Jewish Interactive speaks at Oxford University

Jewish Interactive is going back to Uni!

An inspiring day at Oxford University’s Department for Education.

Jewish Interactive’s CEO Chana Kanzen was invited to present and take part in the first ever Technology in Schools Symposium hosted by Oxford University Learning and New Technologies Research Group and Culham St Gabriel’s Trust.

While the academic field of educational technology deals with the latest innovative technologies and the digital revolution, teaching professionals are the ones in the actual field adapting those technologies, coping with the necessary changes to pedagogic approaches and dealing with the realities of their classrooms.

In order to establish a dialogue between researchers and practitioners, the  symposium brought together academics and teachers to share their experiences of working with technology in various educational settings.

Chana Kanzen’s presentation with her unique perspective as a teacher of 20 years, a deputy head  and a provider in the field of educational technology, was enlightening.  Chana shared with the audience the Jewish Interactive story, starting in 2012, meeting Nicky Newfield at a time when she was trying desperately to find ways to motivate and engage her RE students. This was at the beginning of the tech boom and the audience were fascinated at the speed of growth and the number of countries using JI’s products. Chana mentioned she had observed that face to face instruction was necessary- fascinating in a time of Skype and webinars. In each instance of a face to face training users of JI had dramatically risen. The human connection is still vital in her opinion.

Sharing ideas and realities with people from different perspectives has been critical.  In addition to presenting, we learned a lot from the experiences shared by researchers and educators which included real innovative m application of technology in schools and the latest research on the subject. As the leading EdTech Jewish Organization in the UK, Jewish Interactive was proud to be a part of this important event and is even prouder to be able to share it with hundreds of educators and thousands of pupils all over the world!