A Word from the Editor

Technology and Jewish Education

Once again, this issue of HaYidion will be one you will want to keep. Within it are cutting-edge articles discussing the very latest in technology-related topics. Not only does this issue inform you about methodologies, resources, practices and opportunities, but it also provides a moral and Jewish context in which to consider and evaluate the opportunities, challenges and risks that 21st century technology offers the Jewish educational world.

This issue is itself reflective of traditional Jewish learning. There are articles that posit a theme and emphasize its merits. But turn the page and you will find another article, equally compelling, that stresses the obverse. So an in-depth reading of HaYidion will prove a compelling reinforcement of the very best educational practices that we seek in Jewish community day schools, to impart to our students: the ability to examine a topic in depth, from multiple perspectives, with a view to the past as well as the future.

I know that you will find these articles compelling, intriguing, and very useful. They raise many questions, provide many answers and challenge you to find the very best way to put technology to use in fulfilling your school’s educational mission.

Dr. Barbara Davis is the Secretary of RAVSAK, Editor of HaYidion and Head of School at the Syracuse Hebrew Day School in Dewitt, NY. Barbara can be reached at< [email protected].

From the Desk of Bathea James, RAVSAK President

Technology and Jewish Education

Dear Chevre,

A month has passed since our national conference and I am still reveling in its success. I have witnessed both the growth of RAVSAK and the expansion of the size and quality of the conference, and continue to enjoy the “nachas.” In conversation with a colleague, I compared RAVSAK to watching one’s child grow from an infant into a dynamic, productive young adult, who understands his/her place and responsibility in the community. As with children, the parenting and leadership of this organization has been an integral part of its success. Dr. Marc Kramer and his committed, talented staff in conjunction with the executive committee, past presidents and committee members have moved RAVSAK forward to its present position as the fastest growing network of Jewish day schools in North America.

Our 20th annual conference bore testimony to the important and vital role that RAVSAK plays in the success of our schools. The sessions ranging from diversity, ways to increase financial stability, leadership development, and legal issues among others, provided the participants with additional insight and skills to deal with some of the critical issues we face daily in our work. The partnering of PARDeS, NAAJHS and PEJE all added substance and vitality to the meeting.

In this issue of HaYidion you will find details of our naming opportunities for RAVSAK’S International Center for Jewish Education. The continued success of RAVSAK in the development of its programs, services and mission are dependent on sufficient resources, and I hope you will look over and consider the naming opportunities. Your donation to RAVSAK represents a meaningful way to show support of the critical work this organization does. Any amount will be greatly appreciated. You can support RAVSAK by visiting our website (www.ravsak.org) and make a donation online.

As my presidency comes to an end this summer, I am so grateful to have been part of this organization’s transition into adulthood. These two years have been some of the most stimulating and energizing times since I entered Jewish education. Thank you to my executive committee who worked so hard to help guide RAVSAK in the right direction. I take comfort in leaving RAVSAK in the capable hands of the its president Susan Weintrob, and look forward to watching RAVSAK grow into maturity and future success.

B’Shalom,

Bathea James

Bathea James is the President of RAVSAK. Bathea can be reached at: [email protected].

Distance Learning… Local Benefits

Technology and Jewish Education

Times have certainly changed for me as a student. I find myself back in college after a thirty year respite from college life. At fifty-one, I have decided to get my master’s in Jewish education. This inspiration came from my participation in RAVSAK’s pilot program, Project SuLaM, sponsored by the AVI CHAI Foundation. I was so fortunate to be one of sixteen participants from Jewish day schools across the United States and Canada to have a spectacular Jewish experience at Brandeis University for two summer sessions. With the help of inspirational mentors and outstanding professors, the goal was to help general studies leaders learn more about Judaism so that we could better understand the importance of integrating the Judaic studies with the general studies curricula within our schools. The impact upon me was profound! I was given a taste of learning and when the opportunity presented itself to get a master’s degree in Jewish education, I jumped at it.

While participating in the initial two year commitment with Project SuLaM, we were asked to participate in a distance learning computer class about Jewish pluralism. It was a thirteen week session where we would share articles of interest, make comments, and dialogue via email. The challenge became when to find the time for this commitment. As a full-time educator and having a family life, I had to try and find at least two hours on a Thursday night to read and summarize articles. Then as my ‘Sulamite’ peers commented, we could continue to dialogue if we wished. It wasn’t the personal dialogue I had become accustomed to, yet, I was able to connect with my peers’ thoughtful minds again, even if only in writing. This was my first experience with distance learning.

