Search results for: Gamification

As gaming culture continues to proliferate and innovations are constantly being made in the field, Rabbi Owen Gottlieb, an assistant professor of interactive games and media at the Rochester Institute of Technology, found a unique purpose for his latest project: teaching Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah through gaming. During the second day of the two-day conference this week organized by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion on “Crafting Jewish Life in a Complex Religious Landscape,” Gottlieb hosted a session exploring the implication of contemporary and near-future digital and analog technologies for the rediscovery, transformation and extension of various pathways for Jewish learning.

The number of children who are raised with two or more languages has increased worldwide. While Hebrew is the first language for many people living in Israel, it constitutes a second or a foreign language for Jews who live in the Diaspora. In this MOFET International webinar in Hebrew to be held on January 07, 2016 at 10 pm IST, Dr. Efrat Harel will focus on exposing young children to Hebrew as a second or third language, and will consist of three parts: (1) Theories of second-language acquisition among adults as compared to children will be introduced as the framework; (2) Authentic ways of teaching young children a second or a foreign language, focusing on the integration of games, will be discussed; and (3) The Hebrew language and some of the challenges that may be experienced by Hebrew teachers in the Diaspora will be examined.

This article explores how preservice teachers can develop mentoring capacities (i.e., perspective taking, connection with students, and self - reflective opportunities on their roles as teachers) by participating in a historically - based online simulation game with middle school students. The arena for this exploration, the Jewish Court of All Time (JCAT), is a web - mediated learning platform that utilizes character play to enhance historical and cultural understanding. Through the description of three preservice teachers/mentors in JCAT, we illustrate how the preservice teachers/mentors work to support the learning of the middle school students while developing their teaching skill set. Our research explores the ways in which participation in the dual roles of character and mentor shapes the university students’ development as preservice teachers.

The Jim Joseph Foundation, which has awarded substantial grants to Stanford University and New York University to enable them to provide scholarships to doctoral students in their Education and Jewish Studies programs, publishes articles by some of the students describing their areas of research.