Our next stop of the day was the Kaye College of Education in Beer-Sheva. As was to be expected, we heard introductory remarks (if we didn't already know, we know now that that's unavoidable). But as things warmed up Merav Assaf spoke with fervor about how it's possible to use ICT to promote more student-centered pedagogy. She showed us, for example, how a course that didn't have a "textbook" built one. The students in the course prepared movies via their smartphones, uploaded them to YouTube, and then constructed a blog in which the students were able to discuss the films and the issues raised in them. In addition she showed us an example of the "Know-Mobile" project in the town of Hura (where we didn't visit) and similar towns, of how the availability of laptops in the schools caused mothers in the community, some of whom had never been outside of their towns, curious about computers and the internet.
We also met with the President of the college, Lea Kosminsky, who described the special role that the college plays in its larger community of the Negev, and heard from Annette Kahan who spoke about the catalog of educational web sites that she's been building for the past decade, and showed us that her modest project gets many thousands of hits, including from the Arab world.
And though we were pressed for time, we took a moment for a group photo ... in which at least most of us are visible.
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