You may be wondering how distance learning works. For me it involves a commitment of time and some travel. I made up my mind to try to complete the program in two years. This means that I will need to take two courses per semester plus, over vacation, some intensive classes. (Classes that condense the required credit hours into four eight-hour days of study.) I travel forty miles, one or two times a week (in notorious Miami traffic) to the Jewish Federation building. Classes are two hours each. In class we meet face-to-face by teleconferencing. Each of us in our respective classrooms can see the other class as our TV screen is broken up into several sections. We speak into a microphone and all can hear. We can participate in ‘Chevrutah’ or group learning, one city to another. Technology is amazing. There are several assignments, papers, and readings to accomplish each week. The workload can be quite strenuous. There is also a large financial commitment; however, Jewish educators in my community have provided me with very generous financial assistance.

How has this affected me personally? I’d like to say that I am very fortunate to have the love of a marvellous husband and dear friends. They often don’t see me for days. My husband has given up all computer rights until late at night. I tell my friends we’ll do Sunday breakfasts over spring and winter break (if I’m not taking the intensive class). They assure me they’ll wait and that they are proud of me for this effort. It is a lot of work! I am learning to retrain my mind as a student. What does my professor want and from what perspective should I be considering the twenty page essay I am writing?

It has also allowed me be a more compassionate teacher. I think twice about my homework assignments. Do they have meaning and purpose, enough to take time from my students’ lives once they finish their workday at school? This experience has brought about a profound change in me and who I am to my students, my Judaic studies educational peers, and my school community. I now truly understand what my school’s mission statement is trying to achieve and I can play a more cohesive role in its fulfilment. Our mission statement affirms that we are committed to inspiring Jewish values in our students, and to providing our students with the tools necessary to develop and fulfill their greatest potential for becoming life long learners.

The future of the Jewish community belongs to our children. How we teach them to understand our Jewish heritage will determine their ability to preserve and become active members of the Jewish community and secular environment. I can do this now from a well rounded perspective. By taking on this distance learning program, I have been provided with the opportunity to grow, learn and effect change. I believe I have become a more sensitive and involved educator and I have been told by my peers that the excitement I share for this learning is contagious. What a great local benefit for all of the distance learning!

Sue Einhorn is the Middle School Coordinator at Greenfield Day School in Miami, FL. Sue can be reached at: [email protected].

Educational Technology in Jewish Day Schools: Why Foundations and Educators are (and should be) Interested

Technology and Jewish Education

The rapid pace of change continues. Over the last few years new technologies such as broadband, wireless, large screens and touch pads have improved and come down in price. A new generation of users more comfortable with technology make better use of new and existing capabilities. As the world has turned from analog to digital, people now lead a “digital life style”, carrying digital music, books, lectures, photos, videos and files on small devices, or storing it all on the web. Jewish studies and day schools simply cannot afford to lag too far behind.

Educational technology need not be a necessary evil; it can also be an enormously useful tool for overcoming limitations such as space and time, and in turning information into knowledge. As AVI CHAI’s Chief Educational Technology Officer, I have been involved in a number of interesting educational technology initiatives that show some of the promise for the future. For example, the Lookstein Center at Bar Ilan University has partnered with eight day schools, some from RAVSAK, that are located in relatively small Jewish communities, to “bring” expert teachers in Israel into the classroom via video conferencing. One technology leads to another as some teachers use blogs to maintain communication between meetings and to submit homework assignments.

Other projects draw on our reputation as the “people of the book”. It is almost impossible to compare the “cool factor” of commercial games with Jewish computer software, since “cool” is fleeting, while content is enduring. But many books are now available on line, some as text, some in audio format, and some with a multimedia make-over. AVI CHAI joined the effort to place important Jewish content on line via Mikranet (www.mikranet.org.il), a project targeting Israeli Bible students run by the three leading Israeli organizations: CET (Center for Educational Technology), Gesher and Snunit. This website features a searchable database of the Bible with some commentaries, Mishna, Talmud, Tanchuma, the Rambam and more. Jewish liturgical music was brought online with the website “Invitation to Piyut” (www.piyut.org.il), also developed by Snunit, with hundreds of Piyut texts and renditions. More efforts to build a Jewish reference library on the net are in the works. Placing content on the net is key since these are the building blocks for future use by educators and learners. Jewish Family and Life! offers the Babaganewz magazine website, www.babaganewz.com, which now contains more than six years of materials for both teachers and students, ranging from lesson plans to games, both for online use and for classroom use. The Tu Bishvat Seder placed on the Babaganewz website in 2004 was downloaded over 1500 times this year. We are now the people of the book on the web, too.

User generated content, sometimes referred to as “Web 2.0,” also lends itself well to education. In 2001 Torah Umesorah’s “creative learning pavilion” was brought online and is now using a new website, www.chinuch.org, where educators share lesson plans and materials. The site hosts thousands of items, with about half a million downloaded since August 2002.

In late September 2006 the AVI CHAI Foundation announced a competitive Educational Technology Experiment grant, asking day school educators to consider pedagogic challenges that could be addressed by technology. By the end of November, over 180 ideas were submitted, far beyond our expectations. The ideas involve use of Smartboards and websites, video and audio, computer games and small devices such as cell phones or personal media players. The high number of submissions, from all across North America, and across all Jewish affiliations, may indicate a stir in the field. The information about this program was disseminated solely by web-based methodologies (emails, listservs, websites and blogs) reaching teachers and educators directly, sometimes bypassing school administrators.

