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HAFTR’s tech chief wins honor as young pioneer

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HAFTR Director of Educational Technology Benjamin Gross was been named a 2015 Young Pioneer by the Jewish Education Project.

Gross and his department utilize technology to help assist and support teacher curriculum. In remarks an awards dinner at Chelsea Piers last week, he said he felt “fortunate as an educator. I have hundreds of inspirational moments every day.”

Gross continued:

“I have one student who was afraid to take a recent Poland trip. I knew that she loved film, so I worked with her to create a documentary of her trip. This allowed her to be part of an experience that she almost missed out on. All we had to do was let her experience it through a camera lens.

“I have a fifth grade student with a speech impediment. He has difficulty speaking to people one on one. But, he utilizes a computer program from MIT to create his own games. Now, using his coding skills, he can speak to the world. 

“I have students who have a hard time learning math. The old approach was to teach them with a textbook or chalk board. Now I have them create a right angle in a 3D program, they take that 3D image that they created, they print it out on a 3D printer. The student who couldn’t conceptualize what an angle was, can now create, feel and experience the math in motion.

“Jews are known as the People of the Book. That is a misunderstanding. We are actually the people of education. The printing press and the book was one of society’s original technologies. We as a people realized this was a perfect conduit to transmit education. Now, we have a new opportunity, to be the people of the book or the people of the iBook. We can harness digital tools and all the latest technologies to provide a meaningful and relevant Jewish education for our children. Education is what allowed the Jewish people to survive to this day.

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