A Very Cool Site for Teaching Texts

Just this week, someone called my attention to a new website, Sefaria.org, and my twitter account has been lighting up about it for the past couple of days. The site is at the same time brilliant and brilliantly simple, and its possible uses for a classroom are just being thought about. According to its make-a-contribution (not monetary) page, "Our tradition is full of connections between texts. We want to make a complete list of these connections in a form that a computer can understand." Put differently, Sefaria is trying to collect as many traditional Jewish sources as possible and link them all together.

The way that this works is quite simple. The major Jewish texts (Tanach, Mishna, Talmud, Midrash) have already been loaded onto the site (some in English, some in Hebrew), and visitors to the site are asked to add any commentaries or other connected sources to each existing source. For example, on the first chapter of Bereishit (which has been done as a sample), the JPS translation of the Torah appears on the left 2/3 of the screen, while the right third of the screen is a column with over 100 comments and Midrashim on those verses. By clicking on one verse, the comments relevant to that verse remain in bold while the other comments fade to gray. As this is an open source project, visitors are invited to add any other source that they may want to share on the site, and the site can accept both Hebrew and English versions. The contributions page offers several tips for how to add sources and where to find online collections of sources for easy copying and pasting.

While this, once developed, has the chance to be a wonderful resource for anyone trying to quickly look up sources (whether or not a quick look-up is a positive or negative thing could go into the argument about the proliferation of shortcuts to learning), I can think of at least two reasonable uses for it in a Judaic Studies classroom:

1) As the resource it is meant to be. There is a skill involved in trying to write a shiur or a dvar Torah, and the hardest part for many of our students is figuring out where to look. Let's face it, all of those books on the shelf, even if translated, are just so imposing. The layout and interface on Sefaria are cleaner and more inviting, and could be used as a good entree into further research. I can imagine asking a student to find three comments on the site that look interesting, and then directing him to find those specific comments in the original. This will allow students a comfortable entry point while not giving up on more "authentic" learning. And, hopefully, at some point this set of training wheels can be removed and students can learn to begin with the original.

2) For more precocious or higher-level classes, they can be given the assignment of adding to the site. For a class that is learning a perek or a daf that has not yet been developed on Sefaria, each student or group of students can be assigned a different commentary, asked to provide a write-up or translation under rigorous guidelines, and have the goal of producing something that the teacher deems worthy of being shared with the world. This seems a half-step beyond student blogging, as in this case the enticing goal is not merely publishing something online, but publishing it in a location where it is likely to be read and relied upon by others.

I am sure that much more will be said and written about this site as people tinker with it further. Looking forward to more discussion about it.

A quick video tour of Web 2.0 in Action

I recently created this video for a presentation I am giving about how I use Web 2.0 tools in action. The video was created using Camtasia studio, a slightly costly but completely worthwhile screenshot and video editing program. Camtasia allows you to take "video" of whatever is happening on your screen along with your narration. Once you have taken your video, Camtasia has a full suite of effects and editing tools that are as simple to use as being able to read. I was able to shorten clips, add and edit music, insert text boxes, and do a whole host of other things that you will not even notice.

Beyond making this little video, I have been using Camtasia to create a series of videos for my students to allow them to learn material without my assistance outside of the classroom setting, what is known as "flipping the class". While the jury is still out on the flipped approach in general, it definitely worked in the limited way that I have employed it thus far.

Any feedback on this video is welcome and encouraged.

We're All Connected

In a span of five hours this evening, I took part in the following activities:

1)Had a Google+ Hangout conference call with the members of my Critical Friends group. We meet once per month to take up a new issue that one of us may be experiencing in our schools, and we are now moving these conference calls onto Google's wonderful group videochat platform.

2) Skyped with two fantastic educators from San Francisco about a panel that we will be participating in next week (sadly, I am skyping into the panel - no jet-setting travel for me this time).

3) Took part in this week's Jedchat, which had roughly 30 participants, many of them joining in on Jedchat for the first time.

