Long-Distance Shlichut

When I was in 11^th grade, a group of Israeli kids came to visit our public school. They discussed their lives, touched on Israeli politics and spoke frankly about different aspects of Israeli society, their impending draft into the Israeli army and their complex relationship with a complex society. The visit was an intensely meaningful one for me and helped cement my decision to make aliyah.

Various Jewish and Israeli institutions, including the Jewish Agency, the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry and several private organizations continue to organize such visits but the young ambassadors can't reach every school.

Last week JETS used distance learning to "bring" a young man named Ze'evi , to the classroom of Yeshivat Kadima where he spoke about his military service in a combat unit.

Ze'evi spoke frankly about the difficulties of serving in sensitive areas, specifically serving in the  Judea and Sameria region. The students have heard, and debated the different issues involved, but the real-time visit with Ze'evi helped them to see the concerns from the perspective of someone who had actually served in the region. 

girls class
JETS has created an opportunity for the school to run a
simultaneous boys and girls class, with the same
marterial and the same teacher, but in an environment
in which the students are separated by sex

Ze'evi discussed subjects that the JETS-Yeshivat Kadima Contemporary Jewish Issues class has been exploring during the past year, including the dilemma of whether Israel should negotiate with terrorist organizations in order to free captives. 

The kids had many questions. They asked about the military operations in which Ze'evi participated, the qualifications that combat soldiers must have, how soldiers request a specific unit, Hesder yeshivahs, etc.  

The students were particularly interested in hearing Ze'evi's view of the media reports that they've read criticizing the Israeli army, specifically the charges that the army indiscriminately hurts and kills Palestinians. Ze'evi responded  from the standpoint of a former soldier, explaining that soldiers frequently find themselves in dangerous situations but, per army rules, aren't able to do what they would have liked to  do to protect themselves and their fellow soldiers.  He summarized the soldiers' frustrations at the situation and noted that no other army in the world goes out of its way to protect civilians in the way that the Israeli army does. 

boys class

The students had many more questions which demonstrated the depth of their curiosity about the possibility of aliyah, as well as their evolving personal connections to Israel. One young student asked Ze'evi to summarize the most meaningful experience that he had as a soldier. Ze'evi gave a few examples relating to the camaraderie of the soldiers, but noted that one of the most moving moments of his army experience occurred when he visited the kotel with his unit and was asked to pose with an elderly American tourist. As the man, a Holocaust survivor, stood with 20 young soldiers he began to cry, and, Ze'evi, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, cried with him.

Making the Aliyah Story Real -- Shutafut Partnership

When I was 14, I came across Leon Uris's book Exodus and my life was changed forever. I identified with the history, the struggles, and the exhilaration of the people who made their way to the Land of Israel to build the country and work to create the state. I decided then and there that I would live in Israel. 

My aliyah differed significantly from that of the late 19^th century halutzim , even though I was a founding member of a new kibbutz for a while. We did move some rocks and bicker over ideology but we had plenty to eat and comfortable living accommodations. The only thing that I needed from "back home" was tuna fish and chocolate chips (novelty items in Israel in the mid-'80s).

Aliyah isn't a step that everyone can take, but it's still a concept that speaks to the imagination and longing of Jews worldwide. To give youngsters a sense of the magic and feeling of wonderment that aliyah engenders, JETS uses online tools to help them develop an understanding of why so many individuals are prepared to uproot their lives in order to be a part of the Jewish country.

Throughout the year, the TALI Shutafut program has been building towards the highlight of the year – the opportunity for the Israeli and American students to join together in their celebration of Yom HaAtzmaut.

After building up to the aliyah unit with units that examined the ethnic origins of Jews around the world and the challenges facing Diaspora Jewish communities, the May Tali unit is focusing on an overview of the reasons that Jews choose to make aliyah, the challenges that they face, and the aliyah stories of different ethnic groups.

The aliyah unit encourages the American and Israeli partner-classes to join together to examine some of the reasons that Jews make aliyah, despite the difficulties. Special emphasis is placed on the impact of Ethiopian Jewish aliyah, both on Israel and on the Ethiopian Jewish olim themselves. 

The students are also given the opportunity to consider the concerns that making aliyah raises such as moving to a new land with a new language that is far away from family and friends.