There is no need for prophecy to foresee that day schools will continue to change over the next ten years, as they have in the last ten. As educators change the way they live, they will change the way they teach. Some of the changes already evident are deeply rooted in Jewish values: greater integration between home and school and the need for all of us to be life-long learners. What other changes can we expect? I cannot tell you. But I do believe that, going forward, educators have the opportunity to lead the way, with philanthropy making an effort to serve as an enabler for these changes.

Eli Kannai is the Chief Educational Technology Officer for the AVI CHAI Foundation. Eli can be reached at [email protected].

Blogs and Jewish Education

Technology and Jewish Education

Blogs belong to a family of social media technologies that also include podcasts, wikis, social networking sites, content sharing communities like YouTube, del.icio.us, ccMixter, and Flickr, and tools like RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication - more about this below). These social media, used alone or in combination, facilitate online collaboration, information sharing and data organization, community building, and social connections among participants.

These resources represent a shift from the first beginnings of web culture to what is often referred to as Web 2.0, an online culture that is increasingly dependent on a more collaborative, user-driven Internet-based platform and an open source ethos of sharing and expanding each other’s work. One of the hallmarks of the Web 2.0 culture is the ability to incorporate a combination of applications that integrate with each other to provide a customized user environment.

Educators are beginning to explore how these tools can be used to enhance and extend their work. Blogs are particularly useful for promoting communication and collaboration in educational settings.

What Are Blogs?

At their most basic level, blogs are websites that function as online journals. They are often authored by one person, but can also be shared by multiple writers. Blog services provide users with customizable templates, obviating the need for special skills in programming or html. These templates make online publishing available to anyone with an Internet connection and the willingness to learn a new medium.

In terms of format, blogs are made up of entries that are usually organized chronologically, the most recent listed first. These entries are often cross-indexed on the blog according to category tags that are designated by the author. Entries can also be saved chronologically on the blog’s online archive. Blogs typically include links to external sites selected by the author. These links reflect the author’s favorite sites or sites that are related to the blog’s topic. In addition to text content, many blogs include combinations of audio files, photographs, and/or video clips. Blogs might be further customized to incorporate material from secondary sites like adding photographs from Flickr or headlines from news agencies.

Blog culture encourages reader comments and cross-references to other blogs. Most bloggers allow readers to interact with them through comments which can be posted automatically, or by approval of the blog owner. Blogs can also be set to allow comments only from registered users. In addition, some blog sites enable linkback software, like TrackBack, that notifies authors when specific entries have been cited by other bloggers, facilitating cross-talk from blog to blog.

There are many free sites for blogging, including Blogger and WordPress. Some blogsites are designed specifically with the educational community in mind. Class BlogMeister, for example, includes a comment approval option so that teachers can review student material and suggest revisions prior to publishing. Edublog.org is another education-oriented blog provider.

Searching for Blogs

Blogs that are visible to the public can be located through regular search engines such as Google by using key words, just as one would find a website. There are also searchable blog indexes that focus exclusively on locating public blogs. These include Bloglines, BlogPulse, Google Blog Search and Technorati. Many of these sites support searches in Hebrew and other languages in addition to English.

Staying Organized: Personalized Information Feeds

With regular websites, users generally bookmark their favorite sites and return to them periodically to check for new material. Blogs, however, tend to be updated more frequently than static websites. Software is available that collects and sends new material to the user in one place through syndication feeds like RSS (Really Simple Syndication). Online newspapers and other dynamic websites also encourage users to take advantage of these feeds. The feeds are sent to the user and accessed through an aggregator (or newsreader) service such as Bloglines or Google Reader. Users can log onto their newsreader account and scan through the different feeds from their favorite sites. They can also connect to those sites directly for more information.

Edublogs, Jedublogs

Educators are experimenting with the use of blogs in their work. Some early adopters coined the term “edublogs.” Many of these educational bloggers are pushing the traditional concept of blogging to develop highly creative projects.

Blogs in education tend to reflect a variety of genres. The blogs described below are examples of different types of education blogs. Please note that it is not clear that all of these blog genres currently exist specifically for Jewish education (“jedublogs?”).

Educational Stakeholders

Blogs about Jewish education - these sites tend to offer information, resources, policy, advocacy, and commentary related to aspects of Jewish education.

Personal voices - independent voices examining issues related to Jewish education; sometimes articles related to Jewish education are posted on individuals’ blogs that address a wide range of topics on Jewish culture.

Educator Blogs

Teacher journals - online diaries describing personal experiences and commentary by educators; these are often projects initiated by individuals and not under school auspices.

