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.

What I Think About What You Said About What I Said -- Benefits of Collaborative Feedback in the Classroom

 Peer feedback is an online learning technique which has been receiving a good deal of attention over the past few years. The educational world has not given sufficient attention to this important component of the learning process,but as increasing numbers of teacher report on their own positive experiences with collaborative feedback, more elearning classrooms are integrating the practice into their online environments. What is clear, however, is that asynchronous written communication gives students support for their ideas and thoughts, facilitates a supportive environment of information-sharing,  promotes analytical thinking and gives them time to process and absorb information, allowing them to "come back" to the content after thinking about it. 

Peer feedback is a component of social learning, or learning as part of a group. It's an important way to help students develop important skills in self-reflection, critical thinking, and co-construction of knowledge, as well as to value and gain experience in collaboration. It has also been shown to result in an enhanced sense of community, better learning outcomes, and increased acquisition of the life skills that are necessary for teamwork and reciprocity in the classroom and the workplace.

Collaborative learning in an elearning classroom can take the form of discussion among the whole class or within small groups. To successfully incorporate collaborative feedback in an elearning environment demands skill on the part of the instructor. The teacher must be able to create and manage interaction.

Some of the basics for fostering collaborative learning involve giving students:

1.     An understanding of what collaborative feedback involves.

Collaborative feedback involves informing others of your perceptions and suggestions for improving their performance as you provide your peers with positive reinforcement and constructive criticism.

2.     An understanding of why collaborative feedback can be helpful

Students who receive regular feedback about their work perform  better, learn faster, and develop better judgment than those who do not.

3.     Feedback skills

The instructor must teach the students to develop proper feedback skills. These steps involve:

a.     Stating something that the classmate wrote with which you agreed or liked.

b.     Stating something that the classmate wrote with which you disagreed or didn't like.

c.      Asking a probing question about something that the classmate wrote.
d.     Suggesting a new idea or way to look at an issue

Some recent comments from students in a JETS Jewish Contemporary Issues Class about their experiences with collaborative feedback:

"I enjoy reading what my classmates say on the discussion forums because sometimes I hadn’t thought about something they said, and it allows me to take their ideas and internalize them and add their answers to my own. Sometimes I will even change my opinion because of what someone has said. I also like the online aspect because I can do it whenever I want - I don’t feel rushed in class that I have to finish something and it allows me time to form my answer. (I like the ability to add and change)"

"I have learned how to be a responder- how to learn about a controversial topic and respond in a polite way that expresses my opinion."

"I also like the lino boards because it’s a great example of how you can build on what people say - literally. The boards always look so cool because there are stickies upon stickies and sometimes they branch off and/or you can add new ideas."

"I often learn just as much from my fellow students as I do from my teachers. It’s great to gain knowledge by sharing from each other. It’s like a multi-faceted chavruta only online!"

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Use of Technology in the Classroom I: Changing Student and Teacher Roles

by Stan Peerless

The use of technology and online learning in the classroom has serious implications regarding the respective roles of teachers and students in the learning process. In general, the learner plays a much more active role and the teacher plays a less central role. The student is actively making choices about how to generate, obtain, manipulate, or display information. Technology use allows many more students to be actively thinking about information, making choices, and executing skills than is typical in teacher-led lessons. Moreover, when technology is used as a tool to support students in performing authentic tasks, the students are in the position of defining their goals, making design decisions, and evaluating their progress. Thus, in a sense, the teacher changes from a repository of knowledge and becomes more of a facilitator of learning. This does not mean that the teacher no longer teaches, but that teaching is defined less as transmitting knowledge and more as guiding students to discover and process information. Within this framework, some of the primary roles of the teacher are to design appropriate learning activities, create a learning community with a culture of collaboration, and monitor student growth and development. In this series of articles, we will focus on each of these three elements.

Designing Appropriate Learning Activities

In order to engage all of the students in computer-supported collaborative learning, teachers must prepare well structured learning activities that exhibit the following characteristics:

Nature of the Assignments

·      Choose assignment topics or tasks that are related to the real world, and can be connected to students’ lives. One example is for students to analyze and solve a current local or international problem, or issues that they commonly encounter in their own lives. Similarly, lessons that do not inherently relate to the immediate world of the students should be personalized whenever possible.

·      Use open-ended questions: Open-ended questions do not suggest an answer, and cannot generate a short answer response. Rather, they require the student to draw on their knowledge base to evaluate or draw conclusions. As such, open-ended questions should lead students to think analytically and critically.