The unit concluded with inspiring personal aliyah stories that underscore the unique connection that Jews of all backgrounds, ethnicities, ages and religious affiliations feel for Israel.

Beyond the Yom HaAtzmaut Parade – An Interdependent Israel Independence Day Adventure

Yom HaAtzmaut – Independence Day -- celebrates one of the most miraculous occurrences of all times – the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and the establishment of the State of Israel.

Israeli kids feel the excitement of Yom HaAtzmaut as they are thrown into the spirit of the holiday together with their countrymen. They may, however, lose sight of the meaning behind the celebrations. Meanwhile Jewish kids who live outside of Israel celebrate Yom HaAtzmaut vicariously and don't experience the thrill and exhilaration that Israelis feel.

To bridge these gaps the JETS Edmonton-Emek HaHula Shutafut program focusing on Israel and Jewish Peoplehood encourages participating classes to work together to dig deeply into the theme of Yom HaAtzmaut as they take a closer look at issues of Jewish peoplehood. 

The Shutafut project, which is facilitated by JETS Jerusalem EdTech Solutions, bases its curriculum on the following definition of Jewish Peoplehood:

Jewish Peoplehood is a combination of culture, religion, history and values under a Jewish umbrella that gives us the profound feeling of being connected to other Jews. It is a sense of responsibility created by people who share a story, or are part of the same ongoing conversation. It is maintained through ongoing education and contacts between Jewish people.

As Yom HaAtzmaut approaches JETS posted the final unit of the year, exploring issues that unite the Jewish people and unify Jews worldwide with Israel.  The unit involves a wide variety of opportunities for students to think deeply about the place that Israel holds for all Jews.. Toward that end participating students were asked to complete a thought-provoking survey that points to the fact that the creation of the Jewish state has raised complex challenges. The survey forces the students to share their thoughts about issues of mutual responsibility of Diaspora Jews for Israel, and Israeli Jews for the Diaspora.  For example:

·      Should the Israeli army protect Jews around the world?

·      Should Diaspora Jews serve in the Israeli army?

·      Should Diaspora Jews vote in Israeli elections or have a say in Israeli policies?

·      Should Diaspora Jews pay a tax to Israel?

As part of this unit students also view the Fountainheads Yom HaAtzmaut video:

The video is intended to spur a discussion about the lyrics – " This is my homeland / This is my story / I build my future/ With ancient glory." Questions include:

§  How do you understand that line?

§  b. What is another line in the song that echoed the meaning, or which line did you find meaningful?

Students communicate with each other on the bi-lingual Wiki platform which facilitates the ability of students to respond in their own language or to practice their second language skills by writing in Hebrew or English.

As a recent online meeting  demonstrated, the students gain a tremendous amount by interacting on the WIKI, exchanging ideas and learning from each other. Although the Edmonton and Emek HaHula students won't be celebrating Yom HaAtzmaut together "face-to-face" they will, via their Shutafut program, be  learning and celebrating together through the online friendship that has been fostered by their year-long partnership.

Do You Celebrate the Christmas? - No, we're Jewish!

Do You Celebrate the Christmas? - No, we're Jewish!

For students of Hochberg Preparatory Jewish Day School in Miami and the Mabbuim elementary school of Southern Israel, the highlight of their year-long "Friends Across the Sea" school partnership program came last week when the kids were able to "meet" each other via live video chat.

Throughout this past school year, the 5^th and 6^th grade students have been working on shared projects which are facilitated on the MyHaiku Learning Management System.  Each month the classes would explore new subjects that were posted in English and in Hebrew on their shared LMS platform. The curriculum included a wide range of subjects such as Jewish diversity, seeing the world through a Jewish lens, and information about similarities and differences between worldwide Jewish communities. The students were also encouraged to personalize the subject matter as they discussed their own families and their views of Judaism and Israel.

  

Although the communication through the LMS was active and engaging, the students in both classes frequently voiced their desire to develop a more personal relationship with their "friends across the sea."  JETS therefore set up a virtual meeting via  web conferencing software. The students could see each other and connect by chatting, both by SKYPEing on the big screen and using a back channel to type to each other on Today's Meet. In addition to the opportunity to actually meet each other, the format allowed the students to practice their language skills and learn more about their peers' lives.

