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It’s official! Once again, the Jewish Educators Network will meet as part of the “Birds of a Feather” program at ISTE’s annual NECC Conference, held this year in San Antonio, Texas, June 29 - July 2, 2008. Please join us on Monday, June 30, 4:45pm-5:45pm. Check the NECC program (and jlearn2.0) for the exact location.

Last year, 24 educators in Jewish settings from the United States and Canada met up at NECC to network, share project ideas, challenges, and successes. This coming conference will be the eighth consecutive meeting of this group! Let us know if you will be there this year - NECC is an incredible conference - learn more about it from the ISTE website:

For almost three decades, NECC has been the premier forum in which to learn, exchange, and survey the field of educational technology. This annual conference—presented by ISTE and keyed to the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS)—features hands-on workshops, lecture-format and interactive concurrent sessions, discussions with key industry leaders, and the largest educational technology exhibit in the nation.

Early bird registration for NECC ends Monday, March 31st.

This year’s theme is: Convene. Connect. Transform.

Give a shout if you will be there - we also welcome suggestions about how to maximize our time together as Jewish educators.

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!

This year’s annual CAJE conference includes a number of interesting sessions that address the use of educational technology in Jewish education. An entire conference track is devoted to technology as a tool to engage learners. There are at least 28 sessions that address the field, including Wednesday evening’s keynote (see the previous jlearn2.0 posting for a more detailed description of the keynote).

A quick scan of the conference program yields the following sessions:

Free on the Web! Internet Resources for the Classroom and Beyond (Deborah Harris); BabagaNewz Connects: E-lesson Plans, Virtual Tours and Online Jewish Games (Lisa Micley); Plugging in Your Religious School (Deborah Harris); Introducing Technology Into Every Aspect of the School (Philip Gaethe, Jeremy Poisson); Integrating Technology: The jbop Experiment (Danny Paller, Susan Rheins); Learning Communities for Professional Development: Case Studies and Best Practices (Lisa Colton, Naava Frank); Jewish tradition and MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook (Joan Glazer Farber); Creating Presentations With PowerPoint (David Harris, Deborah Harris); Improve Your Use of Technology: Best Practices for Congregational Educators (Lisa Colton); Techno-Torah: Cable Television as Jewish Education (Aley Sheer); Explorer’s Bible 3D Adventure—Creating a Virtual Bible World (Jeremy Poisson); Using the Internet for Marketing, Outreach, and Engagement in Learning (Lisa Colton); So You Think You Want a WIKI? (Deborah Harris); Exploring the Social Networking Websites: MySpace, YouTube, and more! (Daniel Held); Hooking Today’s Techno-Savvy Students (Jeremy Poisson); Technology Included…Enhance and Strengthen Your Hebrew School Curriculum! (Marsha Axler); From Sinai to Cyberspace: Bridging the Gap (Efraim Mintz); “Dad, I Want to Do My Hebrew Homework” — Using Hebrew Software in School and at Home (Kim Beame, Terry Kaye); Being a Web-Mensch: When Jewish Values and Technology Coincide and Collide (Deborah Harris); Blogging 101 (David Harris, Deborah Harris); To Google or not to Google? Navigating Judaic Content Websites (Brian Amkraut); Creating Hebrew Centers in Early Childhood Classrooms (Ora Kurland); Reel Learning: Using Film More Productively in the Classroom (Amelia Klein); Creating an On-Line Living Museum (Paul Radensky); Jewish Genealogy: Reconnecting the Klal and Preserving the Memory of the Shoah (Jonina Duker); Jewish Education 2.0: Identity, Community, and Religion in the Age of Internet 2.0 (Brian Amkraut); and, Podcasting 101 (Deborah Harris).

Also of interest is the session The Personal Touch: An Approach to Religious School Education without Technology (Sherry Blumberg).

Check out the CAJE conference program for detailed descriptions and for additional conference sessions.

This year’s CAJE conference will be held August 5 - 9, 2007, at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. The keynote for Wednesday, August 8 is titled “Jewish Education 2.0: Identity, Community, and Religion in the Age of Internet 2.0.” The keynote will be delivered by Brian Amkraut, Provost and Professor of Judaic Studies and Director of Distance at Siegal College.

