jlearn2.0

Will you be at CAJE? Are you blogging about CAJE? We are:

Deb Harris on MuseForJews
Esther Kustanowitz on My Urban Kvetch
Caren Levine on jlearn2.0 (that’s us!)
Reuven Werber on TorahTech
Darim Online staff on JewPoint0

And of course, the incredible CAJE leadership team over at CAJE33 including Jeff Lasday, Iris Petroff, Joel Hoffman, Mel Bray, and guest bloggers!

Want some company while you blog? Need help getting started?

Join us at the CAJE Bloggers Café, a central space for bloggers and aspiring bloggers to congregate, write, and cross-pollinate ideas. We’ll be meeting on Monday and Wednesday at 4:15pm - 05:30pm in Votey 206 (computer lab). Can’t make it? That’s ok – we can find each other online; just tag your posts: caje, caje33

The Jewish Educators Network met at NECC 2008 in San Antonio This is the eighth year that this group has been meeting and we are grateful to our friends at NECC for including the network as part of its Birds of a Feather sessions. This year the group was facilitated by Phil Liff-Grieff, Associate Executive Director, Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Los Angeles.

Sixteen participants convened together including representatives from: American Hebrew Academy, Greensboro, NC; Associated Hebrew Schools of Toronto; Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, Chicago; B’nai Menahem, Austin; Bureau of Jewish Education, Los Angeles; Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, Rockville, MD; Donna Klein Jewish Academy, Boca Raton; Eleanor Kolitz Academy, San Antonio; JPPS-Bialik, Montreal; Magen David Yeshivah, Brooklyn; Ner Consulting Group; Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County, NJ; The Heschel School, NY; and, Touro College, NY.

The discussion centered around professional challenges, sharing resources, and strategies for working together.

Challenges included the following:

• dual curriculum- teachers complain that there is too much to teach during the day; one can’t put time into technology projects
• integration of tech into the curriculum
• vailability of Judaic software for Mac schools
• time and the cultural divide/adoption issues (older, Israeli faculty not eager to accept technology)
• it is hard to find Hebrew language resources
• money!! (and teachers adopting technology)
• training
• paucity of good Judaic software
• need to share curricular resources (smart board lessons, etc.)
• teacher attitudes (Judaic teachers)- tech is just not important
• we are still having the same discussion that we had 20 years ago
• the rigid nature of some of the Hebrew curricula - they don’t allow for the addition of creative tech-based enhancements

Participants shared some of their most useful resources:

• TES software (www.jewishsoftware.com) including Rashi and Mishkan programs, Bar Ilan Responsa
• Before You Know It language acquisition software (www.byki.com), Hebrew version
• Chinuch.org
• Mechon-Mamre (for text)
• Jewish Tech discussion list
  

Strategies for working together include:

• Share what we are using, what we like and why
• Google groups
• Resource wiki- focused page
  • Judaic resources (software, web apps, etc. divided by subject)
  • where/how to access funds
  • interschool collaboration (and actual pairing)
    • tools for collaboration
    • pairing of schools across N. America
    • resources/best practices for tech use in Israel Partnerships
  • best practices- lesson plan sharing (like CAJE used to do- you submit one lesson in order to get access to the lesson bank)
    • teacher-developed materials and lessons
    • Judaic adaptations of existing open source resources
      best practices- tools for enhanced teacher adoption of ed tech
  • links to distance learning opportunities

Next Steps:

1. Distribute session notes and post them (done)
2. Put the google group, jewish educators network and wiki, chaitech, in place (done)
3. Participate (ongoing contributions and facilitation)

A few additional points were raised:

• It’s important to include religious (congregational/complementary) schools
• Touro is interested in working with educators in the area of ed tech
• Who trains the trainers?
• How do we find funds? Involve parents in funding discrete tech projects or program components

Many thanks to Phil and to all of you who attended for your continuing contributions.

Next year in DC!