 A significant amount of the chat centered around the students' shared interest in sports, but other subjects included the weather, families, holiday celebrations and school. The students were enthusiastic about their meeting and have already asked for a second video chat opportunity.

Anat, a teacher at Hochberg Prep, was pleased with the chat results. She wrote:

"I thought it went very well! Students on both sides were asking each other questions and gave answers and sang songs to each other (ours - sang in Hebrew 'Mi Shema'amin Lo Mefached" and theirs - sang in English 'We are the World'). The atmosphere was very friendly and fun! They asked about what we do during Shavuot, our daily schedule, what sport we like, etc. Our students asked someone if they had a Bar Mitzvah, and what they do in the summer and for Lag Baomer... They really enjoyed comparing notes and cheering for each other! It was really fun to watch! Thanks for making this happen! I really felt that it brought the students closer together!  Y'shar Koach!!!"

It's 3:00a.m and I'm Troubleshooting

Last week I began my second year of online learning with a 7^th grade class in Deerfield Illinois. For me, living in Israel, this means waking up at 3:00a.m. to teach the 7:00p.m. Deerfield class. But despite the challenge (it usually takes me through Shabbat to get my internal clock back on track) I enjoy the interaction with the kids who are engaged, curious and ready to explore new concepts and ideas.

My 2014 class started off on an awkward note. We are using the Webex conferencing software to facilitate the class and, immediately after I launched the class, I received a message from Webex to tell me that the "audio part of the conference is not working today." Since the class runs for half an hour, there seemed to be no reason to close the class and start it again which would have taken up more than half the class time so we decided to conduct the entire class on chat.

Luckily I'm a fast typist and I spent the next hour typing my heart out -- answering the kids' chat questions and comments, giving them directions and providing them with an overview of what subjects would be covered during their 9-week class on "Israel." 

The second challenge occurred when Facebook failed me. To show the kids some of the unique aspects of Israel I had planned to have them take a look at the Facebook "Only In Israel" page. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/OnlyInIsrael/). I created a username and password so that the students would be able to click in but Facebook doesn't like multiple sign-ins from multiple devices and they effectively blocked my activity.

Live and learn. We moved on to the next activity and I quickly located an appropriate video that would fill in the class time.

Lessons learned:

1.      There's more than one way to skin a cat. If something goes wrong, you can usually find your way around it and should be prepared to do so. In the future, I'm going to make sure that I always have an alternate platform available -- probably Skype. I don't like skype as well as Webex because it doesn't offer the same opportunity to post documents, videos and other materials directly on the screen. However, it would have been a lot easier to have moved over to Skype and continue the class there than to type like a madwoman for 60 minutes.

2.      Always have a back-up lesson plan. I've found that, for a half-hour lesson, we generally have time for 2-3 activities including preparatory activities, the core information that I want to present and follow-up activities. It's important to have one extra activity ready to supplement anything that doesn't work.

When you're counting on technology to facilitate your lesson plan, you might as well assume that something won't work. If everything goes smoothly, that's great. But I will, in the future, be preparing a back-up plan for all of my lessons.    

3.      The kids will give you the benefit of the doubt. I don't think that I could get away with a chat lesson a second time but here, the students were willing to give me the benefit of the doubt. They participated fully and we completed the material. It didn't go as any of us had intended but no one took advantage of the technological lapse and they did their best to ensure that the lesson was, under the conditions, a success.

JETS eCOM Learning Community -- November Focus on Learning Management Systems

Throughout the month of October the JETS eCOM community of Jewish elearning educators focused on various options for introducing interactive games and other types of online activities into their curriculum. eCOM grew out of the perceived need within the Jewish educational community for a unified approach that would allow both experienced online educators and novice elearning teachers to enhance their knowledge of the available tools so that distance learning in the Jewish classroom will continue to evolve and flourish.

Twenty influential Jewish educators from around the world gathered in a web conference call in September 2013. They wanted to review where online education is today in Jewish day schools and afternoon schools and consider how to advance elearning in the coming years. eLearning has become increasingly important in Jewish schools throughout the world but many teachers are only vaguely aware of the possibilities that the system offers while others need more guidance to successfully implement it as an integral part of their daily curriculum.

