Innovative auxiliary tools for teaching and improving digital literacy have a positive influence on the education system and prepare pupils for the constantly changing world of employment. Eureka World and Annoto \u2013 two startups that have received Innovation Authority impact investments \u2013 are excellent examples of technology companies with a significant impact on pupils, teachers, and the world of learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Multi-participant Community \u2013 Creation and Commerce<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nEureka World<\/a> is an education technology company that enables joint creation and learning in multi-participant 3D worlds which also combine physical interfaces such as 3D printers, robotics controllers, VR headsets and others. During the last 3 years, more than 150 teachers have served as mentors for pupils participating in Eureka’s 3D worlds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n“Eureka’s vision is to create a human study companion in ‘augmented reality’ and to utilize the wonderful capabilities of 3D in new worlds, without losing the human connection and the active community,” explains Shabtai Kaminer<\/strong>, one of the company’s owners who in 2014 joined up with Uri Shapira<\/strong>, a veteran technology and media expert. Together, the two founded and developed Eureka as a virtual domain that enables 3D creation and learning and harnesses technology in the service of pedagogy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n“We conform to the definition of 3D3C domains,” says Kaminer, “because learning in virtual worlds and 3D domains includes a multi-participant community, creation, and commerce. The rules of the game are simple and enable us to provide added value to the creative process which is the core issue. We have also progressed even by connecting everything to the world of “Making” via 3D printers, robotics and electronics. This is the ideal environment in which to facilitate the learning of 21st<\/sup> century skills. The mainstay of learning is done at school and then continues at home. After all, there is no reason why learning should be restricted to a 45-minute lesson in the classroom.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Game Technology that Enables Human Connections<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\nThe technological-learning environment offered by Eureka enables human, emotional and experiential connections in an augmented reality in a way that expands the participants’ personal ability. “Our product is software. In practice, it is a 3D game that was created by pupils and teachers. Each group chooses a topic and creates its own game to which it can invite other groups to play. Creating the game is the best way for the pupils to learn its content. Furthermore, creating a world with Eureka develops important skills such as teamwork, technological thinking, storytelling via a game, contending with programming, logic, designing etc. Each game is unique, and the participants can decide whether to distribute a printable prize to the participants or to create an assignment and send it to them via a friend’s 3D printer.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Kaminer, the game setting creates immediate interactions. “For example, we have a group made up of an American Jewish school which for the last two years has been working with two Israeli schools in Nahariya and in Akko. Last year, the three groups built together a 3D museum environment of pre-WW2 Jewish communities in which you can visit a school in Casablanca or the market in Kovno. It’s amazing and it’s all based on research conducted by the pupils themselves.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/innovationisrael.org.il\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/06\/eurekaworld17-1024x493.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Creating Requires Pupils to Try Harder and Improve <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\nThe technological platform is not intended just for pupils. In the kindergarten teachers’ program at Beit Berl for example, the participants chose to use Eureka’s technology to design a dream garden, for pedagogical development, research, and other purposes. “We instruct the teachers and they instruct the pupils,” says Kaminer. “Eureka World has 12,000 registered members and last year we operated at 100 schools, from 4th<\/sup> grade up to university. Next year, we intend to expand our activity to dozens more schools, both in Israel and abroad.”<\/p>\n\n\n\nEureka relies mainly on children’s motivation for playing games. The creative process challenges them. Work on a project can take 6 months and both teachers and pupils are required to contribute towards its success. By using 3D printers and other different technologies, they test a future world where they can invent and create products, while acquiring knowledge about the strength of different materials, printing efficiency, design, color and more. Using a 3D printer also issues an important statement in favor of a sustainable world all along the global consumer chain. With such a printer, there is no need for a store that sells chairs, a truck to transport them, trees to supply the wood, etc. That is all part of the impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We were extremely pleased that the Innovation Authority identified the potential right from the outset and even awarded us a follow-up grant. We simply couldn’t have progressed without this support. In the world of educational technology, it takes time until you see profits and the product returns its investment,” says Kaminer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Increasing Learner Involvement via Collaborative Video Learning<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nThe world