teach and learn.
which could really disrupt the way we
Well, were not there yet,
way.
but the groundwork is already under
We are not thrilled by the use of sensors in a
classroom to automatically adjust the heating
system instead of this being done manually
by the teacher or students. These are nice,
but they are used in the same way in other
non-education environments.
So, what can thrill us? First, IoT as a concept
is being introduced to students as part of the
maker movement, so kids using Arduino
and Raspberry Pi to build their own electronic
and computational devices can tailor them to
do things in the IoT realm such as collecting
data which can then be integrated within
school projects and analyzed as part of their
software-based projects.
Prof. Rafaeli moderating a panel with leaders of

Microsoft, Cisco, Intel and META who presented
their latest developments for learning.
But lets think about the learning process as

a holistic process. A students learning ability
is influenced by many factors, which, until
now, we had almost no way of accurately
measuring.
We assume that lack of proper sleep harms
the student, but can we test this in a cheaper
way than sending him to a sleep lab or in
a more accurate way than to ask him how
many hours he slept and whether his sleep
was peaceful or disturbed?
Well, with IoT we can do that wearable

devices such as Fitbit, Nike+ FuelBand,
Jawbone UP, Misfit and more, are used
today mostly by adults, and in most cases
as a lifestyle/fitness tool. They count steps,
measure exactly how many hours you sleep,
and in general provide a lot of data points
that help build the quantified self the
numbers which represent the way we are
living our lives .
Now imagine this: using these devices, and
hard numbers gained by test scores, and
soft numbers gained by the teachers
assessments, we could find patterns that
enable us to pinpoint problems, and maybe
even predict them. For example,
using data from the wearable device,
along with said hard and soft
numbers, we might notice that
Jennys studies have been deteriorating in
the last 2 months, and this can be
attributed with high probability to the fact
that she has had 15% less sleep in that
period than in the time when there were no
problems with her studies. We might figure
out that Dan is probably about to have
problems with his exams, as we know that in
the last 3 times when he had such
problems, the wearable device also
showed a drop of 40% percent in his
daily movement, which may indicate that
the same situation is occurring again and
should be examined.
Dr. G.Hoffman presenting his

research on human-robot
interaction.
Of course, as with any data-driven solution,

questions of privacy and security will have
to be dealt with, but the potential for the
enhancement of the learning process via the
use of IoT is there, and we should embrace it.
We all know that the industrial model of education,

which characterized 20th-century education, is obsolete, is
not relevant to our kids future, and has almost nothing in common
with the way they live, interact, communicate, play and learn outside
school. So, why are most of the education systems still adhering to it?
There are two possible reasons. First, they probably dont know anything else
and second, if they aspire to something innovative, it cannot be implemented
in the bureaucratic system in which they operate.
n
a
g
n
i
Creat
Guy Levi
During Shaping the Future lll international

conference, experts such as educators,
policymakers and other stakeholders were brought
together to explore the necessary conditions for
creating an educational innovation zone. The case
study under consideration was the establishment
of New York City Department of Education (DoE)
Innovation Zone (iZone), represented by Steven
Hodas, an educational entrepreneur and former
Executive Director of the NYC iZone. Steven
shared with the audience some of the major
decisions that characterized the iZone creation
process and were crucial to its success.
We brought two principles that guided our

work, principles that came from outside
education and that, as far as I know,
had never before been consciously applied
to the work of schools: usercentered
design, and lean startup methodology.
Steven Hodas
Steven Hodas lecturing (right) and participating on a panel

with F. Valenzuela, O. Brechard and D.Obodovski
First, the leaders of NYC DoE decided, in 2010,

to establish the iZone outside the bureaucratic
system to enable it to employ innovative
methodologies, such as Lean Startup, bringing
entrepreneurs with ideas and prototypes
to collaborate with school teachers and students
as part of the product-life cycle, something which
is alien to the bureaucratic educational system.
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In the iZone we had permission to try

new things and we used that permission
to put a Trojan horse inside a Trojan horse
inside a Trojan horse, bringing in UCD
and Lean Startup as a way to build into
the system empathy and respect, which
are inseparably connected to usefulness,
meaning,and pleasure.
Steven Hodas
Second, the iZone team encouraged school

