Yechiel Hoffman serves as a Rabbi and Jewish Studies instructor, an experiential educator and a “Laptop Leader” at Milken Community High School, in Los Angeles. Yechiel is a doctoral candidate at Northeastern University and Hebrew College. In this article, he describes how technology integrated into and enhanced a high school Jewish thought class.
Background
Technology integration creates many challenges for the Jewish studies teacher. As the “People of the Book”, the centrality of the text in Jewish life necessitates an emphasis on text study. Teachers must figure out how to utilize technology as a tool to support the text’s centrality, or otherwise loosen the grip on how students use text in relation to their learning directions to allow for increased student driven learning. How will a Talmud class utilize Internet commentaries and word processors to enhance the learning without distraction? How will a Humash class utilize media to create modern forms of Midrash? While previous models of school work depended on limited shared resources for research and collaboration, technology offers shared autonomy with student’s over the pace, depth and range of their work. Will the technology create new methods of collaboration and sharing of ideas? What role will the teacher play as technology’s democratizing effect forces the teacher away from the traditional front role of authority and into the role of facilitator and guide, with the student driving the learning? What new methods of instruction can we imagine using technology integration an innovative way to enrich Jewish learning?
Inside a Classroom Model of Learning
At Milken Community High School, in the Introduction Jewish Thought (Jew Thought) courses, the decision to integrate technology was made easier by the current inquiry-based model of instruction. Since the impact of technology integration depends on the choice of instructional methods, the inquiry-based model served as an ideal fit. Based on Dewey’s notion that “education begins with the curiosity of the learning,” inquiry-based learning promotes stronger internalization of understandings, encourages lifelong learning and fosters interrelationships between systems of knowledge (Educational Broadcasting Corporation, 2004). In this model, the teacher serves as a facilitator, and the student serves as a self-directed learner who is preparing for lifelong learning (GSLIS 1999-2010). This fits perfectly with the aspirations of Jewish learning to cultivate young hearts and minds that can engage in learning lishmah (for its own sake) and address real world problems using Jewish frameworks.
In the Jew Thought courses, students engaged in an inquiry based learning model of 1) asking, 2) investigating, 3) creating, 4) sharing and 5) reflecting. This model was used to explore various critical concerns to Jewish theology, community and learning. Within each inquiry step, technology was used to provide new opportunities for students to engage and deepen their process and learning outcomes.
Ask: The new kushiyot
The first step of inquiry learning involves drawing out of the student essential question that they care about. If one intends for a student to invest time and energy into developing sound and creative responses to an inquiry, it becomes vital to make the inquiry a part of their life and world. To do so, the students engage in a process of reflection, sharing and feedback of their initial ideas and questions. Traditionally, students would engage in group conversation or painstakingly assigned written journals. When inquiring into theology in the Jew Thought class, student created online journals (http://miriameshe.blogspot.com/) and twitter feeds to develop their reflection and synthesized questions. By using online tools with the capacity for restricted sharing, students can solicit feedback on their ideas. When they open up their private writing to public feeds and initiate conversations with others beyond their school group about their ideas, their exploration of themes of theodicy, existentialism and understanding of the corporeality of God expand and deepen, all due to the technology’s reach and feedback capacity. With each journal and sharing, they sharpen their key questions, recognizing how their once small initial questions have larger ramifications worthy of deeper inquiry. By placing reflection at the beginning of the process, rather than just at the end, the student’s essential questions become rooted into his Jewish learning from the start.
Investigate: The new Mikraot Gedolot
While students have been utilizing research tools to gather, annotate and synthesize information, technology provides for a culling from a wider variety of sources and offers tools to annotate and synthesize ideas while collaborating with others. According to research, the most common usage of computers in a one-to-one laptop classroom is to utilize Internet search tools and databases to find information, which otherwise students would not have had access to (Dunlevy, Dexter, & Heinecke, 2007). Tech-literate teachers work with students on developing discernment skills to evaluate credibility and bias in the digital domain. Students develop informational literacy, using models taught from November Learning (http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/) and Generation Yes (www.genyes.com). Using newly developed tools of discernment, students utilize Google, Google scholar, and Proquest (www.proquest.com) to gather information from general resources, papers, journals and Jewish texts.
For the process of synthesizing information, gone are the days of photocopies, stacks of books and notes of loose sheets of paper passed around to each partner in a group. Using a collaborative tool, such as a wiki or Google docs, students each post gathered information, edit text to include only the key elements related to the inquiry and then solicit feedback from peers and the teacher. One group looked at the influence of American life on Jewish dietary habits (http://tinyurl.com/milkenjtp). In addition to online research, technology facilitates primary research through communication tools, such as, email, online chatting and Skype, allowing students to connect to sources of knowledge and experience from beyond their campus. When a student researched the importance of strong leadership for her project on the Future of American Judaism, she interviewed a leading professional from the field to gather the expert’s perspective, which was reflected in the student’s synthesized understanding of her research (http://tinyurl.com/2dhuykv). Through the process of gathering the proper information from appropriate sources using online tools and information literacy, students synthesized information collaboratively and got feedback using a wiki, thus ensuring thorough research and communication through the collection and process of analysis, as they prepared to share their new understandings.