Administrator journals - online diaries that share perspectives and experiences of school administrators; these are often personal journals and not under school auspices.

Professional development - sites that provide “just in time” and individualized learning opportunities; blogs that support reflective practice through journaling, feedback, etc.

Communities of practice - sites devoted to specific issues related to the profession; collaborative spaces to share and refine ideas.

Student Blogs

Student journals - online entries describing personal experiences and observations by students; these might be self-initiated diaries or related to school projects.

Curricular Resources

Online resource centers - access to curricular resources, annotated links to content and pedagogy, repository for original resources.

Learning Blogs

Student learning - curriculum-related blogs created for, and often by, students to engage with learning through writing, information and communication technology (ICT) skills, podcasts, videocasts, map tools, multimedia presentations and projects, etc.

Digital portfolios - blogs developed for assessing learning including presentation of work, revisions, critiques, and personal reflections.

Community

School collaborations - online space for classroom projects, including those that are inter-class, inter-school, and international.

Mentorships - shared collaborative space for online mentorships, including student-mentor and teacher- mentor relationships.

Travel journals - educational reports from travelers around the world, interacting with readers who share their experiences virtually.

Social action blogs - sites that promote Jewish social action and related projects.

School Blogs

Schools and other institutions of higher learning - school communications shared by the administration, teachers, parents, and students (school news, homework assignments, important bulletins, messages from the head of school and rabbi, etc.)

Organization/Institution Affiliated Blogs

Organizations - blogs associated with institutions and organizations; these sites are often developed in conjunction with their organizational websites and offer additional, more regularly updated information and resources of interest to their membership.

Conference Blogs

Conferences - official reports by organizers and unofficial reports and insights related to conference events by participants.

Communication Medium and Collaborative Tool

A blog is a communication medium. Educators have found enormous potential in blogs as a means to develop reading, writing, and information and communication technology (ICT) literacies. They also view it as a tool for collaboration, information gathering, knowledge building, and publishing.

Imagine:

  • Students in a writing class use blogs as their personal notebooks that they share with their teacher for feedback on content and writing skills. The teacher and other students in their writing groups provide comments to help the authors refine, clarify, and strengthen their ideas. The blog preserves a running commentary as the work is created. Students also use images, original videos and podcasts to help tell their stories and to develop visual literacy and communications skills.
  • A Jewish history class creates a “you are there” blog in which they write from the perspective of famous personalities or from a specific historical period.
  • Learners in a North American class collaborate with Israeli counterparts to compare and contrast their everyday lives. Learners interview their grandparents and other older adults about their experiences growing up Jewish at a particular time or place. These can be edited and presented as video clips or audiocasts. They can also track their families’ immigration patterns on Google Earth and link it to their blog.
  • Jewish family educators post weekly guides related to the Torah portion for family discussions around the dinner table. Families can build on this material, sharing their insights and related family customs with each other online.
  • Congregational school students use a blog to continue their work on class social action projects even though they are not in the school building.
  • Administrators post weekly updates about school events. Teachers use the blog to remind students and their families about homework assignments and to keep them abreast of exciting class projects.
  • A beginning teacher in a day school keeps a blog journal that he shares with his mentor. The teacher journals about challenges he is facing in his new position. Each week he chooses a particular area to develop. His mentor reacts to his postings by providing feedback and perspective based on his/her own experiences. The teacher posts video clips of this work to his blog and reflects on what he had planned and what occurred in practice. Similarly, his mentor can post video clips that demonstrate alternative methodologies.

Listed below are some examples of blogs that focus on aspects of Jewish education:

Avi Chai Educational Technology Grant

(http://edtechexp.blogspot.com)

HUC-JIR Student Blogs

(www.huc.edu/blogHUC)

jlearn2.0: Jewish learning in a digital world, Caren Levine

(www.jlearn20.blogspot.com)

LAMED: articles and commentary for Jewish education, ATID

(http://lamed.blogspot.com)

New Jewish Education, Saul Kaiserman (http://newjewisheducation.blogspot.com)

SchmoozEd: Schmoozing About Education, Lookstein Center

(http://schmoozed.lookstein.org)

In addition, bloggers who write about Jewish culture often include commentary on issues related to Jewish education.

Considerations

Note that some blog sites might be blocked by school web filters. One solution is for the school to host blog software in-house.

Administrators and teachers should be reminded that appropriate security measures need to be taken to assure student safety and privacy. For example, blogs can be kept private, and unlisted in search engines, with only pre-identified members granted permission to read or post comments. Another way to protect students is to have them use a pen name for any work that is publicly accessible.

As with any technology-based activity, it is important that the school community - students, faculty, staff, and parents - are aware of and abides by the school’s acceptable use policies and rules of netiquette.

