Home Archives for Using Technology Wisely

Why Do So Many Online Communities Fail?

Posted on May 2, 2013 Written by
failure

by Naava Frank The good news is that technology has created unprecedented opportunities for people to meet like-minded peers to learn, collaborate and support each other. The bad news is that so many of these well-meaning and inspiring projects that have enormous potential to help people and strengthen causes, are failing. Not just in the Jewish community, throughout the nonprofit world, hundreds of thousands of dollars (at least) have been spent over the past decade on designing systems that ended up not being utilized. I don’t mean to point a finger - my guess is most of us have participated in, dreamed of, sponsored, or funded one of these projects. And there is no simple answer to explain what went wrong. What I would like to present today is a way of thinking that in my experience has … [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Blog, Using Technology Wisely Tagged:

All the Rest Is Commentary: Getting Schooled by a Day Schooler

Posted on April 30, 2013 Written by
blog_comments

by Ken Gordon Friends: Today I got schooled - by a fifth grader. A fifth grader. You see, I’m parked at edJEWcon in Jacksonville, Florida, and I’m feeling more than a little woozy - and not just because I woke up at 4 a.m. this morning or that it’s the end of a very intense, workshop-heavy day. My wooziness owes itself chiefly to a child named Rebecca… who spoke to me, and a sizable number of JDS professionals, of her lucid, reasonable, and ethically minded philosophy on blog commentary. Rebecca knows things about blogging etiquette some people three and four times and five times her age don’t know. How does she manage this? I suspect that Rebecca’s self-assured understanding has something to do with her teacher Silvia Tolisano’s blog-comment checklist, which … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Education, Using Technology Wisely Tagged:

25 SMART Social Media Objectives

Posted on April 15, 2013 Written by
SMART

How nonprofits can use SMART goals to chart impact by Beth Kanter Beth’s Blog Using SMART objectives for nonprofit communications strategies is not a new idea. Spitfire’s useful SMART chart planning tool has been used by many nonprofits over the years. SMART Objectives are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely objectives. The Aspen Institute’s Continuous Progress blog points out they come in three flavors: Tactical: Tools and techniques Results: Money, time, or other tangible result that can be converted Capacity: People, content, workflow, learning The process includes beginning with identifying intent. Next, make it specific by adding a number, percentage, increase/decrease and a date. Some nonprofits find it hard to do because it takes hitting the pause … [Read more...]

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Empowering Everyone To Be A Network-Weaver

Posted on April 3, 2013 Written by
The-network-weaver-builds-communities-2

What if everyone who works at an organization, or cares deeply about an organization acted as a network weaver? How would that change the way that organizations communicate? How would that change how and the extent to which organizations raise funds online? That was just the conversation that I had in mind when my colleague Scott Remington and I presented a working session at the Jewish Federation Young Leadership Conference. We had one primary goal: to empower every person in the room to become a network weaver. The presentation/workshop that Scott and I created for the conference presumed that half of the attendees did not work for a Federation, but volunteered their time, and that half would consist of paid staff. We knew that they wanted to be able to do more for the organization … [Read more...]

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WarGames: Matthew Broderick Wished He Got a Badge

Posted on March 12, 2013 Written by
PBLheptagon_red

by Sarah Blattner In the 1983 film WarGames, Matthew Broderick stars as David, a precocious teen, who has computer skills beyond most of his contemporaries and adults in his life. David hacks into a military computer system named Joshua, where he is challenged to play a nuclear war game. America and Russia go head-to-head as the real military system begins to launch a countdown to start World War 3. It was fun rewatching this film with my own children recently, where they were confused that a computer system took up the space of an entire room. As an educator contemplating learning in the digital age, I noticed the subplot. The audience gets acquainted with David’s student profile, a kid who blows off school and finds himself pretty bored in general. At first, he pings the computer system, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Education, Fellowship and RFP Opportunities, Using Technology Wisely Tagged: ,

Kindle Your Judaism: Growing Jewish Literacy Through New Technology

Posted on March 11, 2013 Written by
e-readers / tablets

by Rabbi Jason Miller Ask most rabbis what their number one recommendation is for "saving" the Jewish future and they will point to Jewish literacy. Helping young Jews become more literate about Jewish history, culture and religion is a top priority for Jewish leaders on college campuses. The way to do this is by getting them to read books about a whole host of Jewish themes and topics. Rather than telling college students to read a history of the Jewish people and having them feel like they have one more 4-credit course to take, innovative Jewish educators are envisioning new ways to encourage Jewish literacy. I was impressed when I learned of a new program being implemented at Brown University to get college students excited about reading books with Jewish themes. … [Read more...]

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