leaders to replace the industrial model by
structuring schools around the needs, interests
and motivations of the students, which cannot
develop within the scope of the traditional
curriculum and the current organizational
structure of schools.
Third, to provide schools with the resources
needed to make the change without intervening
or controlling, but rather letting them fail and
encouraging them to iterate. This is not the
language of the bureaucratic system; its a new
language which can flourish and prosper in an
open and free environment.
The success enabled us to bring this approach to

other projects with other audiences. We taught
teachers, principals, and students in dozens of schools
to use UCD and Lean Startup methods. They then used
those principles to define the challenges they wanted
to tackle for their own communities and come up with
very untraditional, unofficial solutions. Steven Hodas
Shai-Lee Spigelman, VP Planning & External

Relations at Digital Israel, described the ambitious
project of the Israeli government which aims
to drive economic growth, reduce social and
economic gaps, enhance economic efficiency
and improve government services. The driver for
these changes is innovation. However, the iZone
experience tells us that, at least in the education
system, it will not materialize if conveyed
via the bureaucratic channels of the system.
Unfortunately the wagon is currently stuck in the
mud and only if a model like the NYC iZone is
implemented we will be able to witness the first
signs of success.
Fernando Valenzuela, President of Cengage
Learning Latin America, and Olivier Brchard, Cofounder and Associate Director of the Institute of
Action Research for Education (IRAE), agreed that
pedagogy must be above technology, meaning
that new technology can promote innovative
pedagogyand we saw several examples in the
Hackathon and the Mindblitz sessions during the
Shaping the Future III week.

bit.ly/Stevenh
with
Robert Gehorsam
Constructing
ones own
learning experience
R.Gershon at CET with W.Bender and S.Hodas
Director of the Institute

of Play, Expert on Digital
Media and Interactive
entertainment
What do you think about this

Hackathon?
>> I think Hackathons are really an

important way to explore a number
of technologies and combinations
of technologies, partly because all is
moving so quickly that if you just did it
in the sort of standard, laboratory-like
settings, nothing would change very
quickly.
How do you see the new technologies

influencing the future classroom?
>> In education, the way that

technologies get adopted is very
complex, particularly around schools.
I think it is hard to say that any one
will be dominant.
I think what is most interesting is
the set of technologies that are
now becoming available that allow
students, and also teachers, to
actually construct their own learning
experiences.
What is interesting is that lots of

different technologies are brought
together, not just one or two, and
are combined in all kinds of different
ways. Just as the types of people
who participate come from different
disciplines and are forced to interact
and collaborate with each other so
new ideas get generated.
This is a great Hackathon. It is
bringing together people not just from
different disciplines but from different
countries, different perspectives on
what should happen, and forcing us
to all really respect and listen to each
others views and ideas and come up
with something in a short period of
time that it is compelling.
Whether its Minecraft, Lego worlds,

or all the maker technology that is
happening,
Personally, I feel that AR might have

more rapid adoption and more uses
in education than just VR because of
the way that it interacts with the world
around kids and applies information
from all sorts of sources into the
moment that they see.
Among the things that change
very quickly are the relative roles
of teachers and students. The
traditional model, that is certainly not
everywhere but is still dominant, is
that the teacher imparts knowledge to
kids through either textbooks
or lectures. One of the things
that these (new) technologies
have allowed to happen is
that kids can take control of
their own learning, and the
role of the teacher starts to
shift. In some of the work
we have done around maker
technology, we ended up
having kids work on projects
for 6 or 8 weeks and then they
taught the teachers about the
technology and how they used it, and
that is very gratifying for both the kids
and the teachers themselves.
I think that it is one important strand

that will continue; whether it is on
a mobile, on laptops that does
not matter it is the genre that is
important. The second piece that
is very intriguing, which has really
emerged in the last year or so, is
the combined field of VR and AR.
bit.ly/Robertg
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For the first time in history, our

