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Fresh Ideas. Fresh Topics. Fresh Air. That’s CAJE 33 in Burlington, Vermont, August 10 – 14, 2008.

Come join us and help make this conference the best one ever! Here’s an overview of the conference’s track on educational technology:

CAJE 33 Educational Technology
Jewish Learning in A Digital World

The educational technology track is presented in collaboration with Behrman House Publishers, producers of web based technology including; Peer-2-Peer: Software Group, Hineni Interactive and Digital Click and Read Hebrew.

Whether you’re just learning to “double-click” or consider yourself an educational tech guru, this track has some fresh ideas for you.

• Connect learning theory and learning practice
• Understand today’s learners as creators, consumers, and participants in the digital world - and engage them in their learning
• Integrate new media into the educational community – reach staff, school board, parents, and students
• Take advantage of easy-to-use digital tools that support student learning and professional development, with a focus on resources and assessment
• Extend learning into the home through the use of software and online resources
• Explore social media for Jewish education including wikis, blogs, podcasts, and virtual environments
• Understand cutting edge wireless learning: cell phones, PDAs, and gaming devices
• Network with other educators and administrators who are integrating technology into their learning communities
• Blog away at the CAJE “Bloggers Café,” a central space for bloggers and aspiring bloggers to congregate, write, and cross-pollinate ideas.
• Get in on the fun at the CAJE “technology playgrounds” intended to demystify technology and demonstrate new Jewish/Hebrew software programs and online resources.
• Connect with other technology-savvy educators, gain tech knowledge, share recipes for success, and get inspired!

Join in the fun, join in the learning – submit session proposals or come as a participant – see CAJE for details!

Got a great idea or project to present at this year’s CAJE conference? Want to meet interesting people who share your passion for Jewish education?

CAJE’s request for proposals is now open, as is registration for CAJE 33. If you would like to submit a proposal for possible presentation at the CAJE conference, see the CAJE website and the CAJE 33 wiki for more information.

The deadline for submitting proposals is Friday, March 14, 2008. Notification of proposal acceptance is Friday, April 18, 2008.

CAJE 33 will be held Sunday, August 10 - Thursday, August 14, 2008 in beautiful Burlington, Vermont.

What if you had the opportunity to design a seminar on the use of technology and new media in Jewish education? What would you plan? What would you want people to walk away with? What if you had a place to share your ideas and to dream big?

Well, guess what? Here’s your big chance! Debbie Harris and I are co-chairs of the CAJE 33 Conference Technology Track and we want to hear from you!

What topics are important to cover? What skills are you interested in learning? Are there technology-based projects that you would like to experiment with? And another way to think about this - what could track activities look like? How would you envision this event? For example, in addition to more traditional sessions, what about a blogger’s cafe, a podcast station, a place to meet with vendors to engage in conversations and share ideas, a tech lab to play with new tools and ideas, fishbowl events that model problem solving, “schmoozefests” to share ideas and connect with like-minded colleagues, poster sessions to highlight interesting projects, community building events and activities….?

Share your ideas! Drop a comment here, post on TorahTech, email Caren or Debbie, or join the discussion on the CAJE 33 Planning wiki.

Esther Kustanowitz of JTA blogging, MyUrbanKvetch, PresenTense, and Jewish Week fame, recently posted on the need for Jewish education to embrace new media for learning:

What CAJE’s next conference needs — and really what the whole Jewish non-profit world could benefit from — is a systemwide technology overhaul from an equipment and a human resources/skills perspective. What CAJE did was a tremendous stride forward, expressing the hope and trust that if they built it, the educators would come to use it and populate it with fresh content. But educators, both formal and informal, require the tools and the skills to reach students who live their lives online even more than I do. If those students are listening to MP3 players, let them listen to Jewish educational podcasts and music in addition to the soundtrack from “High School Musical.” If they are reading blogs, let them be Jewish blogs. If they are using e-mail, expand their use to a joint wiki with another school to cross-pollinate ideas and experiences and build a stronger Jewish people.

