About Us
HOW CAN WE PROVIDE CHILDREN WITH THE SKILLS THEY NEED IN A DIGITAL WORLD?
This is a question that preoccupied the founder of Googale for decades.
Googale tools, on which ICT Sandbox tools are based, were created in Israel in 2009 by Dr. Rina Michalowitz, who was a developmental psychologist, with over 50 years’ experience in early child education. Some years later, still maintaining her passion for early age digital education, she drove this forward through the use of Googale tools in Israeli kindergartens, so that every child’s love and curiosity for the world could be achieved in a safe and secure way.
Today Googale tools are used in 90% of Israeli kindergartens that have internet connection and is proud to be trusted by over 1,700 teachers.
ICT Sandbox, based on Googale tools, was set up in 2017, and has been successfully piloted in Australia.
Our Founder
Rina Michalowitz, Dr
1932-2015
Dr. Michalowitz was a developmental psychologist, with over 50 years’ experience in early child education, as a teacher, supervisor and lecturer. Having served as a lecturer in the Psychology Department of Haifa University and Faculty of Education, prior to her retirement, Dr. Michalowitz also served for ten years, as head of the Preschool Education Division in the Israeli Ministry of Education (MOED) and was responsible for changing the paradigm amongst educational practitioners, which sought to encourage children’s development
of computer skills as early as possible.
Rina’s past experience underpinned the pedagogical and educational research that fuelled the development of Googale’s digital tools for young children.
The in-depth knowledge she possessed, including her understanding of teachers’ skill sets, enabled her to ensure the service ICT Sandbox offers, based on Googale’s success, is easy to use and well- received by teachers, pupils and schools alike.
Meet Our Team
Iris Yam
Founder, Chief Pedagogic & Innovations Officer
With a BA in Communication and Management, Iris has a strong management background. Having served as director of communication and advertising for leading advertising agencies, she later went on to be the VP of operations, standards and quality in Sea-Gate shipping company for over ten years. In 2009, Iris setup Googale and oversaw the development of our products from inception to their successful implementation. In 2017 Iris set up ICT Sandbox based on Googale’s success.
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Nir Michalowitz
Founder, Director, & CTO
Nir has more than 35 years’ experience in software development and project management
and was the Co-founder of “Intercast” an innovator in the Video Delivery market.
Prior to this, he was among the first developers in the Israeli R&D centre of Microsoft where
he was developer, team leader and Product Unit Manager over a period of 13 years.
Future developments will be under Nir’s guidance and direction which will ensure that
ICT Sandbox, just like Googale, will always be a market leader.
Amy Lurie
Managing Director
With a Bachelor of Applied Science (Occupational Therapy), Amy’s passion for working with children resulted in her specializing in pediatrics and working in both the private and public health sectors in Australia, the United Kingdom and Israel. Joining ICT Sandbox as Managing Director Australia, Amy successfully led several pilot projects in Primary schools combining her hands-on skills and experience with the digital world, in order to ensure that children’s digital skills will be properly developed.