·      Questions and tasks should be challenging, yet within reach – i.e. within what Vigotsky referred to as the students "zone of proximal development" (activities between what the student can do unaided and what the student cannot do) and what Krashen referred to regarding language acquisition as "i+1" or "level + 1.

·      Diversify Activities – There are a number of ways in which learning activities should be diversified. Firstly, it is important not to get stuck with one collaborative learning mold that is used repeatedly. There are avariety of group learning strategies that might be employed.   In addition, learning activities should be multi-interest based and multi-ability based, reflecting Gardner's multiple-intelligence theory as well as including components that reflect different levels of difficulty.

Structuring of Assignments

Collaboration scripts are the most important design elements in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) and aim to support learning activities by structuring potentially deficient interactions. Scripts are methods that structure collaborative learning based on the assumption that structured collaboration is more effective than free collaboration. "A script describes the way students have to collaborate: task distribution or roles, turn taking rules, work phases, deliverables, etc. This contract may be conveyed through initial instructions or encompassed in the learning environment." (Dillenbourg and Jermann, 2007). Scripts generally foster interaction by creating "splits" that divide the group with regard to knowledge, roles, skills, or interests, and leads them complete the assigned task with a greater degree of interactivity.

According to For Kollar, Fischer, and Hesse (2006), collaboration scripts consist of at least five components:  learning objectives, type of activities, sequencing, role distribution, and type of representation.

The following are some helpful tips regarding the structuring of computer-supported collaborative assignments:

·      Break a larger assignment into smaller pieces and set multiple deadlines to ensure that students work toward reaching milestones throughout the process rather than pulling it all together at the last minute.

·      Give the students individual roles and responsibilities on a rotating basis. Commonly used roles include: Leader / Facilitator, Recorder, Time Keeper, Learning Material Manager, and Presenter / Reporter.
·      Incorporate peer review at each milestone to encourage self-awareness and to ensure ongoing feedback. Having to listen to, analyze and respond to another's opinion sharpen the student's reasoning powers, imparts precision and clarity into ideas that would otherwise remain vague, and often generates entirely new insights in his understanding of the subject matter.

·      Assignments should require interdependence. Some assignments inherently require interdependence. However, assignments that do not inherently promote interdependence can be presented using techniques that require each student to contribute to the final product, and for students to learn from each other. The jigsaw cooperative learning technique is a classical example. In the jigsaw, each student is assigned to a particular expert group in which the participants master a part of the information needed to complete the assignments. Subsequently, groups consisting of a representative from each expert group are formed, and the students teach each other and complete the assignment together.

Coming up in Part II of this article: Developing Learning Communities 

Contemporary Jewish Issues -- Then and Now

How do you –help students understand the concept that many of the 21^st century's contemporary Jewish issues were also Jewish issues with which Jews who lived 2000 years ago grappled as well?

One unique assignment that the students of Kadima High School in St. Louis are presently completing involves researching a contemporary Jewish issue to examine how it affects the Jewish world of today and how it manifested itself in the Jewish world of the 1^st and 2^nd centuries C.E. This assignment has demonstrated to the Kadima students  that some issues of importance to Jews who lived in the time of the Tannaim have not lessened in importance  over the last 20 centuries.

Galilean Home

 The students were asked to create a game, skit or visual presentation that would clearly delineate an issue of concern to the Jewish communities who lived in the years following the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, and that continue to concern today's Jewish communities. They were required to ensure that each presentation include relevant quotes from texts and sources, visual images reflecting both periods in history, and written or oral explanations and comparisons of the two time periods. 

 

Israel technology then and now

Rubrics were established so that the students would understand exactly how their work would be assessed. The rubrics include standards for how well the students covered the material, the depth of the source material cited, creativity and originality in the project's creation, and the method of delivery. The rubrics are designed to ensure that the students fully understand the material and are able to convey it to their peers. 

 

Jewish Streimels Then and Now

The students chose the following subjects (and some have shared their projects here):

Hadassah,  Kosher Animals, Then and Now 

Bella, Female Power

Yoni, Charedim in the Army

Yonatan, Israel's Enemies, Then and Now

Eitan, Warfare then and Now 

Yoneena and Elisheva, High Tech in Israel Then and Nnow
Jake, What Kind of Hat is That? Jewish Hats Throughout History

Sammy, David vs. Goliath today

Eliana -- Galiean House

Part of each student's grade involves responding to questions their peers' projects.

Strong Jewish Women Then and Now

As the students presented their projects, it was clear that they helped them more fully understand the topics that they studied, to gain experience in examining data from primary sources, and to develop imaginative methods for sharing information with others.  