The year-long asynchronouscourse is progressing according to the participants' interests and needs. October was devoted to ways to incorporate games and other interactive elearning tools into the classrooms and the topic for November involves how a distance learning educator can make the most effective use of a Learning Management System.

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are software applications which allow an educator to administer, document, track, report and evaluate an online course. The facilitator presents a lesson, either by a frontal method of by posting the material on the LMS platform. Then the teacher posts all of the assignments for the lesson. The students can view each other's work and, as part of the assignment, may even comment on each other's work and use a team approach to complete assignments.  

The eCom course is actually based on the Haiku LMS so the course participants will learn about the system as they navigate it as part of their course studies. The November course includes an overview of LMSs and a discussion, a discussion of how LMSs change the way that students learn and teachers teach, instructions in using an LMS, a survey of the different LMS options and options for including other online learning tools within the LMS platform.

JWA, JETS and JEDLAB Meet to Advance Jewish eLearning

The first JEDLAB-inspired webinar occurred on Sept 16^th, hosting 16 Jewish educators from around the globe. Veteran EdTech educators Etta King, Education Program Manager at Jewish Women's Archive and Smadar Goldstein, Founder and co-Director of Jerusalem EdTech Solutions (JETS), coordinated this online learning hangout to talk about how technologically-adept educators can learn from each other and bring newcomers into the elearning world. 

The group, which included both day school and afternoon school teachers, online educators, administrators, educational coaches and other professionals met for a participant-driven, collaborative discussion about online professional development in the Jewish educational community. Etta King opened the session by describing her wish to find new and creative ways to develop and implement curriculum that focuses on Jewish values, Jewish heroes and social justice. Her previous conversations about online learning have been within the JEDLAB community as well as within her own organization, and now she threw open the question of how to involve more participant-educators with the goal of creating a structured program of professional development which could establish universal objectives for online learning.

The participants expressed interest in an online class as a good way for Jewish educators to advance together. Such a class would allow for collaboration and a process learning experience that could strengthen teachers' skills for coping with varied classroom situations. In addition, the webinar participants noted that, in the same way that students learn best when they apply a skill or concept immediately, teachers will also increase their teaching skills when they can acquire new information in an online PD class and apply it in their domain within days, without having to go through a long period of planning before implementation.

The webinar participants offered concrete solutions. One idea was based on the Craftsy.com website in which a community of people interact online for a shared goal. This type of framework could be specifically helpful to lay leaders and other non-professional educators who are teaching in Jewish educational frameworks but lack an education background.

A second suggestion involved educational forums that teach different concepts through a video, discussion, assignment and opportunity for participants to examine each other's work. Such a format provides constant feedback and, in an expression that was repeated several times during the class, enables educators to learn from each other by "peeking into each other's classrooms."

Hang-out participants were asked to note which type of tools they know how to use. One educator mentioned the DangerouslyIrrelevant website which draws information from classrooms and educators around the country. The site keeps teachers up-to-date on new technologies and tools while emphasizing that education will always depend more on the educators than on the tools themselves. 

In summary, the question focused on the core of the webinar -- how can Jewish educators use online professional development opportunities to gain from each other?

The session ended when the group broke up into break-out groups to discuss how to move forward to share resources and information, both individually and among the larger JEBLAB community.

Etta King's group decided to look at the larger picture in deciding which gaps need to be filled so that the new PD course doesn't end up reinventing the wheel. JEDLAB should serve as a clearinghouse for learning "what's out there, especially in light of the fact that technology is always changing and educators must stay abreast of the changes. Accessing materials should be easy to ensure that teachers don't need to recreate the same materials and same lesson plans and can use the time and energy to create new materials. Tikvah Wiener, who will be moderating the November webinar has already begun to gather resources on the Frisch RealSchool blog.  

The suggestion was made to create a platform which will allow teachers to contribute their materials and lessons and will enable other educators to access those materials at will. There can be different categories including categories for beginning and advanced teachers, day schools, afternoon schools, etc.

The second group, facilitated by JETS' co-Director Smadar Goldstein, discussed the feasibility of creating a series of webinars in which each participant would facilitate a session in a specific area of expertise.  Each webinar could be given on a different platform so participants would also be introduced to different platforms as part of the program.