And Finally…

The best way to learn more about blogs is to use them. Find some blogs of interest and read them; even better, start your own. It doesn’t have to be fancy, and it doesn’t have to be public. Be aware that although blogs are relatively easy to set up, there still is a learning curve. But as you become more familiar with the medium, and more comfortable communicating in it, you will discover its strengths and limitations. Experiment and see how blogs might fit into your educational setting.

Blogs and Wikis:

David Warlick’s 2c Worth:

http://davidwarlick.com/2cents

EduBlog Awards:

www.incsub.org/awards

EduBlog Insights:

http://anne.teachesme.com

JakesOnline: www.jakesonline.org

Speed of Creativity:

http://speedofcreativity.org

SupportBlogging:

http://supportblogging.wikispaces.com/

Weblogg-ed: http://weblogg-ed.com

Articles and Ebooks:

Coming of Age: An Introduction to the New World Wide Web, edited by Terry Freedman:

www.shambles.net/web2/comingofage

Weblogs in the Classroom:

www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, by Marc Prensky: www.marcprensky.com

Educating the Net Generation, edited by Diana G. Oblinger and James L. Oblinger:

www.educause.edu/educatingthenetgen

Educause Learning Initiative’s 7 Things You Should Know About… series (including an article on blogs): www.educause.edu/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutSeries/7495

Learning and Leading with Technology, published by ISTE: www.iste.org; see especially March 2006 issue

What is Social Media? published by Spannerworks: www.spannerworks.com

Blog Providers:

Blogger: www.blogger.com

ClassBlogMeister:

http://classblogmeister.com

Edublog.org: http://edublogs.org

WordPress: http://wordpress.com

Blog Searches:

Bloglines: www.bloglines.com

BlogPulse: http://blogpulse.com

Google Blog Search:

http://blogsearch.google.com

Technorati: http://technorati.com

Blog Aggregators / Newsreaders:

Bloglines: www.bloglines.com

Google Reader: http://google.com/reader

Caren N. Levine is the founder and principal of Etheoreal, a consultancy for educational technology, and is the publisher of jlearn2.0, a blog about Jewish digital learning (www.jlearn20.blogspot.com). Caren can be reached at [email protected].

The Other Side of the Web

Technology and Jewish Education

Do a search on the Web for information about any Jewish holiday. Some of the helpful-looking links you will find will be from mainstream Jewish sites: jewishvirtualibrary, the Orthodox Union, Chabad, or the Union for Reform Judaism. But some links will take you to sites that look Jewish- using Jewish symbols, Jewish-sounding texts, even Hebrew- but which teach a Christological version of the holiday’s history or practices. You could get all the way to the bottom of a page about lighting Shabbat candles, before realizing that the blessing being taught ends, “b’shem HaMashiach, Ha-Ohr Ha-Olam” (“in the name of the Messiah, the Light of the World”).

New web media is also being used by web evangelists and other spiritual predators. Relationship-building media such as chat rooms have long been fertile ground for them. Now instant messaging and user forums give non-Jews using the title of “rabbi” the opportunity to advise and teach Jewish seekers a Christian understanding of Judaism’s basic concepts, such as Israel, messiah, prayer, and redemption.

Blogs are similarly useful in presenting non-Jewish concepts in an environment that has been dressed up to look Jewish. And the latest trends in internet communication, podcasts and videos, are already heavily exploited by missionary groups. Search for “Jewish podcasts” or put “Jews” into a Youtube search and many of the results will be from Hebrew Christian sources such as Jews for Jesus.

In addition, the social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook, which are so popular with teens and college students, are another pitfall. Missionary groups have pages on these sites, adorned with Israeli flags and “Am Yisrael Chai.” These sites are where searching Jewish youth will meet others who claim to be Jewish, but who are using the networking power of the internet to proselytize. We teach our children to be careful on the web, where people are very often not who they say they are. We need to remind them that not only the name, age, and gender of the people they meet online could easily be deceptive cover for predatory intentions, but even the religion of the friends they make online can be a ruse.

We know that our constituencies are using the web for many purposes, including the educational assignments we give them. But many have an uncritical acceptance of the information that they find. We need to equip them with the tools to critically evaluate both the sources and the individuals or organizations behind the sites they encounter.

Searching for G-d on the web is like going to the shopping mall and the credo for the seeker must always be: “caveat emptor” [buyer beware].

Scott Hillman is the Executive Director of Jews for Judaism. Scott may be reached at [email protected].

Integrating SmartBoard Technology

Technology and Jewish Education

The starting point for the successful implementation of the technology program began with a 3-5 year plan that incorporated an intensive structured plan for faculty training. Phase One began with the implementation of 100+ brand new networked computers, a 24-berth laptop cart in the Middle school, as well as SMARTboards installed in six classrooms across the Lower, Middle and High schools. A core group of teachers were invited to attend a formal training session on the use of the SMARTboard. These teachers eagerly began using the technology, and within a very short time-period, “SMART-fever” had hit DKJA! Faculty and students school-wide were requesting that their classrooms be fitted with this technology.