Create: The new bet midrash
Inquiry learning focuses on the importance of students creating a response to their inquiry rather than just reporting on synthesized research. Technology integration opens up tools for better collaboration during the creation stage. Wikis offer students the opportunity to create their own content in a community of learners, an essential quality of Jewish learning. As a collaborative tool, wikis provide a tool for web writing, problem solving, information sources, submission of student assignments and as a project space. Students posted their lessons plans (http://tinyurl.com/2dxntlq) for the class session they taught, as a resource for other students and as a guide for their own planning (Ferris & Wilder, 2006).
Within small groups, students solved problems, such as how to create an effective presentation. One group looked into a comparative religion approach of good and evil, as evidenced by their lesson plans (http://tinyurl.com/2bs5xy3). Wikis also served to allow student developers of projects a space to report their progress on assigned requirements. When planning and implementing a digital video shoot, students created their treatments, screenplays, shooting scheduling and editing logs in a wiki and received feedback directly and immediately from the teacher (http://tinyurl.com/29acc5w).
Other tools, such as Google docs, allow student to collaboratively edit and share word processing documents, for both the planning and implementing of project work. Using multimedia tools, students are able to create fully realized articulations of their ideas in a fun, creative and enterprising manner. Moving beyond the PowerPoint format, students created videos using digital cameras and readily accessible editing software to create informative and entertaining projects. Using the medium of digital storytelling, students created digital narratives exploring changes in Jewish life, addressing the “New Jews” of the 21st century North America (www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFaTH00AOSU&fmt=18). Students utilized various forms of media, including video, audio and digital photography, while recording a narration as a voice over to create cohesion for the edited media. This project allowed for a personal, interactive and investigative response to the question of non-establishment responses to Jewish identity.
Share: The new bet sefer
It actualizing their investment in Jewish learning, the students engaged in sharing, both for the purposes of teaching others and soliciting feedback. Online word processing technologies, such as Google docs and Slideshare (http://tinyurl.com/2ucm592), allowed for sharing of word documents and presentations. Upon creating digital videos to address key concerns in Jewish identity, through the use of spoofs of reality shows, music videos and commercials, as well as documentaries, students competed to make their videos viral. They utilized Internet sites they were familiar with, such as YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9EhWORLHDA) and Facebook to drum up interest in their videos, promote peer sharing and solicit feedback from their intended audiences. In classroom presentations and at community wide events, such as LimmudLA, students shared their media, allowing a direct audience to appreciate their work and provide critique. The class also created a social network (jewishthought.ning.com) to share ideas, post student work, such as senior sermons, and share work with other classes.
Reflect: The new heshbon
While journals played a critical role throughout the inquiry process, students also engaged in reflective practice at the conclusion of the creative work. Reflection offered students an opportunity on their blogs and other journal forums to evaluate their processes and outcomes and to consider what next steps they would take with their learning. When one student completed her Jewish continuity project, she decided to propose the presentation to present at a conference. In journaling, she considered the impact presenting to adults (rather than to students) would have and to what degree she needed to expand on her prior research and articulations.
At the end of the year, students were tasked with creating a digital portfolio narrative (http://tinyurl.com/27y4y3x). In order to write their narrative, they had to consider their growth both in their Jewish Thought course and throughout their high school career. Specifically, they addressed their role as a graduate of the school, and as members of a holy nation and a kingdom of priests. Using web-publishing technology, the students gathered digital artifacts, ranging from word documents to pictures to video links on YouTube (http://tinyurl.com/2wag975). Upon annotating these artifacts and sorting them according to the questions posed, students wrote narratives that were posted online with links to appropriately chosen artifacts. These digital narratives served as final reflective pieces for the student, which also promoted independent and continued learning. The technology offered the students a tool to share with teachers, peers and parents, the key was allowing the student to realize the importance and essential moments of their own Jewish education.
Ubiquitous learning
Utilizing a student-centered approach to instruction, such as an inquiry-based learning model, allowed for a healthy dose of technology integration in a 12th grade Jewish Thought class – for both the teacher and students. In a classroom where one-to-one computing is close to a reality and promoted by a teacher, ubiquitous online access and computing is available to all students. While inquiry based learning may prove difficult for some teachers, technology adoption should be embraced as an opportunity to enhance engagement and relevancy. This level of access offers a myriad of opportunities to ensure impactful and relevant Jewish learning in the present and future, without walking away from the values and goals of the past. These principles apply to all classrooms, and not just a Jewish Studies classroom. Yet in a space where the cultivation of lifelong learners is a primary goal, the use of technology becomes vital as a tool for motivation, relevancy and healthy learning.
References
What are the benefits of inquiry based learning? (2004). Retrieved June 10, 2010 from www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/index_sub3.html
Teacher role as facilitator, student as self- directed learner-prepares for lifelong learning using model. Inquiry page (1998-2010). Retrieved June 10, 2010 from http://inquiry.illinois.edu/
Ferris, S.P., & Widler, H. (2006). Uses and potentials of wikis in the classroom. Innovate 2(5), Retrieved June 8, 2010 from www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=258
Dunleavy, M., Dexter S. & Heinecke, W.F. (2007). What added value does a 1:1 student to laptop ratio bring to technology-supported teaching and learning? Journal of Computer Assisted Learning (OnlineEarly Articles) 1(1). Retrieved May 25, 2010 from http://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/demo/present/index.php/jce/article/view/171/56