educational systems have been
challenged to prepare youth for
a global future, where perhaps
(extracts from Robert Gehorsans talk)
the only certainty is that we dont
know what
that future
holds.
simply making better games with
Games
are exciting
because
they engageBut
and
Education must therefore focus
better learning objectives will not by itself
empower
students,
provide
personalized
instruction,
deliver the transformation we all seek. The
on developing
in youth
powerful
opportunity
withhave
games is actually greater
deliver
and embedded
and
modes continuous
of engagement
that foster assessment
and more profound than that. With many of
a desire
for lifelong
learning.
the
potential
to teach
both traditional academic
skills
these same principles learned from game
design, we need to reshape the contexts
and
higher-order
In thisthe
regard,
there are vitalcompetencies
lessons to learn generally known
of learning including the institutions of
from
the emergenceskills.
of digital games as
as
21st-century
education and the way teachers teach
a global grammar of youth. The way that

in order to fully prepare our kids to thrive
young people interact with games and with
in an unknown future.
each other through games represent some of
Over the past seven years, the Institute of
https://www.youtube.com/
the most powerful and relevant phenomena
Play (http://www.instituteofplay.org/) has
to consider as we transform the way we
watch?v=wXcdR7TqGgM&feature=youtu.be
explored and experimented with
educate students.
redesigning those contexts.
engage and
y
the
e
aus
bec
g
itin
exc
are
es
Gam
alized instruction,
empower students, provide person
ed assessment and have
deliver continuous and embedd
ditional academic skills
the potential to teach both tra
ies generally known
and the higher-order competenc
as 21st-century skills.
What technology we think is good for learning depends on what we think

learning looks like, declared J. Roschelle - a critical issue raised at the panel
on the nature of education once we remove its identification elements such
as teachers lecturing to a class, memorization of content, or examinations.
The
world
screen
e
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the
Renee Hobbs, Professor of Communication Studies

at the University of Rhode Island, along with her
colleague Julie Coiro, has developed a course
in digital literacy for teachers from elementary
school through college level, librarians and media
specialists. She warned of simply throwing
technological aids into the classroom, accompanied
by a belief that the students already know how to
use them: The myth of the digital native harms
students and teachers alike.
Ido Keinan
Roschelle, co-director of the Center for Technology

in Learning at SRI International, in whose
laboratories over 150 cyberlearning projects are
operating, also warned against blind reliance on
technology: I am afraid that teachers will turn
computer lessons into typing sessions, or making
lessons into product production lessons.
We have to re-imagine education, he said, and
proposed that use be made of the technological
capability to provide multiple representations of the
material under study.
He demonstrated this through the study of
mathematical equations. An equation may be
described narratively, algebraically, graphically or
in tabular form. Use of all four descriptions helps
students understand the equation better.
Panelists: Prof. R.Hobbs, Dr. J.Roschelle, Prof. W.Bender
Students come to the classroom with a sense of

superiority, and teachers come to the classroom
thinking that they dont need to do a thing. It
removes the responsibility from educators. There
are teachers who have a Smart Board in their
classrooms, and they have never turned it on.
Teachers and students can be the ones to shape

the world, rather than accepting the world as it is
shaped for them, said Walter Bender, founder of
Sugar Labs, which develops educational software
used by more than three million children in more
than forty countries, co-founder of the One
Laptop per Child project, and formerly director
of the MIT Media Laboratory. Bender sides with
the use of block-based programming languages,
because they have a low floor. Thats part of their
attractiveness to beginning programmers. But they
also have a low ceiling, and so we need to allow
children to complete their block learning, and to
move on.
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The motivation for learning programming

autonomy, the opportunity to develop expertise
in something, and the sense of having a goal
together creates a strong motive to be involved in
constructing knowledge.
What is the role of the teacher, when he is no longer
the all-knowing, sole educational authority? Access
to digital media from anywhere makes the model of
standing up and teaching outdated. There is an art
to creating a digital literacy learning environment,
said Hobbs. However, she admits, What is digital
literacy? We dont even have agreement over how
to define it. She called for an expansion of the
concept of literacy, so as to include multitasking
(being able to carry out multiple tasks concurrently),
transmediation (translating work between different
media), representation, curation, and more.
In her view, the functions of the new teacher are to
shape the learning environments, identify the needs
of the students, support the students growth in
unexpected ways, and assessing the quality of the
learning experience
One of the tragedies in the American education
system is that we have dispensed with responsibility
in favor of external, commercial, knowledge-testing
systems. I like it when my students exceed my
expectations.
Technology opens the eyes of teachers, and they
can truly teach. Giving a speech is not the same as
teaching, says Roschelle. In the past, the teacher
would come into the classroom and ask: Where did
you have problems with yesterdays homework?
Today he can say, I see that everyone had different
answers in Question 4, lets see what happened
there, because he can see, in real time, what the
students are answering. It is to move from what you
once thought was learning, to really learning.
Bender recounts: I have a friend who is a good
teacher and instructor. A student came into the class
with a gourd, and asked Whats this? She threw
out her lesson plan, and the students learned what
this was. The next day they learned how to grow it
themselves, and the day after that, whether it would
be worth growing. On the fourth day, they prepared
presentations explaining whether it was worth
growing it, and on the fifth day, they prepared a plan
for growing gourds in their own communities.
:
Girls llSecTtivEe M
c o n c e rn
A
co
Seeing the number of people who attended the workshop

