Stepping Through the Door Together - Now's the Time
Soure: Jewish Education Change Network
In order to help Jewish educators stay afloat in the flood of developing technology and pedagogy, Peter Eckstein suggests in a recent blog post, that all Jewish education service providers get together to create "a new trans-denominational platform for Jewish educators of all flavors" to learn about "ALL the opportunities and resources to enhance the field of Jewish education". He believes that the time is now ripe "to widen the circle and have an expanded group of those who care about the future of Jewish education come together and brainstorm how to make a new Jewish Professional Learning Network happen."
He writes:
"This is what I propose: Let's create a new trans-denominational platform for Jewish educators of all flavors to gather virtually or, if practical and affordable, f2f to explore the possibilities that tomorrow presents. This collaborative cloud-based venue would be a forum that would promote dialogue, teaching and learning. It would be a consortium of all professional development providers that would “push” the opportunities to learn to us all. I’m talking one-stop-shopping - a mall for Jewish education. It would be one venue that would offer educators and knowledge seekers ALL the opportunities and resources to enhance the field of Jewish education: A 21st century virtual Pumbadita, if you will - an on-line center for Jewish learning that would be comprehensive, all inclusive and easy to access.
This idea will be made real as a result of cooperation and collaboration between all Jewish education service providers, both those affiliated with a movement, like NATE and the JEA, as well as others like JESNA and PELIE. We all need to work together. We need to move forward now.
I’ve started to have conversations about this vision with individuals affiliated with different groups and organizations. People are interested in seeing this come to fruition. I believe it is now the appropriate moment to widen the circle and have an expanded group of those who care about the future of Jewish education come together and brainstorm how to make a new Jewish Professional Learning Network happen. Dr. Jonathan Woocher, the Chief Ideas Officer and Director of the Lippman Kanfer Institute, has indicated that he is happy to host such a web meeting. This is a concrete call to action."