For Phase Two, thanks to the generosity of our “technology guardian angel”, Linda R. Kaminow, SMARTboards have been installed in every classroom and a second laptop cart has been added to the middle school. As the second phase began, the core-team of faculty (aka “DKJA-Smarties”) attended a Train-the-Trainer workshop, and were then assigned to small groups of faculty for peer-mentoring in using the equipment. This method of training has been highly successful, as teachers enjoy the intimacy and camaraderie of working with their peers in small-sized teams divided either by subject areas or grade-levels. The use of these interactive whiteboards, laptops, digital cameras, scanners, etc, together with the Internet as an unlimited resource of knowledge and facts, has opened the door to boundless possibilities of how this technology program can stretch the minds of the students.

We take pride in the integration of technology into both the general and Judaic studies curricula school-wide. Below are a few examples of how this takes place:

  • In Kindergarten, first and second grades, the use of many interactive websites allows the students to feel empowered by being able to come up to the front of the classroom, add their input to the lesson by touching or “writing” on the board with their fingers or electronic markers, and participating in the excitement as this shared knowledge sparks discussion.
  • In third grade Judaic studies and Hebrew classes, a program called Tal Am is used. It is specifically designed for Chumash stories and Biblical text. Technology plays an integral part in the Chumash lessons - many of the pictures and labels from the workbook are scanned and displayed on the SMARTboard. The labels of the pictures are covered in colored stars, squares or circles, and the vocabulary is learned, as the class cooperatively discusses and interactively moves the shapes off the words. This type of SMARTboard feature makes the lesson fun and the children feel engaged and very much part of the learning process. The SMARTboard is also used interactively by letting the students complete sentences or fill in the missing words. Additionally, Hebrew songs are easily learned by using the SMARTboard spotlight to magnify words and even highlighting the chorus.
  • In fourth grade Judaic studies, the students create a Chumash newspaper, based on biblical narratives. The articles include standard articles, an advice column, comic strips, weather pages, interviews, etc. The articles are written in cooperative groups, and then compiled into a newspaper using desktop-publishing software. At the completion of the project, parents of the students are invited to watch their children use the SMARTboard to demonstrate their end-products. Another project incorporates the blessings said on food. Using the computer the children create faces using images of the food specific to the blessing that is being demonstrated. Students incorporate animation in their PowerPoint presentations, and then share their final productions with their peers. The students also learn how to type in Hebrew and record their voices on the computer saying each blessing.
  • In fifth grade, video clips demonstrating many scientific experiments and facts are displayed on the SMARTboard. The functionality of the interactive board allows the teacher to stop the video at any time, explain specifics relating to the point in question, annotate observations on the board, continue the video, and then save all the remarks and observations in an electronic file, that can later be shared with other students and faculty, or alternatively be used as the basis for the next lesson.
  • In eighth grade, the process of writing is explored. One way to teach writing is to use students’ work as a model and to collaboratively edit it. With the use of the SMARTboard and laptops in the classroom, grammar lessons are easier to teach, writing becomes an engaging process and the students become cooperative learners.
  • In Middle School Judaic studies, scanned copies of Jewish text are projected onto the SMARTboard. The ease of how the original texts, juxtaposed to the interpretations on the screen, allow the children to analyze, review, evaluate, and synthesize the concepts, is of extreme value, as it enhances the students’ development and understanding of our heritage.
  • In High School Judaic studies a series of movies, “Sensei on Holidays” is being developed. DKJA’s own “sensei” (one of the faculty members) teaches about Jewish holidays and practices. In Jewish food preparation, kashrut and Jewish cooking are brought together in a “hands-on” environment. Students learn relevant laws, and then cook food items which revolve around those laws. To engage everyone, video cameras are used to capture all of these moments. The students then edit the footage to create Jewish cooking videos, which in turn are shared by all via the SMARTboard.

DKJA has been recognized by Smart Technologies, Inc. as a technology leader, being nominated as the first Smart Showcase School in Florida, as ultimately, technology has become a signature program, one that will continue to benefit both faculty and students, giving them the tools and skills they need to succeed in their future academic careers and in life.

Janice Odesnik is the Director of Technology at Donna Klein Jewish Academy in Boca Raton, FL. Janice can be reached at: [email protected].

“Learning Alone” is as Anemic as “Bowling Alone”

Technology and Jewish Education

One of the contributing factors to our increased isolation from one another is the growth and expansion of the Internet as well as the massive resources now available on discs ready for insertion into our personal CD-ROM drives. On the one hand, being able to access myriad libraries, books, magazines, newspapers and essays from the comfort of our homes allows us to research and educate ourselves in ways that were literally inconceivable only a few short years ago. On the other hand, we usually stare at our screens alone, cut off both physically and emotionally from those around us. We no longer have to go to a library, a Beit Midrash, even a university. We can study at home, in a Starbucks or on the beach as long as we are equipped with the proper hardware and software. The Jewish world is well-represented in cyberspace, and there are a plethora of sites that make accessible information, illustrations, translations, primary sources, and answers to questions. One can even prepare for one’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah by means of certain programs and websites without the benefit of a mentor, role model, or teacher.

