jlearn2.0

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.

Introducing a brand new shiny resource for Jewish educators – the Jewish Portal of Teacher Education sponsored by the MOFET Institute, an intercollegiate organization for teacher educators.

MOFET JTEC features a searchable, online clearinghouse of resources for Jewish educators. The site currently includes abstracts of articles of interest to Jewish educators as well as links to the original publications where available. Categories include: Adult Education, Conferences & Events, Education & Administration, Formal Education, Informal Education, In-Service Training, Israel Education, Jewish Education Trends, Learning Resources, Teacher Education, and Technology & Computers.

The site incorporates many aspects of social media, including RSS feeds, and permalinks for easy inclusion into one’s website or blog. Users can leave comments about the articles and suggest other related materials.

Find out more – explore the site, subscribe to the newsletter, and stay tuned as the site continues to grow!

Attention early birds! No doubt you have already registered for this year’s CAJE Conference in Burlington, Vermont, August 10 – 14, 2008. But, just in case you got caught up in Pesach, and work and, oh, life …you still have a chance to register for what is proving to be a fabulous conference, at the early bird rate. But do it now - the rate is good until Friday, May 2.

This year’s CAJE Conference and Early Childhood Conference @ CAJE includes intensive tracks on congregational education, eco-Judaism, and educational technology. The educational technology track promises to be a terrific opportunity for learning and professional networking - you won’t want to miss it! Other conference topics include text study, the arts, Hebrew language, curriculum development, Israel @ 60…. and so much more!

The conference is all about the people, so come and be a part of it! Remember, early bird pricing ends Friday, May 2. For more information, see the CAJE website and tune in regularly to the CAJE 33 blog.

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!

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.