The session ended with the promise to set up a blog with a calendar so that all participants, as well as new people who want to join the conversation, can stay abreast of the schedule for 2013-2014 PD classes.

Educators are invited to share their knowledge at an upcoming webainr. Please sign up here.

The next PD session will be held on November 11^th 2013 at 11:00a.m. EST :

• Twitter Tests?: Using Social Media in the Classroom. Presenter: Tikvah Wiener, founder of RealSchool

Technology in a 21st Century Classroom

How important is it to include technology in today's classroom?

This question was recently examined by the New York Times which recently printed acritique of ipad education by Carlo Rotella, director of American studies at Boston College. Rotella, who himself doesn't even allow laptops into his university classrooms, set out to examine the effects, both positive and negative, of using tablets for students' class work, homework and educational games.

Rotella travelled to Guilford County, North Carolina, where the school district has embarked on an ambitious program that will provide all of this year's middle school students with a tablet device.  He spoke to district teachers and elearning facilitators and then moved on to speak to other individuals who are involved in online education in America' s schools. These included conversations with Joel Klein, former Chancellor of the New York Public School System and presently the head of the company that makes Amplify tablets, representatives of the United States Department of Education, educational research psychologists, experts on education and technology and even a neuroscientist specializing in the study of adolescent brain development.

Rotella admits that he is a skeptic of elearning, especially as it relates to elementary and young teen learners. But he noted the benefits of tablet learning which include:

·         Elearning makes personalization possible in the classroom. It provides the possibility for immediate feedback to both student and the teacher who can then make timely decisions about how to proceed with the lesson, when to work with individuals and when to work with groups, etc.

·         Entire units of curriculum can be loaded on the tablet in advance of a lesson or can be sent out as an instant update. This accommodates students as they work at their individual paces.

·         There is a wide variety of educational tools available for research, discussion, practice and demonstration of mastery to allow students to approach their studies from various angles. The teacher can then move into the role of a mentor who provides each student with individual assistance as needed

·          School districts spend less money on textbooks

·         eGames support personalized learning. Personalized learning matches game logic respond to what a player does. A game is arranged in series of increasingly difficult challenges to fit the sequencing of curriculum. (i.e. When you conquer the fractions level, you move up to the algebra level.)

One of Rotella's concerns related to the "discussion" aspect of tablet learning as opposed to real-time face-to-face conversations that would occur in a non-elearning class. As many teachers have discovered however, blended learning addresses this concern by incorporating elements of online learning with traditional frontal teaching, group activities and classroom interactions.   

Rotella examined tablet learning in a general format but for the Jewish classroom,elearning has many similar applications. Students can engage in core curriculum subjects such as gemorrah, chumash and Jewish history or may expand to explore subjects such as tikkun olam, Contemporary Jewish Issues, the Holocaust, the Arab-Israeli Conflict, varying Jewish communities and even questions about Basic Judaism through interactive online lessons. 

Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan and Jewish Distance Learning

I doubt that the old Meg Ryan-Tom Hanks movie "You've Got Mail" ever considered the possibilities that could arrive in one's inbox every morning. After all, the move was made in 1998 when email was basically communication between two individuals.

Today we get a little bit of everything in our daily emails that we can mull over with our morning cup of coffee. This includes, I recently discovered, daily tips and crowdsourcing advice for online educational strategies and techniques.

Using the Haiku Learning Management System (LMS) the JETS year-long PD course is now underway as educators check in to learn what new tips are available for their online classes and how their colleagues manage various Internet tools to increase class effectiveness.

Every time a participant posts in the Haiku room the rest of us receive a "You've got Haiku Mail" notification so that we're notified that there's new data which we can investigate and  explore as well as comment on our colleagues' posts.

I took the basic No Teacher Left Behind course last year for an overview of online educational methods. During this course I learned how to manage online blackboards and other learning tools that would motivate the students to look at old material in new ways.

Now I've signed up for the year-long course which is where my morning mail comes from.

A learning management system, such as Haiku, organizes and administers information for an online class as the class progresses through the semester, or through the year. Rather than try to commit all of the past posts, comments, information, documents, homework assignments and other data to memory the Learning Management System tracks and reports this information for us. In the same way that we learned how to manage an online blackboard by actually experimenting with the process during our first PD course, we are now moving on to develop the ability to manage a LMS by activating it during our year-long course.

