jlearn2.0

The Lippman Kanfer Institute, in cooperation with CAJE, is sponsoring a new project investigating the impact and potential of new media on Jewish education. Jewish Education 3.0, aka JEd3.0, will result in a working paper that focuses on technology and Jewish education. JEd3.0 invites collaboration from the field – contributions are welcome to the project wiki.

The project is examining the impact media and technology has on Jewish education today, and how educators, learners, and other Jewish education stakeholders can utilize these tools to improve and empower their own learning and teaching. Current wiki topics include the changing role of educators, Jewish values and ethics, issues of identity, and more.

If you are at CAJE, join us at the JEd3.0 reception on Tuesday, August 12 at 4:45pm - 6:15pm in the Mildred Livak Room (419), Davis Center. In either case, let your voice be heard on the wiki!

The Lippman Kanfer Institute (LKI) is an action-oriented think tank for innovation in Jewish learning and engagement. The Institute identifies and disseminates new ideas, new thinking, new practices and new organizational designs to keep Jewish education relevant and effective in a changing world. More information can be found at JESNA.

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!

The paper provides a brief overview of the educational landscape and focuses on issues related to building capacities for change.

• Vision and leadership are crucial. Educational stakeholders must continue to serve as advocates for quality Jewish education and recognize the role that technology can play in support. They need to understand that successful implementation of educational technology is accessible, achievable, and incorporates elements of good practice. These leaders should convene on a regular basis and use technology to support their work.
• Administrators and teachers need to understand issues around educational technology so that they can make informed and educationally sound decisions based on their learner’s needs.
• Cadres of technology-using educators – in addition to technology coordinators – need to be nurtured through a range of professional development and networking, and be given opportunities and the support to experiment. Early adapters and peer leaders can be enlisted to assist their colleagues.
• Teachers must be provided with incentives and opportunities to move from adopting applications to truly appropriating them as new ways to achieve their curricular objectives. Ultimately, they should be able to transform their practice by integrating technology in a seamless way as another resource to foster deep learning.
• Students and educators alike must become critical connoisseurs of multimedia resources and opportunities and develop habits of lifelong learning.
• Schools of higher learning, in particular teacher preparation programs, need to implement and model the integration of technology into content and teaching technique on a regular basis.
• Research and evaluations must be conducted and disseminated to help identify promising practices, to better evaluate digital learning in Jewish settings, and to avoid reinventing wheels.
• Financially viable venues need to be developed for the creation and dissemination of quality educational resources and initiatives that take advantage of the opportunities new technologies can offer.
• Creative ways to address funding issues should be developed and promoted.
• Support should be given to both cutting edge projects and more modest endeavors that integrate technology in relevant and appropriate ways. Attention should be paid to innovation, but also to what is more easily doable and accessible to most people. Opportunities should be provided to build on successes.

We encourage you to read the full text of the paper. It is not intended as a definitive piece, rather, it was meant to serve as a means of engaging educators and educational stakeholders in deeper conversations about Jewish learning and the role new media play.

According to the latest Pew report, A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users:

Fully 85% of American adults use the internet or cell phones - and most use both. Many also have broadband connections, digital cameras and video game systems. Yet the proportion of adults who exploit the connectivity, the capacity for self expression, and the interactivity of modern information technology is a modest 8%.

Fully half of adults have a more distant or non-existent relationship to modern information technology. Some of this diffidence is driven by people’s concerns about information overload; some is related to people’s sense that their gadgets have more capacity than users can master; some is connected to people’s sense that things like blogging and creating home-brew videos for YouTube is not for them; and some is rooted in people’s inability to afford or their unwillingness to buy the gear that would bring them into the digital age.

These findings come from the Pew Internet Project’s typology of information and communication technology (ICT) users. The typology categorizes Americans based on the amount of ICTs they possess, how they use them, and their attitudes about the role of ICTs are in their lives. Ten separate groups emerge in the typology.

The report identifies these ten typologies as: elite technology users (31% of American adults, including “omnivores,” “connectors,” ‘lackluster veterans,” and “productivity enhancers”); middle-of-the-road technology users (20%, including “mobile centrics” and “connected but hassled”); and, those with few technology assets (49%, including “inexperienced experimenters,” “light but satisfied,” “indifferents,” and those who are “off the network.”).

Where do you fit in among information and communication technology users according to Pew’s typologies? Take the Pew Internet Project ’s quiz at: www.pewinternet.org/quiz. Where do your learners fit in? What are some possible educational implications of this report?

Soources:

A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users - press release
A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users - full report

It’s been a good season for sharing ideas about educational technology and Jewish learning in print. Two Jewish educational publications recently highlighted the use of technology in Jewish learning. RAVSAK devoted their Pesach 2007 edition of HaYidion to “Technology and Jewish Education.” The entire issue will be available online at www.ravsak.org under “Publications.” For further information, contact info@ravsak.org.

CAJE’s Spring 2007 Jewish Education News focuses on “Educational Resources for Schools.” A substantial amount of the magazine’s content centered on aspects of digital learning. Select articles, including those published only online can be found at: www.caje.org/learn/Winter07/jen-winter07.asp. Copies of the print edition are available from CAJE for $7.00.

And speaking of CAJE, the organization has put out a call for articles for the next two editions of JEN which will focus on the 21st century landscape of Jewish learning, and 21st century learners and educators respectively. Digital culture is certainly a key influence – consider submitting an article; consider attending the conference:

The 32nd annual CAJE conference will be held August 5-9, 2007 at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. In conjunction with this year’s conference theme, “Engaging 21st Century Jewish Learners,” CAJE is devoting the next two issues of its publication, Jewish Education News, to exploring the 21st century landscape of Jewish learning (Summer) and 21st century Jewish learners and educators (Fall). The request for articles, excerpted below, includes works that address the following areas:

• Who is the 21st century learner?
• What does it mean to be a learner in this new landscape?
• What resources do educators need to work in this new landscape and what do they need access to?
• How do we meet today’s learners “where they are?”
• What roles can technologies play in creating new environments for Jewish education?
• How can social networking platforms support increased Jewish identification and professional networking?
• How are new technologies shaping Jewish education and learning?

Contact Judi Resnick, CAJE Communications Coordinator, at jresnick@caje.org for the complete Call for Articles and submissions guidelines. The deadline for the Summer publication is May 15, 2007; June 4, 2007 for the Fall publication. Submissions should not exceed eight double-spaced typed pages and no more than 2,500 words. See the CAJE website for details about the annual conference: www.caje.org.