ORT (Organization for Rehabilitation through Training) has expanded computer literacy training programs for teachers throughout the ORT global network in response to the increasing emphasis on hi-technology training at ORT schools, according to a report by American ORT Federation president Alvin Gray, which will be presented at the organization’s national conference on Saturday.
Gray, who will complete the third year of his four-year term of office at the AOF national conference, notes that, “The advances in computer and robotics training throughout the ORT educational network present a new challenge to ORT educators. Because the body of knowledge acquired by teachers is no longer valid after a few years, they face the risk of rapidly becoming obsolete. Thus the task facing ORT is how to help teachers to develop their potential and adapt themselves to the constantly changing educational and workplace environment.”
Among the programs cited by Gray is a training course for teachers in the ORT Israel network, the largest ORT operation, developed by the Moshinsky Pedagogical Center in Tel Aviv in cooperation with the World ORT Union. The new ORT Braude Institute of Technology in Karmiel, the 100th ORT school in Israel, will serve as a regional educational center and provide training programs in science and technology for ORT teachers in Israel and around the world. “Teacher training will continue to be an area of focus in the ORT network,” Gray said.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
During the three-day conference, which begins tomorrow, some 500 delegates from AOF chapters and divisions throughout the U.S. will participate in discussions geared to determining the future direction of support for the ORT global network of 800 schools and training centers, which provide vocational, technical and Jewish education to over 133,000 students.
Some 84,000 students study at ORT schools in Israel, including several hundred recently arrived Jews from Ethiopia who attend special ORT training programs in Kiryat Gat, Karmiel, and Netanya. ORT Israel has agreed to provide vocational training to 400 additional Ethiopian immigrants at ORT schools.
“We are all aware of the changes that are occurring in the workplace and the speed with which they are altering every facet of our lives,” Gray says. “The goal of ORT, for the immediate and long-term future, is to train Jewish students to develop and harness these technological wonders and use them as tools for meeting the challenges that lie ahead.”
COMPUTER AND ROBOTICS TRAINING
According to Gray, meeting the demands of a technological age goes beyond the acquisition of new equipment and updating curricula. In addition to the need for teacher training, the most important challenge facing ORT today is the teaching of new skills required for already existing professions.
The Key to ORT’s approach, Gray notes, has been in providing students with the basic tools for thinking and understanding language and concepts, which enables them to further develop their knowledge in any of the constituent areas of a hi-tech subject.
Highlights of developments in the past year include an increase in the teaching of robotics and computers throughout the network. In Israel, computers have been introduced into almost all ORT schools. Computer-Aided Design is being taught in ORT schools in Netanya and at the Syngalowski Center in Tel Aviv.
An electro-optics laboratory has been installed at the ORT School of Engineering in Jerusalem, and Computerized Numerical Control machines have been supplied to ORT schools in Ein-Harad, Tel Aviv, Netanya, Karmiel, Holon and Bat Yam.
In the ORT France network, ORT’s second largest program which trains 8,500 students, 20 departments were closed in metal working trades that have become obsolete, and 26 new departments were opened in microprocessing, electronics and data processing.
Technological innovations have been increasingly incorporated into the curricula in Latin America, where ORT students number 9,800 in Argentina, 6,700 in Brazil, 1,400 in Chile, 3,300 in Mexico and 5,700 in Uruguay. A microcomputer laboratory was installed in Santiago, computer-oriented business courses were introduced in Buenos Aires, and a course for systems analysts was begun in Rio de Janeiro.
Computer and science training at ORT Morocco, which educates 850 students, is already offered at the boys’ school and will soon be extended to the girls’ school. In Italy, where 3,100 students attend ORT schools, the computer department has developed to the point where other schools and organizations consult ORT on the establishment of computer departments.
In all of the countries where ORT operates, notes Gray, technological training is accompanied by programs of Jewish education as part of comprehensive curricula geared to the development of thinking, technologically-skilled individuals who appreciate and value their Jewish heritage.
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