In total, in five hours I used three different platforms to be in significant and meaningful contact with roughly 40 Jewish educators located from Boston to Florida to Cleveland to Memphis to San Francisco to Lord only knows where else. We discussed topics ranging from difficult school leadership crises to the role of technology in education to bullying in the Jewish Day School.

If you are wondering why professional development is changing in schools, it is because we no longer need to cart in a recognized "expert" or "guru" to provide us with exciting ideas that we will soon forget and ignore. Instead, by being able to have constant and consistent communication with so many of our colleagues from around the world of Jewish education - what is referred to as a Personal Learning Network (PLN) - we are able to have rich and meaningful conversations that we can continue at any time through a wide variety of applications (and from almost anywhere - I did all of these from my computer, but I could have done the same from my smartphone or a tablet). When I started teaching, I communicated with my colleagues in my building and perhaps occasionally with friends who were teaching elsewhere. Over time, email (or listservs)became a useful tool for connecting with people in far-flung areas, but it still required asynchronous back-and-forth, often depending on having time to right long and thoughtful letters. We have moved now to real-time conversations, and I believe that they are not only easier to carry on, but that they are richer, deeper, and more meaningful, and that they allow us to include more and more people in our PLN's due to the inclusive nature of social media.

We often say that technology is merely a tool to be used towards attaining our educational goals, but it should not be confused with the goals themselves. In the case of PLN's, they rise to a slightly higher level, as without the technology, all of this communication would not be possible.

What are We Doing?

A few weeks ago, a discussion was held on the Lookjed educators list (link currently not available) that began with a quote from Rav Mordechai Gifter who had once asked what day school were actually doing. Rav Gifter looked at students coming out of schools who had weak skills in a wide range of limudei kodesh subjects, and wondered how schools were spending their time if their students emerged with such a paucity of knowledge.

Leaving aside the idea that there are many, many factors that go into the final product that is a day school graduate and that the school is only one of them, the fact is that many students do graduate from 8 or 12 years of day school with a shocking ignorance of many subjects that we treasure so much.

While this could be the result of many factors, I wonder if part of the cause is that we are not always fully clear on what we are trying to accomplish. It's not that I do not have an answer; the problem is that I have too many possible answers, each of which could potentially dictate our actions in a different way. To some extent, each of them could be true, while at the same time there has to be a sense of priorities. Here are a few possibilities:

1) We are trying to teach some specific bank of knowledge in a wide range of subjects.

2) We are trying to teach some specific collection of skills in each of a wide range of subjects.

3) We are trying to teach broader and more generalizable learning skills that will enable our students to feel comfortable in any learning environment.

4) We are trying to create the fabled "lifelong learners" - students who will have a desire to continue learning beyond their formal schooling.

4a) We are trying to create "lifelong learners", specifically referring to students who will make Torah study a regular part of their lives.

5) We are trying to create good citizens, i.e. students with a well-grounded moral compass, a sense of compassion, and a sense of responsibility to the community.

6) We are trying to keep students "on the derech" by providing them with positive religious experiences led by positive religious role models.

I am sure that you could add even more possibilities to this list, but I think that I have made my point. At times, I think that there is a thin line between being jaded and being introspective. I look at the reams of assessments and projects and activities and homeworks and tests and whatnot that we ask our students to do and wonder if the goal is the process or the product or the hidden lessons that they do not even realize that they are learning. Is it more important for them to know the 15 famous Rashis in Sefer Shemot, or that they only learn 10 of them but learn how to do it on their own, or that they only learn 5 of them but that they feel inspired to keep learning or that who knows how many they learned but they had a positive experience in class with a wonderful religious role model and that will keep them frum (ignorant, perhaps, but frum)? To a degree, all are correct. On the other hand, we do have to decide what approach we are taking in the classroom.

I am going to short-circuit this post here. Looking forward to reader response. Please remember to include your name in your comment.

