Focus on Technology (Spring 2003)

Introduction

As the representative in Israel of FUTUREKIDS, a worldwide organization specializing in integrating technology into education, I have had the unique opportunity to develop curricular units that integrate the teaching of computer skills with instruction in Jewish Studies content. This approach has several advantages that are applicable to Diaspora Jewish day school education as well. The introduction of Judaic Studies content into the computer lab serves to maximize the utilization of time and enhances the quality of both subject areas. Ultimately it will raise the status of Jewish Studies in the eyes of the students and parents.

This article presents a sample technology-infused project which can serve as an example of the ways in which technology can be integrated with Jewish studies content. It will describe, in a step-by-step manner, the integration process by which the project was developed, providing the reader with:

    • an interesting sample project which they might be able to use “as is” or with modifications
    • the motivation to try to integrate technology into other Jewish studies topics
    • a model integration process to aid in the design, creation and implementation of additional integrated projects

What Is Technology Integration and What Are Its Benefits?

Computers are used in a variety of ways in schools. Among these are the use of educational software and CD- or Internet-based knowledge databases. These programs and electronic resources are content-specific. Technology integration, however, stresses the use of “open” applications, such as those generally available in the Windows environment and Office suites.

All use of technology has the benefit of exciting the students. While this is important in and of itself, the use of technology in Jewish studies has an additional, added benefit. It helps send the message to the students that Jewish studies can be “cool”, “modern”, “high-tech”, “cutting-edge”, “with it” and any number of other positive associations which can redound to the benefit of Jewish studies teachers. An emphasis on Jewish studies in the computer lab can help increase the positive perception, of both students and parents, of Jewish studies.

Because it is based on “open” applications, technology integration has the added benefit of providing students with valuable technical and cognitive skills that they can utilize in many different contexts. The use of “real-world” applications in such spheres as word processing, graphics, desktop publishing, multimedia presentations, spreadsheets and databases gives technology-integrated projects a scope and value beyond their immediate content goals.

The implementation of technology integration is not a simple matter. Technology projects are interdisciplinary in the sense that they combine content typically taught by a classroom or subject teacher with technology skills typically taught by a computer teacher. However, regardless of how the responsibilities are divided, the technology integration process involves the following three basic steps:

    • Choosing the Project Content
    • Choosing the Project Technology
    • Creating the Project Materials

We will explore each of these steps below in the context of a specific technology-integrated project.

Choosing the Project Content

The starting point for a technology-integrated project is the project content. The classroom or subject teacher must decide what is the central idea or focus, what are the learning objectives they would like the students to achieve and approximately how much time will be devoted to the project. It is also worthwhile to consider how these objectives might be achieved without the use of technology, and what the specific added value of the technology is.

In our case, the project was intended for fourth grade students in a Mamlachti (State) School as part of their studies leading up to Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), the 28th of Iyar, on which the re-unification of Jerusalem in 1967 is celebrated. The classroom teacher had only a limited number of hours spread over several weeks to spend on the general topic. Her goal was to familiarize the students with both the history and geography of Jerusalem in a manner that would allow them to understand and appreciate the relationship between different parts of the modern city and different stages in the city’s history.

Toward this end, the history and geography of Jerusalem were divided into the following periods:

  • The City of David (from King David until the Return from Babylon)
  • The Old City (from the Return from Babylon through 1860)
  • The Late Ottoman Period (1860 – 1917)
  • The British Mandatory Period (1917 – 1948)
  • The Divided City (1948 – 1967)
  • The Reunification (Arab neighborhoods annexed in 1967)
  • The New Neighborhoods (Jewish neighborhoods built since 1967)

The teacher had at her disposal some textbooks and maps that would form the basis for the study of this material. Without the use of technology, students might have been asked to produce a written work or a placard incorporating and displaying the relevant material. It was decided that the topic would provide a good opportunity for a technology-integrated project, utilizing a combination of content taught by the classroom teacher and technology skills taught by the computer teacher.