Warfare then and Now

Mural.ly -- Social Poster for the elearning Classroom

After I wrote last week's post about using Storify for elearning a colleague suggested that I take a look at another tool, the new Mural.ly collaborative blackboard. Mural.ly allows you to add sticky notes, images, links, and files to visualize, imagine and discuss ideas on an open platform that you can make public so that everyone can see your presentation. 

You can use it for collaborative research and visual brainstorming, as well as for designing storyboards and flow charts, and get feedback right on the spot.

It's easy to start adding content by double clicking to add a sticky note, drag a link or add a picture or video from the Web, Evernote and Google Drive.

One of the best things about the mural.ly tool is that you can start a collaboration session and open it up so that other people can contribute their own links, pictures and other material.

Sign in at Mural.ly and, once you've opened an account, click on "create new mural." Title your mural and click "Create a Mural" button. Everything on Mural.ly is based on the Drag and Drop principal in which you drag in links and files and use them to build your mural.

Along the sidebar you'll find options to add in background patterns, sticky notes, text boxes, shapes and designs, websites, videos and more.

When you've created your mural you can share it, download it as an image or embed it in a document or website. You can export all of your content on your mural to a downloadable ZIP file. You can either create a view link for people to see your content or, if they're signed in, share your edit link so that they can go in and edit and add their own content.

My upcoming class wants to learn about Israel, so I created this mural.ly in about an hour, including the time that it took me to learn to navigate, prepare the lesson and gather all of my materials. And, I had a blast!

You get one free mural.ly "room" and after that you'll need to upgrade your account. 

Introducing Video Tools into Classroom eLearning

A recent professional development session with a group of educators on how to include YouTube and Animoto activities in a classroom has given participating teachers ideas and strategies for introduce these powerful elearning tools into their lesson plans.

A group of New Jersey teachers including both new participants and graduates of the JETS No Teacher Left Behind introductory Professional Development course, requested a conference session with JETS Director Smadar Goldstein on how to implement basic online and video tools into the classroom. The two-part session included help with creating videos on YouTube and Animoto platforms as well as how to embed their own music and videos into Animoto.

Two sample Animnotos can be seen here

Chumash Class

History Class

Rabbi Shelley Kniaz of Temple Emmanuel of Pascack described the first session, which included the use of linoboards in the classroom. "My teachers loved the lino board.  Both have already created two and sent them to their students' families" she said.

Barbara Haber of Beth Haverim Shir Shalom described her experience, including the request from some of her staff for follow-up sessions. "The teachers really enjoyed the professional development workshop – they found Smadar to be wonderfully engaging and were impressed by her wealth of practical, hands-on ideas for implementing new technologies in the classroom!"

The teachers were already familiar with the Linoboards and they enjoyed trying them out and tweeking them during the session.  Ms. Haber noted that the teachers had requested one more in-house training session in which they would be able to trouble-shoot, brainstorm on ideas for expanding the lino boards' use, explore more uses for the Animoto and talk about how to expand all of these tools.

Rabbi Shelley Kniaz, Devorah O'Brien and Chana Zinstein

These additional sessions are scheduled for Ms. Goldstein's February 2014 visit to the States. Ms. Goldstein will be visiting Jewish schools throughout the United States and is available for additional sessions with educators.

The upcoming JETS online No Teacher Left Behind Course, to introduce elearning tools to Jewish day school and complementary school educators, is scheduled to begin on February 19^th. 

Ms Goldstein also directs an eCom community of continuing learning which encompasses dozens of Jewish educators from throughout the world. The 2013-2014 course has begun but new members can join at any time.   

Expanding The World of the Connected Jewish Classroom

Jewish day schools and afternoon school educators are expanding their understanding and skills in elearning as online learning evolves nationwide. Online learning can encompass any subject from Jewish History, Mishna and Talmud to issues which relate to Israel, Hebrew language studies and more. The wealth of opportunities has encouraged Jewish educators to prioritize keeping up with new tools and advances in the field .

One indication of the increased interest in the mechanics of including elearning in Jewish schools could be seen last month when Jerusalem EdTech Solutions (JETS) director, Ms. Smadar Goldstein, traveled to the United States to attend the New Jersey Day School Conference and the Jewish Education Project Conference.

During her visit, Ms. Goldstein was invited to give presentations at several area schools including the Solomon Shechter School of Bergen Field, the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach, the Forest Hills Jewish Center, and Yeshivat Noam of Paramus, NJ. Two additional sessions were also given at the Conference itself.  