of education and teaching is advancing rapidly and is preparing pupils for the 21st<\/sup> century. In order for this process to succeed, it is essential to adapt pedagogy to the changing reality and to develop relevant skills that will enable pupils to function optimally in the future. Use of video clips and online courses for learning, training and education has increased over the years because of their widespread accessibility \u2013 both in term of time and place \u2013 however the lack of a physical learning experience and the difficulty in ensuring and assessing the pupils’ understanding of the study material have proved significant disadvantages. <\/p>\n\n\n\nHen Eytan, Kirill Slavkin <\/strong>and Genadi Sokolov<\/strong> also encountered these disadvantages when studying in digital courses during their joint IDF service in Unit 9900 and during their subsequent years of employment. The solution they created is Annoto<\/a> (in Latin: “to react to”) \u2013 an educational startup they founded together, and which transforms passive watching of a video into an active collaborative and social learning experience. Annoto aims to increase learner involvement, enhance both communication between the pupils and the quality of video learning, and to provide meaningful insights for the organization and teacher about the pupils’ level of understanding. Annoto adds an interactive layer of dialogue onto the video thereby allowing the pupils to conduct a discussion at any point during the class. This dynamic information layer of opinions, questions, and answers includes the ability to summarize important points in a personal notebook and allows all the pupils to revisit the lesson thereby learning more about the content created and added by other participants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n“Many of the advantages of the physical classroom learning experience where the pupils discuss things among themselves, help each other and study together, and where the teacher can ascertain the level of understanding of both the class and of each individual pupil simply don’t exist with online classes,” Slavkin explains. “The teacher is not always aware of each individual pupil, the pupils don’t communicate with each other, and the content consumption is one-directional \u2013 a difficulty that has been termed the “loneliness of the long-distance learner.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We understood from our personal experience as teachers that this is a problem that will only become more acute,” Eytan says. “We approached leading universities and educational institutions that make extensive use of video in online long-distance learning, and discovered several common problems: many of those registering for an online course fail to complete it, the participants experience loneliness and passivity during the studies, the students lack basic tools for studying with video clips, and the lecturer has no way to assess the participants’ level of understanding or to formulate related insights to enhance the content and thereby improve the learning process. Although the lecturer can communicate with the student via email or text message, this communication remains private without the other participants gaining any related knowledge, involvement or interest in the content being discussed.”<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/innovationisrael.org.il\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/06\/annoto17-1024x645.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
“Eureka’s vision is to create a human study companion in ‘augmented reality’ and to utilize the wonderful capabilities of 3D in new worlds, without losing the human connection and the active community,” explains Shabtai Kaminer<\/strong>, one of the company’s owners who in 2014 joined up with Uri Shapira<\/strong>, a veteran technology and media expert. Together, the two founded and developed Eureka as a virtual domain that enables 3D creation and learning and harnesses technology in the service of pedagogy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “We conform to the definition of 3D3C domains,” says Kaminer, “because learning in virtual worlds and 3D domains includes a multi-participant community, creation, and commerce. The rules of the game are simple and enable us to provide added value to the creative process which is the core issue. We have also progressed even by connecting everything to the world of “Making” via 3D printers, robotics and electronics. This is the ideal environment in which to facilitate the learning of 21st<\/sup> century skills. The mainstay of learning is done at school and then continues at home. After all, there is no reason why learning should be restricted to a 45-minute lesson in the classroom.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The technological-learning environment offered by Eureka enables human, emotional and experiential connections in an augmented reality in a way that expands the participants’ personal ability. “Our product is software. In practice, it is a 3D game that was created by pupils and teachers. Each group chooses a topic and creates its own game to which it can invite other groups to play. Creating the game is the best way for the pupils to learn its content. Furthermore, creating a world with Eureka develops important skills such as teamwork, technological thinking, storytelling via a game, contending with programming, logic, designing etc. Each game is unique, and the participants can decide whether to distribute a printable prize to the participants or to create an assignment and send it to them via a friend’s 3D printer.