As usual, Esther writes thoughtfully and passionately about the topic. Take a look at the full article on JTA and be sure to read the article that Esther co-authored with Ariel Beery in the recent issue of CAJE’s JEN, Jewish Education News, “Information Nation: Expanding Education’s Frontier to Find ‘Generation Tech.‘”

Virtual CAJE 32 continues to be an interesting experiment. The three primary arenas are the CAJE 32 blog on WordPress, the CAJE 32 wiki on wikispaces, and cajenet, the CAJE 32 social network on Ning, an online social networking platform.

The blog and the wiki are open to the public. The blog includes postings from the CAJE executive director, CAJE president, and co-conference chair. In addition, two participants from the Schusterman College Program were invited to share their conference experiences on the blog.

The wiki was created as a central clearinghouse for conference materials. It includes the program book, program highlights and updates, press releases, CAJE’s Jewish Education News, a printable map of the conference campus, and session handouts. It is anticipated that additional presentation materials will be added to the site after the conference concludes. A parallel wiki, CAJEd In, was created to encourage participants to experiment with the medium and to provide an additional area for the public sharing of ideas and resources.

The social network, cajenet, is available to members only. Registrants are provided with space to post on their own internal blogs, add photographs and videos, and create discussion forums and groups. cajenet is an integrated, interactive environment that took on a life if its own. It is particularly interesting to see that membership in the network appears to represent a variety of ages and technology experience. It is also intriguing to see how individuals personalize their spaces given limitations in Ning’s design.

The tools are just that – tools. They were chosen based on CAJE’s perceived needs for the conference and to play with sample templates for future design. It’s people who create content and foster interactions to make the experience meaningful.

Although I am not at this year’s CAJE conference physically, I have been following it online. This year’s conference theme is “Engaging 21st Century Jewish Learners.” As previously noted, there is quite a selection of sessions that address issues of technology. Some of these are specifically listed as part of the conference track, “Technology as a means of engaging the learner.” Several are listed under different tracks, which, to my mind, is a good thing. In general, the sessions include a mix of curriculum integration, “how-tos,” case studies, and showcases for resources and products. Technology is just one of the areas explored regarding the engagement of the learner. Other tracks include “Adult Learners,” “Hebrew,” “G-d, Spirituality and Prayer,” “Israel and Klal Yisrael,” “Tikkun Olam/Social Action,” “Young Adults,” and much, much more.

We learn and teach in a variety of different settings. In his opening remarks, Peter Eckstein, co-chair of the CAJE 32 conference, challenged participants to redefine their frames of reference to include virtual classrooms, communities, friends and communities.

Iris Petroff, CAJE”s president, asks attendees to consider: “What was your best CAJE moment?“

Here’s a spin on that question: How has your experience at CAJE / in the classroom / in academia / at home / in your learning setting / as a learner / as an educator contributed to your thinking about how to engage Jewish learners? What tools can we use? What infrastructures do we need? What are new ways to think about transforming Jewish learning - and what does that mean, anyway :)? What are core values at the heart of Jewish learning? What could Jewish learning look like – and what will it take to get us there? What are other, better questions we should be asking?

CAJE’s Summer 2007 issue of its publication, Jewish Education News, is now available online at the CAJE 32 wiki. In accordance with the conference theme, this edition focuses on the “Landscape of 21st Century Learning.”

Posting the articles on the wiki provides opportunities for readers to respond out loud and share their ideas. The articles are accessible in text and pdf formats.

Leah Strigler is the Chair of the Editorial Advisory Board for Jewish Education News. We asked Leah her thoughts about the JEN online project. Leah wrote:

It is exciting that CAJE is experimenting with online opportunities to support and expand its core services and programs. This is exactly the kind of innovative thinking that Jewish education needs and that the next two issues of JEN, as well as the upcoming CAJE conference, will explore.

These articles are thought-provoking and contribute to the ongoing conversation about Jewish living and learning. The majority of them address aspects of new technologies and culture. Definitely a good read!