(at Shaping the Future III), was not only validating,
but confirmed my belief that girls and STEM
isnt a niche issue but a collective concern.
Orna Lavie
The workshop attendees represented a crosssection of the education ecosystem, including the
Ministry of Education, several NGOs, academia and
industry, organizations that represent the different
stakeholders in the issue of girls and STEM.
Why are so many interested in and worried about
the situation? I believe there are several reasons.
First, governments invest a lot of money in this
sphere, since, not utilizing womens economic
potential could have a negative impact on a
nations economic development. Second, many
of the NGOs are concerned about issues of
equality. It seems that women do not have the
same opportunities to choose occupations as men,
since so few of them choose STEM-related jobs.
Moreover, the salary difference between genders
in STEM is lower than in non-STEM occupations,
so in order to increase womens financial
independence more women should turn to these
professions.
Finally, the commercial companies have dual
concern: (1) In R&D projects, one needs the
diversity of people in the team to better analyze
and solve problems. Excluding women from these
teams is excluding the representation of 50% of
society; (2) There is a huge and growing shortage
of engineers and computer scientists; therefore,
the aim to increase the number of students in these
subjects would gain significantly from having more
women.
One of the more

interesting points
of view raised in the
discussion was the tension
between the desire to increase
the participation of women in
STEM subjects and occupations, and the risk to
perpetuate a victim mentality.
Our research (Fast Forward) is seeking ways
to overcome this dilemma by looking into the
practices of teachers who are successful with
female students and manage to maintain balanced
classes over several years. Our findings show
that there are common characteristics to these
otherwise very different teachers, who in fact
do not have a specific gender agenda. These
teachers strategy stands on two legs. One is the
relationship they build with their students,
as individuals and as a group, and the one they
create between the students and the subject
matter. The other leg is the clearly defined setting
(order and organization, content requirements,
behavioral requirements). It is important to note that
this definition relates to boundaries and rules and it
still leaves room for creativity and imagination,
a well-defined mess, as mentioned by Prof.
Renne Hobbs.
The findings have made us all very

optimistic towards overcoming the gender
gap in STEM subjects - even without big
budget or major changes, teachers can
make a difference simply by being more
aware of their actions and influence.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
TEACHERS as MAKERS:
CONTENT CREATION
as a PEDAGOGY of
LEARNING
Akin Ajayi
Digital is the key

prefix of the moment.
We should all aspire to
become digital citizens,
one understands; children
born into a world of
touchscreen tablets and
always on connectivity
are growing up as digital
Prof. Renee Hobbs
natives. If follows that this
catchphrase has found
a place for itself in pedagogy: digital literacy, we
are told, must be a crucial component of teaching
practice in the 21st Century. But, as the phrase
gradually insinuates itself into our educational
language, fundamental questions arise. Is digital
literacy really the panacea for the educational
challenges of the moment, or an utopian ideal
with its scope and boundaries still contested? Do
administrators, parents and students all take the
same meaning from the phrase, digital literacy?
And, perhaps most importantly, what is the role of
the teacher in this brave new (digital) world?
Teachers as Makers: Content Creation as a
Pedagogy of Learning, a presentation by Professor
Renee Hobbs at Shaping The Future III, addressed
these questions from a functional perspective:
considering not so much what digital literacy is, but
rather what digital literacy can do. Hobbs is a leading
authority on the subject of digital and media literacy
education, and a strong champion of the role of
digital media as a tool to encourage critical thinking,
and for connecting classroom and the wider world.
Her basic contention was the need to acknowledge
that digital literacy is not the re-invention of literacy,
but rather the means by which pedagogic practice
can be invigorated. Digital literacy, she contends,
emerges from and is mediated by the technology
that helps to expand the concept of literacy in the
classroom tools that facilitate easy access to
educational materials, support opportunities for
collaborative working, encourage the introduction of
multiple perspectives to a single topic. What digital
literacy brings to the classroom is the potential for
new ways of learning, new ways of developing skills
and abilities. Digital literacy expands the meaning of
literacy; but it doesnt, by itself, create literacy.
Part of the
fallout from the
misconception of
digital literacy is an almost
axiomatic belief in the divide
between so-called digital natives,
children who have grown up in a technologyunderpinned world, and their teachers who havent.
This is unhelpful, Hobbs argues, not least because
it minimizes the role of teachers in the pedagogic
process. Ubiquitous access to online media, she
agrees, does make the old stand and deliver model
of teaching obsolete. But this creates an opportunity,
she argues, to re-imagine the learning environment.
The key lies in teachers seeing themselves as

