From Boring to Exciting

AMIT Educators are Turning Distance Learning into a Successful Experience for Students

BY HELGA ABRAHAM

In the summer of 2020 when AMIT educators Dikla Bar and Danny Steiner were asked to prepare a Hybrid program that would offer junior and high school students tracks and general knowledge courses online, they jumped at the opportunity. “We immediately realized that distance learning could help resolve problems faced by schools with limited resources or schools in remote areas such as the north of Israel,” says Bar. “Through distance learning, students at these schools would be able to enjoy the same opportunities as schools in the center of the country.” Bar is proud of the fact that the program has enabled two students from Hatzor in the north of the country to study computer science for their high school certificate. “Since AMIT Hatzor does not offer computer science, the only other option would have been to bus the students to Acre twice a week, which is very impractical.”

Rather than a stop-gap project made necessary by an emergency situation, Bar and Steiner saw their mission as an opportunity to do something creative and pioneering. “From the start,” says Steiner, “we aimed to do something diff erent and wide-ranging.”

The new Hybrid School which they created caters specifi cally to AMIT students in the north of the country and off ers six tracks and a dozen general knowledge courses online. The school is presented online with a colorful background and each course is accompanied by a cute video description. Aware of the challenges of distance learning — the success rate has been as dismal in Israel as around the world — the two educators made every eff ort to make the school interesting and fun. “In regular distance learning at schools, students see on their screens the same teachers they have in class. We did something new,” says Steiner. “We brought in new teachers in order to create new situations that would be more stimulating for the student.”

The approach proved particularly successful for the courses off ered in the General Knowledge program, a two hour a week mandatory program for grade 10 students. Until the Hybrid School was launched, tenth graders had to make do with whichever teachers were able to teach them an extracurricular subject. “With the Hybrid School we were able to bring in teachers from other schools or external teachers and off er a huge range of subjects,” says Bar. In this framework, Bar taught a course in astrophysics and one in science fi ction while Steiner taught a course in emotional leadership and one in psychological experiments with humans. Other courses off ered on the program included: moral philosophy, digital music editing, mass communication, fi nancial management, fashion, and styling, baking, public speaking in English, and many more.

One of the most popular general knowledge courses among the students was the baking course given by Meirav Huri, a veteran Hebrew grammar teacher at AMIT Haifa Ulpana who had done an advanced course in baking and baked simply as a hobby. “I was, however, looking to do something creative,” recalls Huri, “although I never imagined it was possible to teach baking online.“ With a little training on how to work with cameras, Huri set about pre-

Meirav Huri

The new hybrid school is presented online with a colorful background and each course is accompanied by a cute video description.

paring her course. “From the start, I made sure the course would be accessible to all students in terms of expenses. I only used basic products and did everything by hand in order to avoid the need for a mixer. For a beginners’ course, the tasks assigned to the students were more than challenging; they had to bake challahs, pizzas, bagels, layered cakes and eclairs. Some girls had never operated an oven before, so they found it hard at fi rst. But the results were amazing and of a very high standard.”

Shilat Mordok, a tenth grader from AMIT Hatzor who comes from a family of 10, took Huri’s course and found it easier than she expected: “I thought it would be really hard to follow online, but I was surprised. The course was very clear, well-constructed, and I knew exactly what I had to do. Some recipes were more diffi cult than others.” Bagels, she recalls, took time and required a lot of patience. In contrast, she says, chocolate souffl és are easy to make and she now makes them regularly for her parents and siblings.

For her part, tenth grader Inbal Ohana, from AMIT Haifa, had no cooking or baking background when she joined Huri’s course. “I was apprehensive at fi rst but I discovered quite quickly that baking is fun and relatively easy. It’s very satisfying to begin from zero and make something that looks and tastes good.” She says she got into trouble with her eclairs but is proud of the heart-shaped cream cake she made and beautifully decorated. “My family loved everything I made, especially my pizza and they ask me to bake something for them every week.“

For Huri, the challenge of teaching online was mainly technical: “I had to learn how to work with two cameras, one on my face and a mobile camera

Inbal Ohana (l) and teacher Meirav Huri (r)

on my hands, and watch the students work at the same time. Of course, I couldn’t taste their creations, but just by looking I was able to tell if they had succeeded or not.” Commenting on the overall experience, she says, “If you are creative, distance learning can open the door to a new world.”

Five hundred students from 11 Amit schools attended the Hybrid School. A key to its success was the relationship which the teachers built with their students. “The main challenge of distance learning is creating a commitment on the part of the students,” says Adam Ben-Natan, who gave a course in public speaking in English. “A lot of extra class support is needed, such as communicating individually with the students on WhatsApp and reinforcing them.” One of his students, tenth grader Hallel Zochman, had no problem with distance learning: “When distance learning is forced on you, then it’s boring, but I chose to do the public speaking course and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is harder to concentrate online and you have to learn how to multitask, but once you do you can accomplish more than in a regular class.” Zochman says she learned a lot about speechwriting during the course, and indeed, her newfound skills enabled her to win fi rst place at the Rotary Club Young Speaker Competition with a speech she gave, this time in Hebrew, on children’s rights.

A key ingredient to the Hybrid School’s success in its fi rst year of operation was clearly the personal touch. “We understood that regular Zoom classes were unsuccessful because the teachers did not have a good relationship with the students,” says Bar. “So we put great emphasis on building a good relationship both with the students and with the teachers.” Asked what she learned from the overall experience, she says, “I learned how great and fulfi lling it is to do something pioneering and new.”

In the next academic year, AMIT plans to expand the Hybrid School to AMIT schools across the country, off ering a greater selection of tracks and courses. “This year, 20% of students were involved in some form of independent learning,” says Bar. “Next year, we want this number to reach 80%. Distance learning will not just be relegated to the home. Schools will have hybrid spaces equipped with monitors and earphones where students can learn online practically any subject they wish. The emphasis will be on greater choice.”