Brian shared the description of his presentation:

The world of Internet 2.0, in which broadband access and open source software facilitate file sharing, streaming media, and user-generated content, represents the latest challenge for Jewish education - perhaps most significantly in the changing attitude towards authority and empowerment of the individual. The collaborative world of Web 2.0 reflects a social and an intellectual culture in which individual “end users” may directly shape and create the frames of reference for Jewish life in the 21st century.

The keynote is one of many sessions that highlights the use of technology in Jewish education at the conference. More on this shortly!

For further information about CAJE and the CAJE 32 conference, go to www.caje.org

The Jewish Educators Network will meet at NECC in Atlanta on Monday, June 25, 5:30-6:30pm, Room B201. Please join us for an opportunity to network and share. The session is open to anyone interested in the integration of technology in Jewish learning settings, including general and Judaic subjects.

Please note that the meeting time overlaps with the concurrent Birds of a Feather sessions, which run from 4:45-6:30pm. This will give those who wish to attend a Birds session an opportunity to spend some time there before joining us at 5:30pm.

The session is listed in the NECC online program planner – it can be found and added to your program plan by scrolling to the section labeled “Category and Subcategory” and selecting “Meeting/Focused Gathering” from the pull-down menu.

Colleagues noted the following topics of interest:

• SMARTBoards and other interactive white boards
• Podcasting, videocasting
• blogs and wikis
• laptops vs. tablets
• stationary labs vs. mobile labs
• one to one computing

In addition, we are pleased to present the published version of the White Paper: Jewish Learning in the Digital Age, which was discussed at last year’s meeting.

The session will be co-moderated by Caren Levine, jlearn2.0 and etheoreal; and Sara Seligson, BJE of Greater New York. Many thanks to NECC for providing this venue!

Will you be attending this year’s NECC Conference in Atlanta? Would you like to network and share ideas with other educators in Jewish settings? Once again, the Jewish Educators Network is planning to meet informally in conjunction with the NECC Conference; time, date, and location to be determined. If you are interested and would like to be notified about details, please contact jlearn2.0. Please share this information with colleagues who may be interested. The meeting will not be listed in the NECC program.

COJS, the Center for Online Judaic Studies, is sponsoring its second annual workshop directed by Professor Robert Chazan and held on the campus of New York University. 30 North American educators will work together with renowned Jewish historians, scholars of education, educational technology specialists, and doctoral students. In conjunction with the workshop, each participant will create an innovative curricular unit for use in Jewish history classrooms.

The objectives of the workshop are:

• To continue the development of a professional network of master educators, scholars, and doctoral students. This network will remain active throughout the school year, working to create innovative curricular materials and to exchange thoughts regarding issues that are central to the field of Jewish history education.
• To facilitate conversation among leaders in the field (teachers, administrators, scholars, and graduate students) about fascinating issues related to Jewish identity, Jewish collective memory, and the teaching of Jewish history.
• To explore innovations in educational technology and to discuss its role in the future of Jewish history education.
• To introduce participants to the innovative curricular materials being produced by the Center for Online Judaic Studies (COJS) and to engage in dialogue aimed at improving and promoting the classroom utilization of these materials.
• To foster a collaborative environment that allows participants to engage with their colleagues, resident scholars, the resources of the NYU library, and COJS as they create their own curricular materials.
• To enable participants to encounter and discuss recent developments in the scholarship of Jewish history, curriculum studies, and educational technology/cognitive psychology.

Workshop participants will receive:

• Reimbursement for travel expenses
• Lodging near NYU (for participants coming from outside the New York metropolitan area)
• Several kosher meals
• A $1000.00 honorarium

Applications for participation are due the week of March 12. For more information, see www.cojs.info/~nyc/Workshop/index.html (click on the “Next” at the bottom of the page to see the second page) or contact Michael Kay or Yona Shem-Tov, Assistant Directors of the workshop, at: workshop@cojs.org.