makers, using the range of digital media tools
anything from cloud-based collaborative tools
to content-discovery interfaces to shape an
educational learning space that expands
beyond the teacher-student classroom duopoly.
Teachers are an integral part of the brave new
digital world, Hobbs believes. What needs to be
remembered is that digital tools help teachers to
create, rather than dictate.
The full slideshow of Hobbs presentation is available at http://
www.slideshare.net/reneehobbs/teachers-as-makers-contentcreation-as-a-pedagogy-of-learning
bit.ly/Reneeho
with
Jeremy Roschelle
A learning space
that goes beyond
and meets the learner
Director of Center for
Tech in Learning - SRI,
Researcher of Learning
Tech Sciences
How can the new technologies affect

the nature of education in the years
to come?
>> We have so much more
customizable spaces. Learners are

moving within these spaces. Learners
have so many resources available to
them.
People had the idea, when mobile

learning first started, that learners are
going to learn anyplace, anywhere.
But that was the wrong idea.
Learning is not independent of place;
you cannot learn the same thing any
place we have so many different
spaces so where is our learning?
How do we take advantage of that

context? So to me this is the way we
can most powerfully support every
learner to learn to the maximum
learn with the tools and the resources
and take advantage of that setting.
The future learning space is a very
highly designed space that is aware
of the person.
It is aware of the personality the
person brings. Its an ambient space
that may have music or lightning, that
customizes itself to how that learner
likes to learn.
Its a flexible group space, a place
where students come together, where
they can teach each other, where their
teacher can come. It is very different
from the learning spaces we all
experienced ourselves as children
very regimented, very the same.
The technologies that I am excited

about are context-aware technologies
that allow the learner and the context
to respond to each other so they can
better meet each other and support
each other so the learning is better.
There are so many possibilities now
for how spaces can be made specific
to learning, to be very flexible to
the needs of the learners and allow
learners to move among them. But
how do we take advantage of all this
context of these specific spaces to
help learners do the best learning
they can? To me it is a new and very
exciting possibility and I am learning
about it through all the people
Im collaborating with here (at the
Hackathon).
J.Roschelle with his Hackathon partners Y.Kali, A.Warshavsky, H.Gelbendorf,

D.Zamir, G.Weil
Now we have the possibility of not

only going to one generic place
called school to learn, but to take
advantage of the unique things in
the library, when we go out in nature,
when we are in a park, and of the
people around us. But we need
support.
I think we really have the opportunity to

make a space for learners that allows
them to learn to their maximum ability.
bit.ly/Jeremyro
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Thickening
thespread
of education
By now, were accustomed to the idea