Are you lucky enough to be at NECC in San Antonio? Come on over and join the Jewish Educators Network on Monday, June 30, 2008, 4:45pm–5:45pm at the Grand Hyatt Lone Star Ballroom C. Phil Liff-Grieff, Associate Director of the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Los Angeles will facilitate our annual gathering. Maybe I can get skyped in…

In response to previous gatherings of this network, a discussion group was recently created for educators in Jewish settings who integrate educational technology into their work. The group meets face to face at the annual NECC conferences. The discussion group was set up to facilitate communications and to share information about our annual gathering at NECC, follow up, and general sharing of ideas, resources, etc. about our work.

You are welcome to join us! And I look forward to seeing everyone next year at NECC 2009, Washington DC!

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Visit this group

Can’t make it to this year’s NECC in person? There are many different opportunities to participate:

NECC 2008 Community Network
Podcasts
Webcasts, video on demand
Second Life events

And of course, read your favorite educational blogs, tweets, podcasts, etc. to catch up on personal takes of a very exciting conference.

It’s fascinating to see how face to face conferences extend beyond their physical space.

The program broadcast on ustream.tv:

Video clips hosted by Ustream

The Jewish Communal Service Association of North America is holding its annual conference on Thursday, June 5 at 4pm EDT in New York. And online.

The conference, “LINKED: Maximizing technology for the future of the Jewish community,” features keynote Allison Fine, author of Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age, winner of the 2007 Terry McAdam Book Award for nonprofit management. Information about Allison and her work can be found here. The panel, moderated by Lisa Colton, includes Graham Hoffman, Michael Hoffman, and Gail Magaliff.

In accordance with the conference theme, the event will also be streamed using ustream.tv. Participants are also being encouraged to use twitter to interact with each other. This is a huge experiment for the conference and very exciting!

Questions and ideas that will be addressed regarding new media faced by Jewish communal organizations will include:

• What is currently happening, and what is next, in the world of technology and social networking?
• What are some of the innovative uses of technology already being implemented?
• What opportunities should the Jewish community be maximizing?

Join in on the festivities:
Access the JCSA Annual Program’s Live Broadcast channel on ustream.tv. When prompted for a password, type: jcsana. You can maximize the broadcasting screen by clicking on the screen icon on the bottom right corner of the viewing window.

You can also follow along on twitter. The twitter feed is: JCSA

Here’s to experimentation!

Attention middle school/ high school educators in Jewish congregational or complementary learning settings:

• Are you looking for opportunities to integrate educational technologies and new media like blogs, wikis, and social networking into your work?
• Are you a creative, curious, risk-taking educator in a Jewish congregational or other complementary Jewish educational setting?
• Do you work with middle school and/or high school students?
• Do you have a really great idea for using educational technology that you’ve wanted to test out?
• Are you interested in joining a community of like-minded educators for a year of intensive professional development and collaborative learning?

Darim Online is launching a new membership program, the Learning Network for Educators, made possible by a grant from the Covenant Foundation. In its first year, this program will engage approximately 20 Jewish educators working with middle and high school aged populations in congregational or other complementary educational settings as they integrate new media into their learning settings.

The Learning Network is based on the model of a community of practice, in which members learn from each other through sharing resources and expertise, problem-solving, and developing collective wisdom on an ongoing basis in order to grow professionally and improve their practice.

Benefits of membership in this pilot program include:

• Access to experts and resources through monthly educational events such as webinars, conference calls, and one on one consulting with Darim staff and affiliates
• Opportunities to vision and implement technology-enriched projects into your educational practice in a supportive environment
• Opportunities to develop and share curricular resources and emerging practices that take advantage of new technologies.
• Participation in a supportive community of practice with colleagues who are engaged in similar work and learning
• Professional learning about new media and the potential to transform Jewish learning

Membership activities will include online discussions, sharing ideas and practice, one on one coaching from Darim staff and affiliates, and elearning events with experts in the field.

The Educators Network builds on the success of Darim Online’s original Learning Network for Synagogues. That network, which continues into its third year, is a professional development and knowledge-sharing membership network for staff and lay leaders of synagogues who are integrating new technologies into their work. Funding for the Network for Synagogues is provided by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation with additional support from the Jewish Life Network and membership fees.

Full disclosure about the Darim Oline Learning Networks: it’s a project I am working on.

Details, including the membership application, are available on the Darim Online site.