It's Time for Teacher 2.0

As anyone who knows me or who follows this blog knows, I am a big fan of Web 2.0. Whether it's Google Apps for education, wikis, prezis, or any of the myriad other applications that allow us to use the web in an interactive way, I make constant use of them in my teaching and I am constantly encouraging my teachers to do so as well.

But, truth be told, I am starting to sense a bit of Web 2.0 burnout. Yes, it is true that all of these tools allow us to create and collaborate in ways that we never dreamed of when I was a student, I wonder if most of the time the improvement is more quantitative than qualitative. For example, in the progression from oaktag to trifold board to powerpoint to prezi the medium has changed and perhaps become snazzier, and perhaps we can allow more people in more places to access and even offer feedback on our work, but the overall structure of the classroom has not necessarily changed - a prezi project runs the risk of being simply a cooler piece of oaktag. Students creating videos using flip cameras and camtasia and iMovie and then posting on YouTube is wonderfully easy - but I recall making a (poorly edited) movie twenty-five years ago for a class project.

There are those who await the arrival of Web 3.0, which does not exist, but which some imagine to be when the machines do more of the creative work. Personally, aside from being a bit scared of the resultant dystopian universe that our digital overlords would have in store for us, I think that what we really need is Teacher 2.0 - educators who not only see the "cool" factor in using digital tools, but understand how these tools can open the door to changing around their classrooms in ways previously thought impossible or at least very difficult.

A personal example. When I was first introduced to the concept of differentiated education several years ago, I agreed that it was a nice premise, I tried to understand why it was all that different from tracking (which my school already does), and I more or less dismissed it as way too labor-intensive on the preparation end and equally difficult on the implementation end for a single teacher in a classroom of over 20 students. Technology changes that equation. As anyone who has followed my PBL posts knows, I made extensive use of online materials to allow each student to progress at his or her own pace and to allow me to tailor my interactions with each student to give them exactly what they needed as a given moment. Could I have done that without my wiki, Google forms, homemade videos, and other tools that I utilized online? Yes... but it would have been difficult - the proof being that I never tried do so before.

And so I believe it is time to move into the next stage of integrating technology into classrooms (not that this is new - people are doing it already). The first stage was getting the techphobes to make use of technology in some small way, whether it was making use of the smartboard in their rooms, using the computer for organizing their classes, or having assignments be handed in online. Now that those teachers are comfortable with Web 2.0, it is time for them to become Teacher 2.0 - time for them to shift their thinking not only on what tools they use in class, but to shift their thinking on how that classroom is going to look and operate.

The only question now it how to bring about that change. Comments welcome.

Building a Jewish EdTech Community

The EdTech community, namely those educators who use technology on a regular basis in their classrooms, who reach out to each other through various social media, and who are sincerely interested in how technology can help to improve educational practice, is a well-established group. Whether they are convening at weekly Twitter chats such as #edchat, or meeting live at conferences such as ISTE, or sharing their thoughts via their blogs, there are many ways in which this ever-growing group of dedicated educators learn from one another and constantly work to improve their practice and the field as a whole.

Within Jewish education, the group is somewhat smaller and still in formation. I wrote a couple of months ago about #jedchat, a weekly Twitter chat focused on issues in Jewish education; Yeshiva University's Institute for University-School Partnership has started several very active nings, such as YU2.0 and HSChinuch Community that bring together many educators to discuss a wide range of issues; and the Avi Chai Foundation has been sponsoring Jewish educators' attendance at conferences such as ISTE for a number of years, asking them to follow-up their conference experience with posts to a Jewish EdTech blog. However, as technology continues to move forward faster than anyone can keep up with it, there is certainly a need for more opportunities for more and more Jewish educators involved in technology to meet, live or virtually, to discuss how so many of these changes affect the world of Jewish education.

