Search results for: Blended learning

The Israeli academic year for higher education will start with remote learning only, the Committee of University Heads in Israel announced on Tuesday, on the assumption that the lockdown restrictions will continue even after the holiday period. The committee added that later in the semester, the institutions will examine the possibility of returning students to campus, depending on the national infection rates.

The crisis is real, and there is no virtue in ignoring it. The pressure on day-school leaders and boards is relentless, and the immediate question is how to keep our existing educational institutions afloat. But the strategic challenge is to imagine “the new normal”—including the new possibilities—born of this multifaceted crisis. In short: how do American Jews—and Americans in general—eventually turn this tidal wave of disruptions into (as the great social thinker Joseph Schumpeter put it) “a gale of creative destruction” in the Jewish education sphere? Looking beyond the current crisis, can we fashion new models of Jewish schooling that are intellectually, culturally, and economically stronger than ever? And can Jews serve as a light unto other traditional communities in America, who face similar challenges?

Kitah, a Jewish education blended learning platform, offers professional, interactive, intuitive learning experiences focusing on text study and skills acquisition through the study of classic Judaic subjects, bringing the power of online learning to Jewish schools, educators, parents, and students. Today more than ever, as schools face the uncertainly of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, teachers and administrators need high-quality digital lessons that they can assign to their students either at home or in the classroom in an easy, simple manner. Kitah offers flipped-classroom courses based on the Kahn Academy model, which educate and engage students with skill-based lessons which can be studied asychronously, in a non-frontal learning slot.

Four years ago, Virtual High School (VHS, Inc.) was offered the opportunity and the challenge to create a program that would provide online Judaic studies courses to Jewish day schools across North America. The opportunity was exciting. We knew our expertise and experience was us up to the task; the Virtual High School has provided online General studies offerings to public and independent school for almost 25 years. The challenge with this specific project, however, was daunting because of the numerous questions we faced.