Subscribe to Print Edition | Thu., November 19, 2009 Kislev 2, 5770 | | Israel Time: 23:14 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
Jewish World Haaretz Toolbar
Diplomacy
Defense Opinion National
Print Edition
Car Rental
Focus U.S.A. Strenger than Fiction Business Travel Magazine Week's End Anglo File Books
Share |
Look, Ma, no blackboard!
By Guy Griml
Tags: Israel News

The large building at 7 Hapelech Street in southern Tel Aviv, surrounded by auto-repair shops and smoky fast-food joints, has no sign identifying it. Inside, in a large open-space office, 300 employees of the Time to Know startup are hunched over their computers. Their company, which maintains a veil of secrecy over its activities, aims to revolutionize education around the world - and, if possible, to make some money in the process.

Founded five years ago, Time to Know is developing a digital platform for use in classrooms. Students are equipped with laptops connected to the teacher's computer, by means of which the curriculum is taught. The teacher is also able to devote individual attention to students via the system, which analyzes their performance in real time and allows the teacher to see who needs help. In the future, people at the company hope, their platform will also offer a means for students to receive and submit homework.

Time to Know is not yet making any money, but it continues to operate and employ its large staff without help from venture capital funds. Its backer, and the man who conceived of the idea, is Shmuel Meitar, the right-hand man of millionaire Morris Kahn. Together with Meitar's brother Zvi Meitar, the two founded the Aurec Group, which owned such companies as Amdocs and Golden Pages Publications. In the last decade, the trio sold off most of their businesses for a total of some $2 billion in cash.
Advertisement
Shmuel Meitar's fortune is estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars. Although he guards his privacy fiercely - until recently he insisted on his involvement in the project being kept secret - Meitar is an active supporter of certain social causes. As someone who suffered from prostate cancer, he contributes quite a lot to the fight against the disease. Also, because he strongly believes in organic foods, he built an organic farm at his home in Moshav Bnei Zion and shares the produce with his friends.

Meitar intends to keep funding Time to Know until the platform is complete, and then to offer it free of charge to Israel's education system. The plan is eventually to present a total curriculum in Hebrew, English and Arabic for grades 1 through 12, but at this point only the math, English, Hebrew and science curricula for grades 4 to 6 have been created.

Time to Know's CEO is veteran high-tech figure Yosi Ben-Dov. "About a year ago, my twin granddaughters were born," he relates. "I thought this was exactly the right time to start thinking about retirement. I went back to teaching a course at the Technion's Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, and happened to meet the man who conceived Time to Know," that is, Shmuel Meitar. "I was completely hooked. He spoke about a true vision, a revolution, in an area where high-tech almost never goes. About a change in the way children can learn at school with the help of technology."

'What's $600 a year?'

Dovi Weiss is the company's chief pedagogical officer. He says he has "always been infected with the teaching bug. After the army I got a master's degree in the United States, in development of multimedia-based learning environments. When I returned to Israel, I taught math and literature for 12 years ... and got my Ph.D. in mathematics education. I also developed a program for teaching math and even raised some money for it from municipalities. At some point I met the visionary who funds Time to Know. He supported the program I developed, but urged me to think big. He lamented the fact that the entire educational world was in ruins, and said he had an idea of how to deal with it - via technology. He sent Arik Yifat, Time to Know's first CEO, and me to search for a holistic solution to change learning, something with which we could use technology to revolutionize the existing educational system. We visited dozens of projects around the world, but could not find an appropriate model anywhere."

"Our original goal was to develop 48 years' worth of computerized curricular content - four subjects each for grades 1 through 12," explains Ben-Dov. "We estimated that development of a curriculum would cost $500,000 for each year, so we would need $25 million, plus another $20-$25 million to develop the software. Our investor said this would be his gift to education in Israel: $50 million to create a revolution.

"Now, five years later, tens of millions of dollars have been invested the firm, but we only have nine years' worth of content. Our investor told us that if this is the situation, the whole undertaking will cost $300 million - and for that we need to raise more money."

It was then decided that Time to Know would continue to offer the software for its system to Israeli schools free of charge, but would be marketed abroad for a fee. It is already being used by eight fourth-grade classes in two schools in Texas. One of the schools got the system for free; the other paid for it. American communications corporation AT&T is also involved in the project in Texas.

How much is the system supposed to cost abroad?

Ben-Dov: "We estimate the cost per child to be about $600 a year, everything included: hardware, wireless network, teacher training, software and curricular materials. What's $600 a year? Parents today spend that much on cell phones for their kids. Besides, as part of the economic recovery program, U.S. President Obama has allocated about $100 billion for education. Much of that money is devoted to building schools and improving infrastructure, and $5 billion is earmarked for classroom innovation. So the funding exists.

"The problem is not the cost, it's that until now the solution was not available. Quite a bit of money was spent, but there were no good results. There are plenty of learning materials on the Internet. But teachers need to be given the materials in advance and freed from preparing the curriculum. That's why we created our system."

What's your plan?

"There are currently 54 million students in U.S schools. We need just 1 percent of them to break even - i.e., to sell our product to 500,000 students. It's not impossible, and that's only in the United States. One advantage of our system is that it can be translated into different languages. We believe that in three or four years, we will have broken even. We'll start in English-speaking countries, and then move on."

Did you need assistance from the state?

"We don't want a single shekel from the State of Israel. It's our gift to the education system. But we do want the government and businesspeople to help the local authorities buy the computers. Let them find donations for that. And if Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar can help - all the better."

Have any local officials or policy makers seen the system?