that the Internet enables us to spread education out across large physical distances.
But just as spreading Nutella means thinning it, so does spreading education seem to require
making the connections less substantial and real.
David Weinberger
Thats one important reason that virtual reality and
augmented reality appliances were so prevalent at
Shaping the Future III. (The other reasons are that
theyre very cool.) They promise to thicken the
online experience. As Avi Warshavski pointed out in
his presentation, this also helps to explain the recent
increase in interest in the Maker movement and the
Internet of Things: learners are not just brains in space,
as he put it.
Miriam Reiner presented some evidence from her
research that suggests that multi-sensory VR or AR
may enhance the brains ability to learn. Even if that
turns out not to be the case, it was clear from her
presentation, and many others, that both VR and
AR provide more and richer information than simply
staring at a rectangular surface as opposed to entering
a virtual world in the case of VR, or looking at the real
world without the extra layer that AR provides.
Our communication tech often takes us back a few
steps before it then moves us ahead. For example,
early word processors were hooked up to terminalstyle displays and dot matrix printers so that what we
read was of far worse typographic quality than even
what we were getting from electric typewriters of
that era. Likewise, our computer displays have been
unmoving windows that require us to fix our gaze
straight ahead. The new generation of virtual display
devices -- the Oculus Rift, Microsoft HoloLens, the
SteamVR gaming device, Google Cardboard, etc.
- is getting to move us ahead quite dramatically.
The many examples at the conference made the case
convincingly that VR and AR are going to
be important educational tools.
Theyre going to be even more important as we are

able to inhabit these virtual spaces with other teachers
and learners. Thats already happening, as we saw. If
two people strap on a Meta AR device, they can pass
virtual objects back and forth, and a trainer can draw
instructions in space that a HoloLens wearer can see
in her augmented world. (There are almost certainly
lessons to be learned from Croquet, a project by Alan
Kay and David Reed that allowed people to create and
share interactive objects in virtual worlds.)
We cant be very far from the time when we can send
a drone equipped with a 360-degree camera through
an historic city and automatically generate a landscape
that can be traversed virtually by anyone with a VR
device. We cant be very far from the time when a walk
through an AR landscape can be annotated by local
denizens,teachers, historians, sociologists, and snarky
teenagers.
All of this promises a thickening of digital, networked
experience. It will of course be over-hyped and
misused. What isnt? It will also be used astoundingly
well.
But its also important to remember the low tech
way we thicken experience: through social relations.
After all, education isnt really like Nutella, especially
when its spread through human connection. When
students are educating one another even through lowbandwidth technologies, their relationships thicken
simply by getting to know one another. VR and AR can
give us more bits per second, and that counts, but it is
not the only type of enrichment.
Human connection has always transcended the
bandwidth that enables it. There is no reason to think
that will change.
bit.ly/dwein
With printers prices dropping

and specialized search engines
making it easier to find designs,
more and more teachers and
students are discovering
the value of learning by printing
if not already, soon

in a school near you
Gilad Nass
lution
3D printers are not just another evo
The introduction of 3D printing to the school
n in the way
of the CNC cutters, but a revolutio
environment is considered by some as the equivalent
te and experiment,
of introducing computing platforms to schools
educators and students can crea
a few decades ago. Computing was (and still is)
currently within the classroom
a tool which enabled children to get acquainted
home.
with a technology which would surely not only
but within a few years even in the
benefit their current learning methods, but also be
implemented in daily use outside the school and in
3D printing enables a wide array of uses for
future workplaces. The same can be said about 3D
educational purposes, so it would be unjust to limit
printing, as it introduces children to a new way of
its potential to just a few examples. However, it is
applying their learning material, a way which also
worth noting a few interesting uses: In archeology
allows them to be creative not only in the digital
studies, a 3D-printed model of an ancient relic or
realm (software) but also in the physical realm.
fossil can enhance the students grasp of its unique
characteristics. In STEM, 3D printing can both

promote a better engagement with the subjects
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
being learned, and be used as a platform for testing

theories and creating new devices a process which
fosters creativity and even provides new solutions
to old problems that students encountered during
their studies.
3D design search engines

fill the void
It seems the leading country in embracing 3D

printing as a learning tool on a national level, as part
of a larger foray into the maker movement, is the
U.K. Since September 2014 the national curriculum
has officially included 3D printing. While the new
curriculum is not compulsory,
However, reports from the U.K., based on several

surveys conducted among teachers and schools,
claim the latter are not yet prepared with enough
resources to meet the proposed targets.
Furthermore, public and government institutions
create content for 3D printing, thus expanding
both the use cases of this technology in learning
and experimenting, and lowering costs for the
creation of 3D-printed learning tools. One example
of such a contributor is the U.S.s National Institute
of Health 3D Print Exchange website, in which
hundreds of scientific models (such as bone
structures, protein builds, etc.) can be downloaded,
edited and printed. NGOs and not-for-profit
organizations are also promoting the use of 3D
printing in the classroom.
Specialized search engines have been developed

