How Online Learning Enriches the Teaching and Learning Experience

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by Ilana Turetsky, EdD The upcoming summer semester will mark my fourth semester teaching online courses at Azrieli Graduate School. I have found the experience to be enriching, broadening, and stimulating. While some may envision online teaching as a direct transfer from the live classroom to the virtual setting, I perceive online teaching as a categorically different enterprise. Allow me to share three brief thoughts on my experiences teaching online, highlighting some of the unique features that I believe online learning affords. … [Read more...]

If We Can Do It, So Can You! One Small School’s Journey to the Center of 21st Century Learning

[eJP note: This article is part of a series focusing on new ideas emerging from the day school field with relevance for Jewish professionals in Jewish education and beyond. The post contributes to the conversation on the topic of 21st Century Education.] by Dr. Jon Mitzmacher On April 28, 2013 over 100 participants representing schools, agencies, foundations and universities from all over North America and Israel arrived at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School in Jacksonville, Florida to learn, reflect, share and co-create the future of Jewish day school education at edJEWcon 5773.1. How did this happen? How did a (relatively) small K-8 Jewish day school in a Jewish community of less than 15,000 find itself at the center of an educational revolution? And - more importantly - what does it mean … [Read more...]

Blended Learning: Some Love It, Some Hate It – But Everyone’s Talking About It

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by Charles Cohen Blended learning! This has been the most galvanizing affordability strategy we’ve considered so far at the Affordability Knowledge Center. Its potential for disrupting the day school financial model, or improving pedagogy for day school students, has been fodder for some amazing conversations on both the PEJE Blog and JEDLAB, the new destination for Jewish educational debate and sharing knowledge. It started with a great blog post - by G-dcast’s Educational Technology Director Russel Neiss - written in response to this blended-learning white paper. From there, the conversation exploded across multiple platforms, and covered a plethora of issues relating to blended learning and affordability. Jon Mitzmacher, Head of the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School in Jacksonville, … [Read more...]

How Online Courses Are Changing Education

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Introducing a Series from HUC-JIR, JTS, and YU on the online learning experience by Chip Edelsberg and Dawne Bear Novicoff We are only beginning to understand the potential of online education. A 2010 U.S. Department of Education study concluded that “students who took all or part of their classes online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction.” It is clear that this medium presents vast, new opportunities to engage students in effective learning experiences. The explosion of online learning in the past few years coincides with the Jim Joseph Foundation awarding three major grants of $15 million each to support graduate programs of education at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC- JIR), Jewish … [Read more...]

Emerging Adulthood: Finding One’s Place as Jewish Educators

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[ReFrame, an initiative of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary, strengthens complementary schools, such as those housed in congregations, through the approach of experiential Jewish education. ReFrame asked a wide range of leaders in Jewish education to contribute to the initiative by addressing a series of questions related to the application of the experiential techniques which seem to serve so well in Jewish summer camps, Israel experiences, youth groups, and other popular settings associated with an experiential approach. The following article is one of the responses received. To learn more about ReFrame visit the website.] by Rabbi Josh Feigelson Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your … [Read more...]

Jewish Ed Tech Macher Says Tech Is Not – NOT – the Answer to Affordability

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Technology should be a method of enhancement, never a cost-efficient replacement for face-to-face learning experiences, or a smokescreen to distract from other cost-efficiencies. by Russel Neiss “There must be a revolution in education in which educational science and the ingenuity of educational technology combine to modernize the grossly inefficient and clumsy procedures of conventional education.” Sidney Pressey, 1924 As the creator of several Jewish educational apps, as a former day school administrator responsible for integrating technology in a pedagogically sound way, and as someone who has articulated a vision for Jewish education that heavily relies on the use of technology, I recently have been asked about my opinions on blended learning, and other attempts to use technology to … [Read more...]