But the cost in “Jewish social capital” that one ends up paying when he chooses to opt for virtual rather than in-person study is not negligible. When we sit alone in front of a computer screen, we may be relating to someone’s ideas, but not to the authors of those ideas as individuals and human personalities. Taken a step further, we have no sense of classmates, no atmosphere of excited learning where students and teacher feed off of one another, and no community of learners and learning. Even in a chat room, where give-and-take occurs, the conversation never reaches the personal level where one can look into another’s eyes, watch the expression on someone’s face as they talk and respond to or question them. What sort of relationship do I develop with a peer, let alone a teacher if we never see one another or hear each other’s voices?

The Rabbis in the times of the Talmud understood well the importance of face-to-face study as opposed to sitting alone in a room, surrounded by books, or for that matter staring at a computer screen, reflecting upon and composing one’s own ideas in isolation.

Berachot 63b

(Deuteronomy 27:9) “Hasket (listen) and hear Israel! This day you shall become a people unto the L-rd, your G-d”…

R. Tanchum son of R. Chiya, a man from Kfar Acco said:…The word hasket implies: Make yourselves into groups (kitot) to study the Torah, since the knowledge of the Torah can only be acquired in association with others, as stated by R. Yose b. Chanina…What is the meaning of the text, (Jeremiah 50:36) “A sword is upon the boasters (badim) and they shall become fools”? A sword is upon the disciples of the wise who sit separately (bad bevad) and study the Torah. What is more, they become fools…what is more they are sinners… (i.e., not only do these scholars fail to make progress in their studying, but they even retrogress and will have to give an accounting of why they did not make more productive use of their time by learning together with one another rather than alone).

And then there is the haunting account of R. Yochanan’s heart-wrenching lament when his longstanding study partner passed away and an adequate replacement could not be found:

Bava Metzia 84a

Reish Lakish died and R. Yochanan was plunged into deep grief. The Rabbis said, “Who shall go to ease his mind? Let R. Eleazar b. Pedat go, whose Torah interpretations are very sophisticated.” So he went and sat before him. With regard to every statement made by R. Yochanan, R.E.b.P. said, “There is a source that supports you!” “Are you the son of Lakish?” he complained. “When I stated a law, the son of Lakish used to raise 24 questions to which I would give 24 answers, which consequently led to a fuller comprehension of the law, while you say, ‘A source has been taught which supports you’. Don’t I know myself that my ideas are correct?” Thus he went on tearing his garments and weeping, “Where are you O son of Lakish, where are you O son of Lakish?”

The traditional Jewish term for one’s study partner, the roles played by R. Yochanan and Reish Lakish for one another, is chevruta, which suggests much more than simply studying with a friend. The assumption is that one’s study partner becomes over time his companion, an extension of himself, someone who comes to mean a great deal, a literal “fellow traveler”. Because the seeking out of ideas is shared so intimately between those who study together, the bonds that unite them become deep and meaningful. To expect this to happen via the Internet or even some type of advanced interactive software does not appear to be viable. We should continue to study with one another in person, even as we have our computers at our side, ready to look up at amazing speed the raw materials that will make our mutual learning with one another successful and productive.

Rabbi Jack Bieler is the Rabbi of Kemp Mill Synagogue and a member of the Judaic Studies faculty at M.J. Berman Hebrew Academy in Rockville, MD. Rabbi Bieler can be reached at: [email protected].

Integration of Interactive Multimedia Courses and Their Impact on the Teacher’s Role and Status

Technology and Jewish Education
  • Data processing and management.
  • Printing: the desktop publishing revolution.
  • Communications and information: e-mail and the web.

By and large, schools are incorporating these technologies and implementing programs to prepare students to work with them. The fourth development which is more specifically tied to the way we study and educate is:

Interactive Multimedia

Interactive multimedia courses came on the heels of the desktop publishing revolution. This powerful learning tool combines print, sound, visuals, animation, movies, interactivity and non linear navigation, together with encyclopedic references and virtual environment for designing and testing. Commonly, these courses are bundled with Learning Management Systems that provide feedback, adjust the course to the learner, and evaluate user performance. These systems can also automatically update the user’s course credit standing.

Ironically, interactive multimedia courses specifically directed at education have become a standard in the workplace but schools are slow to adopt them. Sometimes, limited hardware and small budgets for software are an issue; often the following concerns play a role in deferring their incorporation.

  1. Some educators and administrators are more comfortable with books and movies which present information linearly. Allowing the students to choose and navigate along their selected path is a new type of learning that educators are not used to. It also compromises having the class on the same page in order to meet curriculum demands.
  2. Some teachers feel that their creativity in planning lessons will be curtailed. Also, the teacher’s authority is reduced because they are not the sole information provider and evaluator.
  3. Teachers often see these courses as a threat to themselves and their status.