which make it possible to find ready-made 3D
designs Yeggi, Yobi3d and 3Dshapes
to name a few. These search engines, aiming to fill
a gap into which the likes of Google and Microsofts
Bing have not yet ventured, aggregate results from
some 3D model repositories such as Active3D.net,
GradCad, TurboSquid and more.
g, design tools becoming
With prices of 3D printers droppin
existing designs
easier to use and the ability to find
it expects students from the age of 5 to 14 to
mechanism,
offered in an open source usage
be able, during their studies, to create simple
into the education system
computer programs (by understanding the use of
3D printing is driving more deeply
algorithms), and by the time they reach 14 they
should have gained experience with robotics
and 3D printing.
ment
with or without the official endorse
cation.
of the respective ministries of edu
with
Peggy Weil
Sharing real stories

through virtual
environments
Digital Media Artist,
Researcher with
outstanding innovation VR
media projects
Which technologies are becoming

dominant to the future of education?
>> I prefer not to highlight one

particular technology because it is
not really about technology; its about
a way of looking at the world and
using technology, whether its VR or
AR or wooden blocks, to foster more
collaboration, more enthusiasm, and
really more critical thinking, and about
taking the steps that lead to another
step that leads to a branch thinking
about the process.
P.Weil with W.Bender (old-friend from MIT)

at the Hackathon
Another important part we should

not ignore is teaching media literacy
just because its in VR and we
respond with incredible empathy
doesnt mean its a good situation
that is being expressed. These are
very manipulative new genres, and
that is why we like them, that is why
we are interested we want to use
them for empathy but anything being
used for empathy can be used for
propaganda.
We need to teach, explore and
acknowledge that it is very important
to have media literacy for this new
media. I think that it is very important.
Coding is very fundamental; people

learning the language of coding but
also learning the language of data
and to be able to translate the
invisible language that we have all
around us into these different
medium.
I am part of a group of something
called Immersive Journalism, which
really looks at non-fictional storytelling
in these AR-VR environments. These
are environments that are really set
up for gaming or entertainment.
There are certainly a lot of games
in education, but telling real stories,
being able to share your nonfiction real environment, would
be incredibly valuable for empathy,
for understanding and for exploring
things that are hard to explore.
From what I can tell there are

people here who are story tellers,
technologists, educators, even people
in public policy, academics, people in
the community - all coming together
to put their minds together and come
up with new solutions. It forwards a
possibility to collaborate and really
come out with imaginative new
solutions.
I was dropped in the middle of
the desert (Yeruham, where the
Hackathon took place). There is
a huge sense of excitement. There is
a seriousness combined with
a playfulness that
I find really lovely.
People are very
focused on what they
are doing and yet
there is a lightness
about the possibilities.
P.Weil presenting her group final project at the Hackathon
Nobody seems
restricted. There is not
a set path. The path
is to work together,
collaboratively,
to come out with
something. It is very
optimistic.
What is the importance of events like

this Hackathon?
>> Hackathons such as this one are

very exciting and important for the
future of education because it brings
people together from various walks
of life.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
Thought s
on
Shaping the Future III
In June I had the opportunity of participating in Shaping the Future III,

which began with an intensive 36-hour Hackathon held in the desert town
of Yeruham and concluded with MINDBLITZ, a two-day conference
in Tel Aviv both focused on identifying and supporting upcoming trends
in education.
Peggy Weil
The Hackathon model is interesting: professionals
from different disciplines converge in small
teams to act on their brainstorms and produce
a prototype in a very short time frame. The
time (short) and the setting (remote) create
intensity and focus, resulting in an experience
valuable as much for the camaraderie and
collaborative experience as for the final
projects.
I arrived late and was not initially assigned to
a particular group and thus was able to get a broad
overview of many of the projects just as they had
committed to a course of action. I was interested
that the teams took two very different approaches to
defining projects. One set began with the technology
and hoped to find an educational application; the other
set began with a learning objective and sought to find
a solution by developing an appropriate technology.
Beginning with the technology was the flashier route:
What cool things can we do with a drone? But the
latter seemed to me to be more thoughtful: technology
not as a solution in search of a random problem, but
as a particular solution to an existing issue.
One of the groups described a situation in
a community where there are older people who are
skilled in handicrafts such as woodworking but not
necessarily skilled in teaching and yet there was
a compelling interest to pass along this knowledge.
How might technology serve the preservation
of individual knowledge serving the community?
Or, specifically: Can technology be utilized to support
a mentoring relationship?
Anchored by MAKE Magazine founder Dale Dougherty,
the group created a demonstration website intended
to match mentors to upcoming makers with step-bystep guidance for projects; a solid, yet reconfigurable
framework for transmitting community knowledge.
Digital technology is especially suited