The course started in early September. It is a combination of a review of information that we had previously learned as well as new ideas and concepts.  We began with a review of the Linoboards, a great interactive online learning tool for students of all ages. The course instructor, Smadar Goldstein, provided links to show some of her own Linoboards that she's used in her own courses as well as some of the linoboards that other students have created.

We have also reviewed how to make an Animoto video and looked at one that Smadar made for a class on Tikkun Olam.  I can hardly believe that it could be so user-friendly, especially for non-techie types (like me) but the instructions seem straight-forward so it's  worth giving it a try.

I particularly appreciated the other teachers who shared their lists of resources and web tools-- I have always promised myself to make such a list but never did so these lists and "how to" tutorials will be very useful.

Next on the agenda is to crowdsource some good lesson plans for my next unit. 

Web-Based Education in the Jewish Classroom

 So "what's the big deal about online education?"

It's true, that sentiment is heard less and less as increasing numbers of educators, parents and students become aware of benefits that come from including online education as part of an educational program. However there are still people who wonder, if schools managed nicely for so many years without computers, why the introduction of distance learning is of value.

This is particularly true in the world of Jewish education, both for day schools and for afternoon enrichment classes. Jewish schools tend toward tradition and that seems to account for many schools' reluctance to rely on the Internet for their educational programming. As administrators, teachers and parents see the benefits of online and blended learning programs their presence seems assured to grow within the Jewish educational system.

A 2009 U.S. Department of Education study analyzed blended education and reported that "in recent experimental and quasi-experimental studies contrasting blends of online and face-to-face instruction with conventional face-to-face classes, blended instruction has been more effective." The potential for blended and other forms of online education in the Jewish classroom increases the program's effectiveness, taking into account the unique needs and opportunities of the Jewish educational system.

Recent advancements which involve including blended learning in Jewish schools include:

The Affordable Jewish Education Project (AJE) presently includes three Jewish schools, Yeshivat He’Atid of Bergen County which launched in September 2012 and Tiferet Academy and Westchester Torah Academy which are just opening their doors this September. These schools rely heavily on blended learning to provide their student population with a high quality Jewish and secular education as they keep the tuition costs well below that of mainstream Jewish Day Schools. Long-term studies of this project will not be available for several years but in the short-term the school's supporters believe that the framework enables them to provide their students with a high quality learning environment which enhances student learning as it provides educators with tools to provide the students with a personalized learning experiences and evaluations.  

A three year study is underway at both Frisch and Yeshivat Noam to evaluate the effects of technology on Jewish education. The schools are committed to blended learning and find that it offers a high quality learning model for the majority of their students. At Frisch, via the RealSchool curriculum, students in every grade participate in a Wiki platform that integrates the various disciplines into broad themes and enables them to use this platform to create learning content while the students interact with their peers. The project includes the use of ipads and ibooks for both limudei kodesh and secular education.

The JconnecT Learning program is aimed at Jewish adolescents and pre-teens who would like to have a Hebrew School enrichment experience but either don't live in close proximity to a congregational school or have not integrated into such a framework. JconnecT students, including homeschooling Jewish students, meet every Sunday morning for a Sunday Morning Live class in which they are exposed to Hip Hop Hebraics conversational Hebrew and thoughtful introduction to and analysis of Conventional Jewish Issues. The JconnecT program partners with the Margolin Hebrew Academy of Memphis and students are invited to spend two Shabbatons at the Academy to meet and enjoy a Shabbat experience with their peers.  

Jerusalem EdTech Solutions (JETS) partners with Jewish Day Schools, afternoon schools and other public and parochial schools to present a wide range of Jewish and Israel-themed synchronous and asynchronous classes. The classes include subjects such as an analysis of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Tikkun Olam, Hip Hop Hebraics, the Ethiopian community in Israel, Jewish environmentalism, Jewish and Israel history and overviews of Jewish cultures and traditions. The program also pairs Israeli classrooms with North American classrooms in a "Shutafut" program which allows Israeli and North American students to "meet" each other virtually as they complete assignments and share ideas, concepts and impressions.