Report to the Board of Governors October 2003

Introduction and Highlights

The essence of all the projects and services at the Pedagogic Center is that they need to be fluid and sensitive to customer needs. The paradigm of this approach is embodied in the creation and ongoing decade of development of the Education Department website, as one of the foremost online educational resources for Israel and Jewish Studies, in both formal and informal education.

Yet the key to a relevant and highly professional website is its currency: not only of its content and delivery, but in its innate structure and its ability to initiate, together with its affiliated services. The Pedagogic Center has proven that the website can constantly evolve and grow simultaneously, responding with far-reaching changes in both content management and delivery structure to the needs and major emphases in the Department's mission, customer relations management, and integration of ongoing feedback.

A visit to the website today will clearly demonstrate that it has undergone all-encompassing design changes and is constantly evolving in its content and interactive services for the Department's target audiences.

The reputation for curriculum-to-go has brought the website into new partnerships, and enhanced educational resources in areas which the Department has prioritized, particularly the Israel Connection, interactive Israel Education and community resources, and firsts in Jewish and Israel Internet Education.

Moreover, all the minds in the Department which address content are now incorporated into an Educational Content Steering Committee, so that policy decisions are coordinated efficiently and all Units can benefit from the exchange of knowledge.

This report brings details of the impact of innovative thinking and management processes on the Department website and resource services across the major projects and languages.

• The first area is dedicated to the CRM pilot project, which paralleled internal responsive assessment at the Pedagogic Center as to the imperatives of transforming the rapidly growing website into a dynamic tool, and the way in which these processes came together in the new-look and access options, making the website's educational content more manageable in the immediate and long term. This has included full analysis of content into consolidated channels, with new sub-indexes, content description, and a new approach to educational links.
• The various sub-sites (existing or new) are a major growth sector for the website, and comprise the tip of the iceberg, as endless options for independent online production open up to the Units of the Department.
  Reported are both Model and In-Depth Sites:
  • Teen Service Staff;
  • The Association of Friends and Alumni of the Machon LeMadrichei Chutz La'aretz;
  • The Research and Development Unit;
  • JUICE (Jewish University in CyberspacE);
  • The Herzl Centenary Site 2004.
• The Department's major educational interactive initiative in conjunction with Partnership 2000 is Building a Jewish World. Dramatic changes have been made to both the look and end-user options on the website, with a far broader range of content resources and tools. All these factors have indubitably combined to make this an attractive Israel Education and Connection option for schools and communities wishing to interact worldwide.
  The program is now online in Hebrew, English, Spanish, Russian and German.
• The main website is presented separately, by language and channels.
  • The English, Spanish and German sites have grown by thousands of print pages, featuring extensive curricular resources in the areas of Israel and Zionism, Jewish Time/Calendar, Worldwide Community, and Leadership resources.
  • The English website also offers a new venture in interactive Israel games.
  • The Spanish and Hebrew websites offer in-depth articles on Israel and Israeli culture.
  • The Hebrew and Russian websites have grown in parallel sectors, while the Hebrew website has had a particular focus on partnership resources, which have provided several features on the Shoah, Culture in Israel, and a feature on the Missing in Argentina.
  • Both websites have significantly revised and expanded their curricular links, as an educator tool.
  • One of the outstanding innovations of this period has been the investment in and growth of a website in Portuguese, managed alongside the Spanish website and offering Israel and Jewish Time curricular resources.
• The DataJEM project has launched a new search for review items, which is now well under way, including offering publishers and professionals the option to submit their own reviews of books, media and websites they feel will benefit the public. Existing reviews are being updated with additional content, website locations, etc.
• Other major anchor trademarks of the Pedagogic Center are the: Resource Center, Library, Helpdesk (by language) and Graphic assistance. From professional educators, through students and the wider public, these comprise the antennae of the Pedagogic Center inside and beyond the Education Department.
  • All these sectors function independently and cooperatively, offering combined local and remote services, via direct consultation, Internet and all forms of mail.
  • The report presents the changing group populations in readership, training sessions and consultation. Most noted is the growing demand to provide support for larger groups, more shlichim, more languages, more video loans - and wider subject areas, with greater emphasis on subjects related to Israel.