to complex, layered topics that defy
linear explanations. Computation allows for the
application of a series of solutions; each matched
to the particular conceptual step in the subject or
allowing for different paths and different approaches
through the material. Game mechanics ranging from
2D puzzles to role-playing to advanced simulations
can, together, provide a meaningful path through
a complex topic; for example, The Redistricting
Game, a game I helped design and produce at
USC, begins with a 2D puzzle-like mapmaking
exercise, and proceeds, employing role-playing
game mechanics, to model the process of the
map gaining approval through the legislative,
executive and judicial branches of government.
In the education space, it might be helpful to
re-conceive of Virtual Reality (VR) as Virtual
Environments (VE). As whole subjects become
folded into online worlds to create immersive
experiences, the Immersive Journalism projects
pioneered by Nonny de la Pea and myself
illustrate the potential to create compelling
non-fiction narratives in these spaces. World Building,
a budding design discipline, will contribute to the
re-imagining of education and storytelling as students
work through dilemmas and problems to create
worlds.
Just as literature and art have embraced

non-linear, aleatory and abstract avenues
of expression in the previous century, education
in this century will follow with
new approaches to learning matched to our
non-linear, aleatory and complex world.
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EdTech Mindset

your must-have educational guide to the future

EdTech beyond the screen from virtual to tangible reality

Editor Cecilia Waismann ceciliaw@cet.ac.il

Spatial Turning Point

Meet the participants

A new generation of true makers

14 Virtual Reality, a personal experience beyond technology

(extracts from Prof. Miriam Reiners talk)

16 Teachers need to expose students to powerful ideas

Q&A with Walter Bender

17 Coding: Making better learners

Ilan Ben Yaakov

18 Allowing a Hackathon to provide

20 IoT: Interaction between human and machines

22 Creating an Educational Innovation Zone

24 Constructing ones own learning experience

Q&A with Robert Gehorsan

25 Gaming, a global grammar of youth

(extracts from Robert Gehorsans talk)

26 The world beyond the screen - The educational perspective

28 Girls & STEM: A collective concern

29 Teachers as Makers: Content Creation as a Pedagogy of Learning

30 A learning space that goes beyondand meets the learner

Q&A with Jeremy Roschelle

31 Thickening the spread of Education

32 3D Printing if not already, soon in a school near you

34 Sharing real stories through virtual environments

Q&A with Peggy Weil

35 Thoughts on Shaping the Future III

////EdTech MindSet /Special Edition/2015

Technology and knowledge have always gone hand in

outside, the new technology that we have adopted is

If we wish to look critically at the transparent

These pictures are so common that they could be

may be read both naively and critically. When we look

////EdTech MindSet /Special Edition/2015

We have put on the glasses of a science fiction writer

The Makers Movement blurs the distinction between

The next stage in the lead up to the turning point

between the virtual and the real and an unmediated

Samsung, and others. It appears that we are only a few

////EdTech MindSet /Special Edition/2015

Three men sit on couch wearing virtual

In this world, technology will function as a tool

If we attempt to imagine a world in which these

Only a few years after the first Morse signals were

////EdTech MindSet /Special Edition/2015

D. Dougherty with his Hackathon partners

Father of the Maker

How do you see the Maker Movement

>> There are key concepts here. One

Schools should be more about a set

Technology is changing in the world

>> I think the Maker Movement is

that engage students. I think that

Hacking, Gaming and Entrepreneurship three powerful activities

Looking at the spectrum of learning spaces

Hacking became almost like the

Gaming, another example, is the current

(extracts from Prof. Miriam Reiners talk)

Why when you learn, when you teach, is it

VR BeAnotherLab project participating at the Hackathon

How do you see the future of learning?