Western Europe

VITAL INNOVATION IN FRANCE

ORT France is one of the most successful networks within the World ORT network and an innovation and development leader on the national and European levels. Its untiring efforts to advance the effective use of technology in education and teacher training is cultivating a new generation of tech-savvy Jewish young people.

Through its Innovation and Development Department, ORT France focuses on four critical pillars: European and national research and development (R&D); learning services; consulting and technical assistance and expert training based on technological and managerial skills.

ORTinnovation drives sophisticated projects through national and European partnerships. These include:

• Pandora – advanced e-training for crisis scenarios
• Metabo – an innovative platform with serious games applications for personalized health systems through remote monitoring and smart phones
• Gala – network for building educational and training games across Europe
• Play Serious – building middleware for game development for corporate, SME and education markets. In conjunction with France's Ministry of Industry
• Digital Think Tank – explores new paths of digital learning

ORT France is nearing the end of a massive modernization program which has seen huge investment go into making its schools in Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg, Toulouse and Marseille relevant to the needs of the 21st century and highly attractive educational options for Jewish families.

 ORT schools meet the dynamic needs of the job market through degree-level qualifications in optics, banking, informatics and other subjects. The Lyons school is set to become the first Jewish school to offer a Master's level program.

A WORLD OF OPPORTUNITY IN ITALY

In Rome and Milan, ORT provides a world of educational opportunity for its Jewish school educators and students. The middle and high schools in Rome piloted the interactive whiteboard program, with concurrent teacher training, to the great excitement of the pupils. A newly installed mobile computer lab has expanded the schools' technological reach, giving every classroom instant access.

Teacher training reached a new peak with the Naomi Prawer Kadar International Seminars for Technology in Jewish Education Seminar that focused on the newest ICT methods for teaching Hebrew that included podcasting, Google web features and audio and video editing.

Milan's Jewish school is looking toward new horizons following the signing of a cooperation agreement with World ORT. The School will implement ORT's best educational practices for the benefit of students and staff.

Immediate impact of the agreement is the creation of a cutting edge ICT laboratory jointly funded by World ORT and the Milan Jewish community. This laboratory will significantly upgrade outdated equipment, advance teacher training and enable the school's 530 students to interact with Jewish schools around the world.