Digital Wrestling
Source: eJewish Philanthropy
In a post in eJewish Philanthropy, Jeffrey Lasday outlines some of the issues Jewish educators must wrestle with as they attain the skills they need to integrate technology into improved Jewish education in a language spoken by their "digital native" students. He describes how the Kadima Technology Conferences run by the Partnership for Effective Learning and Innovative Education (PELIE) help Jewish educators attain the skills and confidence to help them accomplish this.
He writes:
"Recognizing the critical need to integrate digital learning into the Jewish education experience, the Partnership for Effective Learning and Innovative Education (PELIE) is demonstrating its commitment toward helping Jewish educators embrace online learning strategies by sponsoring three Kadima Technology Conferences a year. The goal of these conferences is “to help educators make an attitudinal shift about educational technology, from one of reluctance to one of excitement, and to give participants a chance to use technology in a safe space”.
The first Kadima gathering recently took place over the summer, in Cleveland, where teams of educators engaged in the active exploration of technological learning possibilities. At the conference’s opening keynote Brian Mull, Director of Innovation at November Learning demonstrated how teachers can help students develop “online literacy”, the ability to separate out false or biased online information from the facts. In stimulating workshops Adena Raub, Information Manager at PELIE, shared how to use Twitter to create online communities of learners; Ronna Fox, Director of the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland Teacher’s Center, taught educators how to use Wikis as a tool for collaboration with other teachers; and Debra Srabstein, Education Director at Temple Micah described how her congregation took the teaching of Hebrew out of the classroom and into students’ homes through the use of Skype. The Kadima Conference provided a safe environment for participants to wrestle with digital media and reflect on how technology can best be integrated into the classroom."