In addition, she gave two sessions with the Jewish Federations of Northern New Jersey which brought together 50 participants from 25 congregational schools in Northern NJ and a second session with Special Education teachers during which the teachers explored ways in which these tools could be incorporated into special education classrooms. (The unique session with the Special Ed teachers was reviewed in a blogpost at the National Jewish Council for Disabilities' website.)

The staffs' responses emphasized the value that online tools provide in adding more interactive and engaging activities to their existing curriculum. The gatherings examined elearning options, including linoboards and Learning Management Systems, that enable educators to expand collaborative learning and integrate elearning opportunities into their programs.

Rabbi Shelley Kniaz, Devorah O'Brien and Chana Zinstein at the elearning session with the Jewish Federations of Northern NJ 

Mashie Kopelowitz, Israel Educator and Middle School Judaic Studies Teacher of the Solomon Schechter school of Bergen Field, had encouraged her school's administration to invite Ms. Goldstein to give an introduction to the available etools that teachers have at their disposal after her own participation in the JETS "No Teacher Left Behind" professional development course. Mashie reported that the teachers were enthusiastic about the session with Ms. Goldstein and, within days, the entire 7th and 8th grade student body was working on linoboard projects and assignments. Ruth Gafni, Head of School, reported the exciting new tool in her weekly newsletter to the parents. Ms. Gafni plans to present SSBF's elearning activities in an orientation program for parents of next year's prospective students.

In addition to the popular Linoboards, several of Ms. Goldstein's PD sessions concentrated on the opportunities that Learning Management Systems offer to the Jewish classroom.

The Hebrew Academy of Long Beach requested a LMS session as part of their overall plan to increase their collaborative asynchronous learning modules via the Haiku LMS. Session participants received a Google worksheet which provides an example of how the LMS can promote asynchronous evaluation alternatives. One of the HALB participants noted that she plans to use the system to enable the students to share their recordings, which will be used to advance Hebrew reading fluency and conversational Hebrew, with the other teachers.

Stephanie Hausner, head of the SLI, Synagogue Leadership Initiative of the Jewish Federations of Northern New Jersey noted that, “Over the past year the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey has had the opportunity to provide training to our principals, educators and teachers with JETS and Smadar Goldstein. These experiences have been tremendously valuable and have given participants the confidence and skills to integrate technology in the classroom. JETS has been great to work with and we look forward to continue to work together in the future."

These sessions demonstrate that elearning offers an accessible, engaging and highly effective mode of instruction for students of all ages, at all ability levels and for all areas of instruction. All of the schools involved are planning follow-up sessions with Ms. Goldstein during her February 2014 visit to the region. To reserve a session, please contact Smadar@jetsisrael.com.

Learning about Jewish Diversity

Growing up, I always assumed that all my Jewish friends' families were similar to my own. It seemed obvious to me that their ancestors came from Russia, Poland or, if they were really exotic, Romania. We all ate gefilte fish, none of us ate grains or legumes on Pesach and it was assumed that Yiddish was every Jew's "mama-loshen."

Today a JETS twinning project partners Israeli and American classrooms in a collaboration of discovery and exploration as the students examine the diversity of the Jewish world.

The Shutafut partnership for 5^th and 6^th graders is based on the TALI schools' "Friends Across the Sea" curriculum. Seven[s1]  Israeli schools have twinned with seven American Jewish Day Schools to have students work simultaneously and interactively on asynchronous activities that guide them as they learn more about themselves and each other.

The twinned classes spent their first few lessons getting to know each other. Students had the opportunity to consider their own families as they examined the varying origins of Jewish families, information about each student's individual family roots, similarities and differences among Jewish families from around the world and unique characteristics of different Jewish communities.

Chanukah proved to be a perfect opportunity for the students to consider how different Jewish communities observe the laws and traditions of the Jewish people, each in its own way.

The students began by watching an Animoto clip that gave them food for thought about the similarities and differences of Chanukah celebrations throughout the world.

The students were then asked to list some events that were featured in the movie  which they might have seen in their own grandparents' homes, describe their own Chanukah celebrations and share a personal Chanukah memory.  Students had the opportunity to read each other's stories and memories as they considered how the different families, all of whom celebrate Chanukah, observe the holiday differently.

In conclusion, the students were asked to comment on something that had surprised them about what they had seen and heard during the activity.

As the students broaden their horizons about their peers and their friends across the ocean, one thing is certain -- they will develop an awareness of Jewish diversity that eluded me until my own aliyah.