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Kaminer, the game setting creates immediate interactions. “For example, we have a group made up of an American Jewish school which for the last two years has been working with two Israeli schools in Nahariya and in Akko. Last year, the three groups built together a 3D museum environment of pre-WW2 Jewish communities in which you can visit a school in Casablanca or the market in Kovno. It’s amazing and it’s all based on research conducted by the pupils themselves.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The technological platform is not intended just for pupils. In the kindergarten teachers’ program at Beit Berl for example, the participants chose to use Eureka’s technology to design a dream garden, for pedagogical development, research, and other purposes. “We instruct the teachers and they instruct the pupils,” says Kaminer. “Eureka World has 12,000 registered members and last year we operated at 100 schools, from 4th<\/sup> grade up to university. Next year, we intend to expand our activity to dozens more schools, both in Israel and abroad.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eureka relies mainly on children’s motivation for playing games. The creative process challenges them. Work on a project can take 6 months and both teachers and pupils are required to contribute towards its success. By using 3D printers and other different technologies, they test a future world where they can invent and create products, while acquiring knowledge about the strength of different materials, printing efficiency, design, color and more. Using a 3D printer also issues an important statement in favor of a sustainable world all along the global consumer chain. With such a printer, there is no need for a store that sells chairs, a truck to transport them, trees to supply the wood, etc. That is all part of the impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We were extremely pleased that the Innovation Authority identified the potential right from the outset and even awarded us a follow-up grant. We simply couldn’t have progressed without this support. In the world of educational technology, it takes time until you see profits and the product returns its investment,” says Kaminer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The world of education and teaching is advancing rapidly and is preparing pupils for the 21st<\/sup> century. In order for this process to succeed, it is essential to adapt pedagogy to the changing reality and to develop relevant skills that will enable pupils to function optimally in the future. Use of video clips and online courses for learning, training and education has increased over the years because of their widespread accessibility \u2013 both in term of time and place \u2013 however the lack of a physical learning experience and the difficulty in ensuring and assessing the pupils’ understanding of the study material have proved significant disadvantages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hen Eytan, Kirill Slavkin <\/strong>and Genadi Sokolov<\/strong> also encountered these disadvantages when studying in digital courses during their joint IDF service in Unit 9900 and during their subsequent years of employment. The solution they created is Annoto<\/a> (in Latin: “to react to”) \u2013 an educational startup they founded together, and which transforms passive watching of a video into an active collaborative and social learning experience. Annoto aims to increase learner involvement, enhance both communication between the pupils and the quality of video learning, and to provide meaningful insights for the organization and teacher about the pupils’ level of understanding. Annoto adds an interactive layer of dialogue onto the video thereby allowing the pupils to conduct a discussion at any point during the class. This dynamic information layer of opinions, questions, and answers includes the ability to summarize important points in a personal notebook and allows all the pupils to revisit the lesson thereby learning more about the content created and added by other participants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Many of the advantages of the physical classroom learning experience where the pupils discuss things among themselves, help each other and study together, and where the teacher can ascertain the level of understanding of both the class and of each individual pupil simply don’t exist with online classes,” Slavkin explains. “The teacher is not always aware of each individual pupil, the pupils don’t communicate with each other, and the content consumption is one-directional \u2013 a difficulty that has been termed the “loneliness of the long-distance learner.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We understood from our personal experience as teachers that this is a problem that will only become more acute,” Eytan says. “We approached leading universities and educational institutions that make extensive use of video in online long-distance learning, and discovered several common problems: many of those registering for an online course fail to complete it, the participants experience loneliness and passivity during the studies, the students lack basic tools for studying with video clips, and the lecturer has no way to assess the participants’ level of understanding or to formulate related insights to enhance the content and thereby improve the learning process. Although the lecturer can communicate with the student via email or text message, this communication remains private without the other participants gaining any related knowledge, involvement or interest in the content being discussed.”<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Game Technology that Enables Human Connections<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Creating Requires Pupils to Try Harder and Improve <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Increasing Learner Involvement via Collaborative Video Learning<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n