A small step in that direction has taken place a couple of times recently, thanks to the efforts and initiation of the TechRav himself, Rabbi Tzvi Pittinsky. A couple of months ago, Tzvi contacted me and Rabbi Kenny Schiowitz of Ramaz to put together a small evening for local educators focused on making and using videos in Judaic Studies classes. Approximately 20 educators from the New York/New Jersey area joined us, and the three of us took turns showcasing the various videos we had created and describing how we were making use of them in class to advance learning and to give our students more opportunities for independent and self-guiding learning.

Last night, I was privileged to play host to the second such conference, this time focused on the use of ipads in education. As schools have begun exploring the educational possibilities that ipads may offer students, and as ipads offer several advantages over laptops (size being a significant one), we felt that the time was ripe to discuss this issue with some of the leading Jewish edtech individuals gathered together.

In a change from the first conference, we added a virtual component to this seminar. One of our three presenter teams was broadcasting live from Baltimore via Webex (thank you to WebYeshiva.org for the use of their platform), and several people joined us live from their homes across the country. While we were able to gather roughly 20 talented educators from the local area in one classroom, there are key voices that live across the country and we felt that the time had come to try to include as many people as possible, while still keeping the total number of participants at a managable number that would allow for real discussion.

The three presentations on the evening each added a different component to our understanding of how ipads can be helpful in the classroom. Dave Marra, an energetic and dynamic Apple systems administrator who deserves every bit of the title "genius" that Apple uses for its employees (and an old friend and colleague of Yavneh's Tech director Chani Lichtiger), began the evening by showing us some of the many featuers of the new ipad3 and particularly iBooks author and iTunesU. He described how these tools will make it simple for a teacher to create dynamic textbooks, namely online books that include video and other media within the books, and to make them available to their students, thus optimizing the learning experience. Clearly, such books will be an upgrade from the standard worksheets and workbooks that teachers currently create, and the sense in the room was that this would be a boon for Judaic Studies teachers, who often spend summers creating their own materials as it is.

Following our "Marrathon", Noam Davidovics and Elisheva Erlanger of Ohr Chadash in Baltimore stepped before the video camera to share with us their experiences of giving an ipad to every 5th and 6th grade student in their brand-new school. Through slide and pictures, they showed how the ipads opened up new vistas in what teachers taught and how the class was conducted, and showed as well that the ipads worked with Hebrew, thus allowing the teachers to teach Limudei Kodesh subjects in the original.

Finally, Rabbi Joey Beyda and David Galpert of the Yeshiva of Flatbush High School took to the stage to discuss their very recent ipad program. Due to a generous gift, they were able to provide two of their freshman classes with ipads beginning at the end of January. Rabbi Beyda noted that they saw four possible reasons for introducing ipads into class: student engagement, collaboration, creativity and research. However, he noted that a key to a successful ipad program is the teacher - that in rooms where the teacher remained at the front of the class, the chances of students being off task on their ipads rose, while teachers who circulated had a much lower incidence of off-task behavior taking place in their classrooms. Furthermore, he noted that the ipads served as a non-threatening way to begin moving some teachers towards better models of teaching - away from frontal lecture and towards more student-focused teaching. They also discussed some of the technicals of their program, including the agreement that every student was asked to sign before receiving an ipad, as well as some of the difficulties and costs of having such a program, such as the need for greater bandwidth and some less-than-smooth aspects of integrating Hebrew.

The night ended with Tzvi giving a call for such sessions to be more regular, and with a hope that some day a larger conference of Jewish edtech individuals could be convened. While many of the issues we face are the same as in the world of general education, there are some topics that are specific to Jewish education, whether content-based or more broadly related to our community's attitude towards some of the challenges that the 21st century poses, and they deserve our time and focus. As more and more events such as these take place, both live as well as online, I have no doubt that the momentum will move us in the right direction.

(Tzvi has also blogged about this evening on his Tech Rav blog.)

My Webinar on Project-based Learning

I gave a webinar recently for Yeshiva University's Institute for University-School Partnership and the HSChinuch online community. Below is the archive of the webinar. Many of the ideas that I covered were ideas that I had blogged about, but I was able to give them a little more expression in the freer format of a webinar.