Choosing the Project Technology

In choosing the technology for an integrated project, several factors need to be taken into consideration. Often, the content may lend itself to more than one application. Which application to use may depend on which technology skills the students have or are expected to have, as well as what aspects of the content material are to be emphasized. The incorporation of CD-based or Internet-based resources, or the use of scanned book-based materials, also need to be taken into consideration.

The final product needs to be defined and consideration needs to be given to the skills required to produce such a product. Time constraints also play an important role. Often, it is helpful to plan for the students to work on the basis of an electronic template file so as to ensure that even with limited time and only age-appropriate skills an exciting result can be produced.

It was clear that a PowerPoint presentation would provide a dynamic and exciting vehicle for the integration of the relevant content. The presentation was to include:

  • An introductory slide containing a WordArt header, a map showing the current municipal borders of Jerusalem, a text box describing the overall topic of the presentation and a button that would advance to the next slide. On this slide the map would be entirely gray and there would be no legend.
  • A series of period slides. Each would contain a WordArt header, a text box describing the period and a button to advance to the next slide. On each of these slides the same map that appeared on the first slide would appear again, in the same position. However, on each slide an additional section of the map would be covered with a new color and a new segment added to a growing “color legend”. Each segment of the legend would have a one-line description of the relevant period next to it. In addition, text boxes with the names of various neighborhoods that were established during the relevant period would surround the map, each with an arrow pointing to its location within the new color swatch.
  • A summation slide containing a WordArt header and a text box summarizing the presentation.

The following sample of an intermediate slide will help convey the concept.

The students had already learned basic PowerPoint skills during the year but would have only a few sessions to work on the project. Implementing a presentation such as this from scratch would require a range of both graphics and PowerPoint skills. Some of these the students had already acquired but others they had not. It was essential to strike the right balance between keeping the project interesting, making use of the skills they already knew and the time constraints.

The decision was made to provide them with an electronic template file containing a presentation with all the action buttons, map variations and legend color boxes pre-loaded and pre-positioned. The students would concentrate on providing the accompanying texts and associating them with the various slides and slide elements.

As received by the students, the above sample slide looked like this:

Creating the Project Materials

The first step in creating the materials was for the computer teacher to create the requisite graphic files and incorporate them into the proposed electronic template. This involved scanning a map of Jerusalem (provided by the classroom teacher), manipulating it with graphic tools, saving the map and legend variations and then incorporating these into the baseline PowerPoint file.

Next, the computer teacher drafted a student handout that contained the instructions to be followed by the students in turning the template into their project. This handout gave clear instructions about the content to be incorporated and the known technology skills to be used. Where necessary, the handout included step-by-step instructions for the students to follow in learning and utilizing new skills.

The next step was to test the template and handout. The computer teacher took the electronic template and attempted to complete it using the guidelines in the draft handout. In parallel, the classroom teacher was also given copies of the template file and the draft handout and asked to do the project. The involvement of the classroom teacher, in addition to functioning as an additional “quality control” mechanism, helped ensure that the classroom teacher would be familiar with the overall project and both its content and skill requirements.

After both teachers completed their “assignments”, the final versions of the template and handout were completed. The classroom and computer teachers discussed how they would each be involved in assessing the project. It is critical that an integrated project be properly assessed on both its use of content and its use of technology skills.

The project materials were now ready.

Variations on the Theme

It is always helpful to have ideas about how a project can be extended or enriched. Within the bounds of the proposed final product, less preliminary work could have been incorporated into the template and more left to the students. In addition, different presentation structures, with different technology skill requirements, could be considered. The proposed product is organized sequentially following the chronology of the various periods. Alternatively, the project could have been organized as an interactive presentation, with the final version map serving as a main menu and clicks on various color patches hyperlinked to mini-presentations on the relevant period.

Summary and Conclusions

We have attempted to describe a process by which a real-life technology-integrated project was created. In doing so, we tried to convey the benefits that can be accrued from such projects as well as the issues that must be addressed in creating and implementing them. The students involved in this project produced outstanding works and displayed levels of excitement and enthusiasm about the topic that was beyond what would have been expected without the use of technology. Our hope is that this example will serve as a motivator for expanded efforts to integrate technology into Jewish studies.