"It was seen by outgoing Finance Ministry director general Yarom Ariav, senior officials at the Education Ministry and former education minister Prof. Yuli Tamir. They all spoke highly of it. True, the government has recently changed, but the professional people have not. We're hearing about cuts in education, but believe the state will still choose to help and to invest in computers and networks for schools that want the system."

Weiss: "We can continue with development of the software, but if we want to accelerate it, we will need the support of the state."

Why don't you raise money from venture capital funds?

Ben-Dov: "Based on my experience, this kind of company is not right for them. Developing a technological system for education takes a long time. That's also why very few funds invest in pharmaceuticals; they know developing a new drug costs $600-$800 million and takes 10 years. VC funds work on a much shorter timetable."

Weiss: "Only a private player can develop this kind of system. I believe that if there are good results, the state will come on board and support the project. But the state is not designed to get involved in this sort of experiment. What is necessary is a combination of innovation, boldness and a willingness to invest. Those are not the characteristics of a state.

"In general, the story of Israel's education system is an economic one. Indeed, throughout history, education has been affected by economic needs. When the Industrial Revolution occurred 200 years ago, there was a need for an obedient workforce. Later the authorities wanted to train citizens to be obedient soldiers .

"Now, 200 years later, society, the economy, culture, and children's needs and goals have all changed - but the teaching model has not. Today, you still have one teacher standing before a class of 30 or more students. And there are three main problems with this frontal teaching model. First, it's hard to create meaningful learning for all students this way, because there are considerable gaps between them. Second, students who step into the classroom today enter a kind of time machine: They are glued to their cellular phones, sending text messages, while the teacher stands by the blackboard with a piece of chalk. The students look for a remote control to switch the channel, but there isn't any.

"Third, it is very hard today to evaluate students. What kind of tools does a teacher have? A quiz every other week, at best. Everyone would like to change that and create the kind of learning in which students play an active part, rather than simply receiving instructions. The problem is that it's hard to move from frontal teaching to another model of instruction, and as a consequence, the children become alienated. They memorize material, forget it - and hate school. They are not asked to demonstrate understanding and thinking, and as a result, they don't learn."

You're talking about changing education through technology. But technology is already being used at schools.

"Only partially. In practice, what happens is that there may be a computer lab outside the classroom where children go a few hours a week. According to our method, students have a computer to use throughout their classes. The computer may identify how quickly the student is learning, but that's only useful in certain cases, mainly vis-a-vis basic learning.

"Studies in the United States show that educational software is not good for teaching concepts such as fractions or the multiplication tables, or for explaining how to identify the key idea in a paragraph or to formulate an argument. In our method, the learning is led by the teacher. We give him or her tools, just as doctors or architects are given technology to help them work. Technology is not a substitute for teachers, but a tool meant to empower them."

Ben-Dov: "Teachers are afraid of losing control over the classroom - that kids will do what they want on the computer, wander around on the Internet. That's why you need a system that is easy to use and not intimidating for the teachers, and that allows them to monitor what each student is doing. Another piece is the digital content. It's not enough to take a textbook, scan it and call it digital content. We want to use the computer to provide maximum development of a child's abilities, and also to facilitate collaboration between students and teachers. Another advantage of our platform is that teachers can change it, adding their own content and teaching it using our software."

How do teachers, especially veteran ones, cope with your system?

"That was one of the challenges of Time to Know. We are now working locally with teachers aged 35 to 40. We invested a lot in helping them deal with the system, and worked very hard on improving and simplifying the user interface. True, we did not turn them into F-16 pilots, but we managed to dispel their fears."

Do your trials suggest that the system is meeting its goals and improving classroom learning?

Weiss: "At the moment it seems there is improvement, but you have to remember that the system is still at the trial stage. We get feedback from the teachers and fix what needs fixing. In one school we asked teachers what they would prefer us to do: fix problems that we found in the fourth-grade curriculum or work on the system for the sixth grade. They said unequivocally that we should develop the sixth-grade system as quickly as possible. They got used to the new method. And they can't go back."
PROMOTION: Mamilla Hotel
Bookmark to del.icio.us  
 
Soccer wars
Egypt recalled its ambassador to Algeria in diplomatic row caused by soccer rivalry
Israel lobby exposed
U.K. Jews claim British television 'expose' on pro-Israel lobby stokes anti-Semitism
Special Offers
Advertisement
Eldan Rent a Car
Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on online reservations
Date Local Jewish Singles
Ready to meet your match? Join Jdate today!
Junkyard
Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt
More Headlines
19:57 Marwan Barghouti: Peace talks with Israel have failed
17:33 World powers to debate increasing Iran nuclear sanctions
17:43 Jewish teen apprehended over Jerusalem stabbing of Arab man
21:43 Children of suspected 'starving mother' smuggled out of Israel
21:50 Report: Global warming to have severe impact on Arab states
18:58 Palestinian internet users stuck between Fatah, Hamas and Israel
22:21 Egypt recalls ambassador to Algeria over soccer game
22:30 TV ROUND-UP: France pushes peace talks; Obama slams settlement activity
19:59 Nasrallah re-elected as Hezbollah leader for sixth term
18:57 Report: Lebanon arrests another suspected Israel spy
14:15 Britain's Channel 4 exposes 'power' of pro-Israel lobby
20:31 Prosecution closes corruption case against Olmert confidant Messer
12:35 CIA launches TV campaign to recruit Arab-Americans
Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Site rules |
| Advert: Recommended Restaurants | Makom: Engaging on Israel
| Search engine marketing
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved