The startups of the SEL Challenge!

SpeakingPal is an Israeli EdTech company focusing on spoken English. Our vision is to promote English as a main means for connecting people in the globalization age. We focus on the speaking skill, as it is the the leading and natural skill for connecting people.

The company has developed a video-based dialog simulator powered by speech recognition which provides a natural user experience of speaking with a person. This approach and the unique technology at its core have won the company many international awards. Learning by simulating a conversation with a person, recognizes the importance of social and emotional connection as part of communication and language. It builds confidence both in using the English and in conducting a conversation in general.

For next year pilots, social emotional content will be added to the product, to enable learning and practicing skills from this domain. Exercises in pairs and groups will connect between the virtual and the real world.

In addition, a visual control panel will allow teachers to be updated on personal progress, lead the learning process, and provide human and personal attention when required.

To the website

milgo is a digital personal helper for teachers focused on improving the social emotional experience of their students. It guides them through 4 simple steps in weekly measurement & improvement cycles:

1. The teacher measures the students’ social-emotional experience using friendly surveys validated by experts.

2. milgo gives immediate feedback by sending a a full update to the teacher, including insights and personalized recommendations.

3. The teacher chooses recommendations and acts on them in class.

4. milgo analyzes the actual improvement and suggest a new improvement cycle.

Our improvement cycles are based on the Social Determination Theory, which shows how intrinsic motivation for learning among students is dependent on fulfilling four foundational psychological needs in the school environment: relatedness and emotional safety; self-efficacy for academic challenges; a sense of autonomy in the learning process; and a sense of meaning and relevance of the content to the learner’s life in & beyond school.

milgo helps teachers map the gaps in students’ needs, and suggests simple and effective pedagogical actions to bridge them.

The personal helper was developed by a partnership between the Sagol Center for Brain and Mind in Reichman University and Kayma.

Towards the 2022-2023 academic year, the team would focus on developing content tailored for science teachers in Israeli middle schools.

Demo

Cocohub is a platform for creating conversational, virtual humans. Cocohub’s technology combines a state-of-the-art conversation engine and 3D animation technology to produce advanced avatars that can converse, move, and even look like humans.

When talking to a virtual person, he is not judgmental, and can give the student endless opportunities to improve until he feels ready to work with others. The virtual person can respond during the conversation to different answers, develop various conversations based on these responses, give tips on proper learning skills, provide encouragement and guidance in case of .complex situations

There is no time limit, no space limit.

The teacher receives a full assessment about the student, and can choose when and how to approach him.

The technology is widely used in the field of education across various subjects. In Israel specifically, it has been applied for teaching English as a second language as the avatars encourage the user to speak and help them develop their listening and verbal skills.

Prior to the pilots, SEL-themed content will be included in the product.

Website

Capish – read and simply understand

Capish-SEL is an environment that integrates reading comprehension tools into the world of SEL and individualized learning.

The environment is based on three axes:
1. Tools to accompany deep reading
2. Targeted texts for learning English
3. SEL-based support

The learning is accomplished either with the teacher’s guidance or independently, based on the learners’ personal interests, increasing their engagement and curiosity.
Teachers can assign learning units to their students, and adjust the content for different learners.

Capish-based reading includes the following stages:
-Reading (and listening to) a passage
– Answering questions (using writing/ recording/ picture/ video)
– Practicing comprehension / emotional reflection in association with SEL content
– Teacher-student dialog within the environment
– Reflection of progress with automatic tools for positive emotional feedback, that allow the reader to practice reading, listening and speaking in English.

The learning products are saved in the personal learning environment and allow teachers to encourage and guide their students.

Website

8 teaching-learning sequences (=continuum) for the 7th grade, combining SEL with curriculum Science materials. The learning sequences link the standard Science materials with “real life” and the lives of the students. The sequences are modular and can be edited and adjusted by teachers.

Moreover, teachers can create their own sequences based on building blocks provided within the system (such as tasks and feedback) and on external elements (such as additional files, forms and external links).