 

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 [s1]Only four of the Israeli schools are actually TALi schools

No Teacher Left Behind -- eLearning PD for Lauder Staffs in Eastern Europe

Seventy years ago the prevailing wisdom held that Jewish communal life was dead in Eastern and Central Europe. The Jewish communities of the region had been decimated and most of the survivors chose to emigrate and leave their memories behind.

However, the Jewish communities didn't entirely disappear. As the years progressed, some   Jews emerged from their quiet lives while others joined the population. Over the last 25 years the Lauder Foundation has been at the forefront of assisting the members of these Jewish communities, particularly in the realm of education.

Since 1988 the Lauder Foundation has established thirteen Jewish schools throughout Southern, Eastern and Central Europe -- in Germany, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, the Ukraine, Bulgaria, Croatia and Austria. These schools include some partnerships with ORT and Chabad while others remain independent. Lauder schools involve both elementary and high school education and aim to help students connect, learn and develop their Jewish identities.

eLearning is beginning to play an increasingly important role in the Lauder schools. The Lauder Foundation recently turned to JETS Israel for an online course that will provide Lauder teachers with tools and techniques to include online learning in their curriculum.

The teachers from the Lauder schools in Germany  see the program as providing them with important tools that will allow them to enhance their classes with elearning. One teacher described the confidence that she gained from the course. "I learned a lot about distance learning technology and received so much guidance that I'm ready to launch the program in my own classes. The course provided me with enough tools to understand the logic and pedagogy of this teaching method."

During the course the students explored how to use an online blackboard -- elluminate -- and reviewed a wide range of online tools including using google docs in the classroom, scribblars, linoboards, vocaroos, vokis, social posterboards and Learning Management Systems such as Wikis and Haikus. Participants expressed their feelings, describing how the course provided them with concrete ideas that enable them to teach multiple age groups at once and ensure that each student receives the information and assignments at his or her own grade level.

Participants presented a sample online class to other course participants as part of the process of learning how to manipulate the online blackboard and introduce elearning tools into their curriculum. In summarizing his experiences, a Berlin-based Lauder teacher wrote "Online teaching can empower the student and make him responsible for his own learning. The tools that I learned will allow me to facilitate this type of education in my own classroom."

The staff of Lauder's Russian schools will begin their own No Teacher Left Behind course in basic online learning concepts in the coming weeks. As one of the participants from the Warsaw Lauder School noted after her course, "You don't have to be in the classroom to teach students. There is a wide variety of tools which make on-line classes effective and interesting...ice-breakers help me to get to know my kids better and the vokis enhance lessons in Hebrew language....it's a fun and creative way to teach."

Online Learning and Evaluation Options

The traditional strategy for evaluating student learning is "the test." Students regurgitate the information that they learned by answering questions, either multiple choice questions or in text form. This provides an easy way for teachers to determine whether the students have acquired the necessary information, for administrators to evaluate classroom performance and for communities and governments to monitor the standing of their schools.

Proponents of traditional testing note that these tests are a fair and objective measure of student achievement but increasingly educators are expressing the worry that the pressure of performing well on tests causes teachers to structure their curriculum according to the test, rather than creating a curriculum that helps students gain real-world knowledge that will help them succeed in life.

Conducting a traditional test online is probably one of the easiest aspects of distance learning. Digital tools quickly record students' answers and "score" the test within minutes. But what about the elearning educator who wants to create a rubric that is actually a part of the learning process?

If the goal of education is to help students learn material, develop the skills to analyze the material and learn how to further use it in a constructive manner, traditional testing seems to defeat that purpose. How many times have we heard our students say "I didn't remember anything after I took the test."? Where's the education here?

The old-fashioned book report, which was probably one of the most engaging types of traditional learner-evaluation rubrics, has been expanded in online learning programs to include interactive opportunities for students to summarize units while adding to their understanding of the subject matter and reinforcing the content of the lesson.

Book reports involve describing a book in the form of a summary, usually as a written report. The student provides enough of an overview of the book so that the teacher can see that the student actually read the book.

Distance learning allows students to use a wide range of online tools to create that same summery, but with the added opportunity to expand on the subject and actually use the evaluation to create an additional learning experience. Using dynamic etools the student can use his own language and understanding of the subject material to demonstrate how a unit progressed and the conclusions that the student took from the information that he acquired.

In a recent JETS history lesson the 10^th grade students of the Kadima school of St. Louis created intriguing summaries of the intensive material that they studied that related to the dilemmas that faced the Jewish community of Jerusalem of the 1^st century C.E.