This article addresses these concerns and demonstrates the benefits that interactive courses bring to students, and to the classroom atmosphere. While some adjustments to the teacher’s role are expected, overall teachers’ importance will increase.

Multimedia and interactivity created by collaborative teams of authors, computer programmers, content specialists, graphic designers, animators, movie and music specialists, allows the student to control the learning process. They choose the approach to learning, their pace, time allocation and depth.

The incredible success of programs like Civilization and SimCity are clear examples of the appeal associated with this type of learning. Students are clearly motivated. The confluences of sound, vision, print, animation, and manipulation of virtual environment to test scenarios, allow them to build and test a bridge, design and test paper airplanes, and match trope sounds to their shapes, names, and places. These are bound to enhance learning. Through playing games and solving problems, students learn to recognize abstract patterns and rules. The visualization and design of structures, machines and systems becomes self-evident. History, literature, and culture are enjoyably and effectively learned.

These programs, with their rich resources and variety of learning approaches, put the student in a playground of learning and knowledge. No standardized minds here, no blustering lectures, no authority issues, just tools for independent development, self-study and personal growth.

Should teachers attempt to compete with such an offering? No, the role of the teacher is shifting. It is morphing into a less stressful, more important position than mere knowledge disseminator / examiner. The new teacher is a facilitator of learning, a credible master of the subject who is able to clarify, demonstrate, answer questions, and point to extra resources. More so, fully aware of the learning styles of their students, the teacher matches a variety of rich media courses to different students, and leads a group study for students who favor social learning.

This mode of individualized, engaged learning shifts the focus onto the student. The teacher assumes the greater role of mentor and counselor who inspires and empowers students for life-long learning. A role model of learning and continuous development himself, the teacher in this scenario is like a Rabbi/teacher who implements a combination of “set curriculum” with elements from Montessori’s approach.

It is fair to assume that the increased duties related to implementation of this new technology, including knowledge and evaluation of many electronic courses, together with providing support and supervision to several styles of learning at once, will further elevate the teacher status.

Not all subjects are naturally suited for computer courses. Social studies and psychology seem rather suitable for social learning. Literature and subjects related to philosophy benefit little from interactivity. These subjects benefit from the organizational and information tools offered by the first three fields enhanced by technological advancement but not necessarily from interactive multimedia.

Subjects that seem so far to benefit most from interactive multimedia often have an element of a practical skill, and are typically associated with the senses, motion and tactile interactions. They are:

  • Visual thinking and design, such as technical drawings, and areas of visual math.
  • Ear training for languages, music and sounds.
  • Software and computers, naturally.
  • Simulations, from driving to navigating a plane. When combined with virtual environments for design and testing they can be used for castle and catapult strength testing, building eco systems, etc.
  • Multifaceted subjects such as culture and civilizations.

Creative preparation for subjects that will be taught by computers need not cease. We are still in the early stages of the digital revolution, so there is room for many subjects to be developed into interactive multimedia. If you have the interest to initiate an interactive course, shape your material and course plan (as far as you can) then contact a publishing house to submit a proposal for publication.

In the 1990s, studies measuring the effectiveness of interactive learning were inconclusive. Struggling to measure motivation or investigative learning they often called for further studies. When many of these studies were examined during 2000-2002, further problems in sampling size and methodology were identified. It also became clear that many tested courses were far from what was considered by then interactive multimedia. Since 2004 most studies generally indicate an advantage for interactive multimedia courses when compared with traditional teaching. In some studies, it was the case that only a specific group such as students who rely on visual learning or students that did not understand the material in traditional setting, found the interactive electronic course superior. Other studies indicate a broader benefit for interactive multimedia, including the student’s evaluation that gained insight and skills in the subject taught, will aid them tackling other subjects.

The two mediums of teaching that are still at the core of our schools’ instruction are oral transmission, and textbooks. Interactive multimedia represents a radical change to the medium of teaching. No less revolutionary is the shift in focus to the student and their style of learning as they navigate the world of knowledge and skills.

Previous changes in the teaching field met resistance. Rabbis (teachers) resisted writing down the oral tradition of Torah, fearing their loss of control over the nuance of personal interpretation, and likely a diminished need for Rabbis (teachers). When printed books, especially curriculum books entered the classroom, some teachers felt threatened. They resented the loss of creativity and the imposed format. We now know that neither writing nor printing nor set curriculum displaced teachers. Instead they were a blessing, as they increased scholarship, knowledge, and skills thus leading to further demand for qualified teachers. So will interactive multimedia courses.

Tzvi Taub is the director of Koltor Publishing and the author of the interactive Trope - Training course Chant the Bible. Tzvi can be reached at: [email protected].