Each teaching-learning sequence offers a continuum of connected and correlated activities that promote SEL capabilities, while linking together the learnt materials. Any such continuum includes self-learning and active-learning tasks that help students acquire the necessary skills, for example using role-games, circles of practice and feedback, and dedicating time to developing personal and interpersonal skills.

A teaching-learning continuum can be conducted over several weeks, and can include the following elements (as an example):

Self-learning -> a self-paced game task relating to the learnt material (until meeting the target) -> feedback on the self learning -> a role-game group task, including group discussion -> present outcomes to the whole class -> feedback on the group work.

Throughout the continuum students can communicate and consult with the teacher and with co-students. Teachers can use reporting and tracking tools, and can communicate on the personal/group/class level.

The development is a collaboration of two established educational companies, Mimshak and Da-Li.

DaLi Website – https://da-li.co.il

Mimshak website – https://www.mimshak.com/

The Leminda AI platform uses artificial intelligence to analyze complex academic texts and simplify them so that less experienced readers can understand and be interested in the content. This way, texts at different ages can be made accessible to students at different skill levels and gradually improve the level of English, reading strategies, awareness, self-management, and the ability of students by setting objectives and raising the complexity of the text from week to week.

With Lemninda AI, students’ interests are automatically used to create texts summaries. Lemninda’s platform control at the summary level and complexity and experience studies of the text interaction. Additionally, the platform automatically creates quizzes based on student level to practice reading comprehension.

Aspects of social-emotional learning are addressed in several ways. Students can set themselves weekly goals, such as reading minutes, reading complexity, vocabulary level, and answering text-based questions, manage the learning process, and monitor achievement goals.

Additionally, students can have conversations, solve texts together, and share texts and questions. Teachers and students can receive feedback on their teamwork processes (e.g., based on each student’s activity monitoring).

Demo

App

Singit is an innovative, empowering, and personalized learning experience that gives users the ability to learn the world’s language – English.

Singit is allows students to learn English with the power of music. With the most comprehensive song catalog, Singit is a unique platform that builds and strengthens English skills through the most beloved songs. Through Singit, private users and teachers can make learning English a practical and comprehensive adventure.

The product allows the teacher to build a curriculum that is based on the student’s preferences – the songs he likes to hear on the one hand and the English skills he needs to improve on the other. The cross between his personal preferences and his English challenges allows flexibility and improving the students achievement.  The varied songs allow for a discourse on emotions, seeing the other and more.

Singit builds users’ self-confidence and gives teachers time to empower students in a learning process based on their favorite music. Singit is approved and recommended by the Ministry of Education and is at the forefront of pedagogical innovation in Israel. Singit provides a learning experience that does not feel like studies, an experience that is suitable for all ages, customized for users, and most importantly – brings the world to them.

Website

META is a groundbreaking, big data based personalized learning platform geared towards math and physics teaching and assessment.

The platform is composed of step-by-step learning modules that are automatically adapted to the student’s progress. It provides the student with immediate feedback, progress tracking, and personal goal setting. For the teacher, META provides an in-depth assessment of the class progress.

META includes emotional and meta-cognitive diagnostic components that complete the picture and lead it to be the most comprehensive tool for math education.

Science content will be developed prior to the pilots, as well as structured SEL activities.

Website

“Survive and Sustainabilty” is a multiplayer 3D missions game that combines emotional & social skills with learning research and problem solving in the field of sciences.

The game is played in Eureka World- an educational metaverse for creation, socialize and learning.

The goal of the teams in the game is to create a new, sustainable culture in an underwater environment. The game is flexible in the range of solutions offered by the students and positions the teacher as the “Game Master”.

 The ability to survive and face the challenges posed by the underwater environment alongside building a thriving and evolving sustainable culture over time simulate scientific challenges – behavior of gases and liquids, energy sources, biodiversity, electricity generation and more. Dealing with these challenges requires the group to conduct research and learning, divide roles and learn to trust group members in performing tasks.

The social process that the group undergoes within itself and in contrast to the other groups in the challenge constitutes the field of action and intervention for the teacher to provide tools and guidance to the social and emotional world of the participants. The variety of different skills required for survival in the game, constitutes the space for customizing the ability of each participant.

Demo video