All Together Now: Student, Alumni, Lecturer…Student

Rotem Israel-Fishelson began her academic career as a student at HIT. After graduating, she continued in the capacity as Lecturer in her academic home – the Faculty of Instructional Technologies.

In her earlier years, Rotem initially considered majoring in Design. "After I took the entry exams in Design, the Institute then presented me with an alternative degree option well suited to my qualifications. My specialization in high-school was in psychology. I trained as an officer in the army and am also a graphic designer. "After talking with the then Dean of the Faculty at that time, the late Prof. Miki Ronen and I decided to enroll that very day," she recalls.
"I was in one of the first graduating classes of the program, which combined design, learning development/training and technology, and this combination was the thing that fascinated me the most."

Upon completion of her bachelor's degree, through HIT’s International Student Exchange program, she earned her Masters’ degree at Linnaeus University in Sweden on a full scholarship, together with 5 other graduates of the Faculty of Instructional Technologies (which didn’t yet have a graduate program). 

Her Master's thesis was in Social Media and Web Technologies. In the middle of her master's degree studies, she already began working in the Faculty as a teaching assistant and then as a Lecturer.

"My return to HIT was only natural," says Rotem. "For me, this was a direct route for my further professional development and also an opportunity to enrich the students with the knowledge I acquired through my MA degree and work in industry." 
Rotem is currently doing her Ph.D at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Dr. Arnon Hershkovitz from the School of Education. Her thesis is on "developing creativity and computational thinking in children through educational games.

"Following the Covid -19 crisis, awareness of the value of instructional technologies has increased," she says. "If in the past this field was linked only to educational software, today we know that it is an integral aspect of many sectors of industry. Students acquire programming, design and teaching/training skills during their studies, through such activities as developing websites, apps and educational games."

"This is one of the most sought-after professions in the industry -- training companies, start-ups, telecommunication concerns and more, adds Rotem enthusiastically. "In the last decade we’ve reached a point where our graduates are holding key positions in industry and they themselves recruit the Faculty’s graduates for various positions. And so this very positive cycle of faculty development and nurturing of new generations goes on.

Posted: 25/03/2021