Over 65 educators convened at this year’s Jewish Educators Network Birds of a Feather! Participants included veteran attendees, new friends, and Fellows from AVI CHAI and PELIE.  About 2/3 of the participants were new to ISTE.

We had representation from Canada, Israel, and the United States including: ACAJE/JOP, Philadelphia, PA; Agudas Achim, Attleboro, MA; AMHSI   Philadelphia, PA; Association of Jewish Libraries; AVI CHAI Foundation; Bais Yaakov School for Girls, Baltimore, MD; Beth El, Alexandria, VA; Beth Tfiloh Dahan, Baltimore, MD; Bialik High School     Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Bi-Cultural Day School, Stamford, CT; BJELA, Los Angeles, CA; Causil; Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, Rockville, MD; Chicago Jewish Day School, Chicago, IL; Congregation Albert, Albuquerque, NM; Donna Klein Jewish Academy, Boca Raton, FL; DRS-HALB High School, Woodmere, NY; etheoreal / Darim Online    /jlearn20; Frisch School,  Paramus, NJ;  Gray Academy, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; Greenfield Hebrew Academy, Atlanta, GA; Hasten Hebrew Academy, Indianapolis, IN; Hebrew Academy Chabad, Huntington Beach, CA; Hillel Day School, Farmington Hills, MI; Jewish Community High School of the Bay, San Francisco, CA;  Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA; Leo Baeck Temple, Los Angeles, CA; Lesley University, Cambridge, MA; New Community Jewish High School, Los Angeles, CA; Ohr Chadash Academy, Baltimore, MD; PELIE, New York, NY; Perelman Jewish Day School, Greater Philadelphia, PA; Ramaz Lower School, New York, NY; Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, Elkins Park, PA; SAR Academy, Riverdale, NY; Sinai Akiba, Los Angeles, CA; Solomon Schechter / Lakeside Congregation, Northfield, IL; South Peninsula Hebrew Day School   Sunnyvale, CA; Southern California Yeshiva High, San Diego, CA; SpeedSkin, Los Angeles, CA; Temple Beth David, Palm Beach Gardens, FL; Temple Beth Torah, Melville, NY; Temple Beth Torah, Wellington, FL; Temple Solel, Cardiff-By-The-Sea (San Diego), CA; The Jewish Education Project, White Plains, NY, New York, NY; The Jewish Week, New York, NY; University of Maryland, College Park, MD; Yavneh Academy, Paramus, NJ; Yeshiva University New York, NY.

Staying Connected

In addition to the Jewish Educators Network Google group and Chai Tech wiki, we now have a Jewish Educators Network Facebook group for those who would like to connect that way.  Please join us, whether you have attended our network or not! The focus of our discussions is primarily on Jewish education and technology.

A list of attendees can be found here.

Session Summary

There were many themes and areas of interest that emerged out of our discussions:

  • assistive technologies
  • complementary education
  • curriculum integration
  • ebooks
  • global learning and collaboration
  • Hebrew language
  • iPads
  • Judaic apps
  • laptops
  • mobile learning
  • online learning
  • problem based learning
  • professional development for educators
  • SMARTBoards, interactive whiteboards
  • special needs
  • systemic change
  • teacher buy in
  • technology integration
  • videoconferencing
  • virtual environments

Phil Liff-Grieff facilitated our small group discussions.  We divided into 5 groups to discuss and share challenges that we face and to  suggest solutions. Two groups recorded their conversations which are shared below.

Many thanks to the following for their input into the session planning: Gloria Becker, Rebecca Egolf, Jodi Mishkin, Phil Liff-Grieff, Adena Raub, Elana Rivel, Phil Warmflash, and Dave Weinberg.

Also check out the recent article by Julie Wiener in The Jewish Week, “Jewish Day Schools Look for Online Savings”

Notes from the Discussion Groups

Challenges and Responses – Recorded by Sara Ravid

Budget

  • Much of what is presented is free
  • Get computers donated
  • Nonprofits can tap into TechSoup for computer and software deals
  • Find someone in federal government procurement (they turn over every three years and will donate to schools

Determine strategic approaches that will be most beneficial; there’s no consensus on what successful Jewish education is

  • we need a consensus before knowing what technology is needed
  • need to that before we get the technology
  • see the endpoint and then work backwards
  • Phil Liff-Grieff’s delicious bookmarks: http://www.delicious.com/pliffgrieff; find the best and cull down

Funders

  • lack of highway between all the organizations
  • how to share with them
  • no one-stop way to disseminate
  • no great way to share beyond 1
  • Legacy Heritage – SMART resources site, posting Jewish lessons for SMARTBoards
  • tech companies, angel investors
  • all day schools in a region meet and collaboratively purchase, etc. (e.g., Atlanta)
  • Fundraising is not a major problem or answer – get day schools to work together for government funding (hardware, software); use is limited by purpose

Period of Time

  • want students to create knowledge but we need to do that too

Crowd sourcing

  • nings all over the place
  • osmosis going on; that’s one of the answers (twitter, etc. as intermediary)

What collaboration tools should we use?

  • use of social media
  • body of knowledge, information
  • wisdom of field generated / spread naturally

Not marketing technology

  • Facebook is going crazy because there is a reason to go back
  • Contests, etc.
  • Marketing towards what? Different facets of education, different target populations; how to motivate them

Marketing Jewish education using social media

  • 1/99 ratio: 90% lurker, 9% somewhat active, 1% active
  • issue for Jewish organizations: know metrics trying to hit friends of friends
  • not pulled in on Facebook “please like/share” if do it
  • schools trying to do fundraising initiatives. Social media needs strategy to succeed.
  • scale: small social network as pilot for engagement

Experimenting with new things

  • history of start/stop too much
  • risk averse culture re: finances, time

Challenges and Responses – Recorded by Jodi Mishkin

Funding

  • in Philly a law firm upgrading donated all their laptops

In supplemental schools

  • getting teachers to go for additional technology training

Technology that is out that used to connect everyone (other communities)

  • connecting with a school in Israel to bring Hebrew to life
  • Skyping
  • understanding Hebrew through prayer and understanding it as a real language
  • Rosetta Stone possibility

Technology in Hebrew / programs in Hebrew not readily available

  • Davka Writer
  • is there an on line program to teach Hebrew

How do I know and use the tools that are out there?

  • how do I import Hebrew into comics
  • how do I use the tools that are available to teach curriculum
  • Google has good Hebrew Support (full Hebrew Support) [note: you can copy and past tests]
  • put Hebrew into Google presentations

Tons of Judaic resources on line

Khan learn at home, homework in classroom (“flipped classroom”)

How do we connect funders, educators, and technology creators?

  • we are always trying to catch up to society
  • what are our goals
  • we are teaching different “things” now
  • creating Jewish identity
  • how do you address all the needs and learning levels in a 3 hour block or less
  • the key is not to give information but it is to give them the fire:  teach how to learn; teach them to want to learn

Where you at ISTE? What are your take-aways? What will try out in the coming year? Share your ideas with us!