I too have been following this thread with interest and very much enjoyed Dan Roth’s take on Technology for Jewish Education. I distinctly remember a moment a few years ago, when I was talking to a distinguished gathering of school educators about technology in schools, and a prominent, ultra orthodox rabbi raised his hand - I automatically assumed it was to actively voice opposition to the “technology“ word… but he emotively effused “Just as Rabbi Yehuda HaNassi knew he had to write down the Oral Torah for his generation and future ones, this is what needs to be done for our generationâ€.
It was a pivotal moment for me that I will always remember.
Russel Neiss started his eloquent and perceptive thoughts by stating that Ed Tech has been in the classroom for 100 years…. technically perhaps. I was coding 30 years ago on a BBC computer and managed to get it to say “Hello world†100 times in different colours.
But in reality, society has moved on. There are other things at play here… actual conclusive evidence that children’s brains are developing differently because of the advent of the digital age:
“The Internet was invented and children were thrust into a vastly different environment in which, because distraction is the norm, consistent attention is impossible, imagination is unnecessary, and memory is inhibited.†(www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-prime/201212/how-technology-is-changing-the-way-children-think-and-focus)
This is compounded with the fact that it is becoming more of a challenge to :
a) find suitably trained and effective Judaic teachers, who understand how to apply suitable teaching methods and pedagogy, not just teaching content.
b) afford to send your children to Jewish day schools at all
c) help your children with their Jewish studies as their knowledge and skills often surpass that of the parent.
I have a strong belief that if technology does not help do something better, then best leave it.
I believe there is nothing … emphasising NOTHING – that can replace an inspirational teacher.
That human interaction, is something children crave and need.
However, when technology can enable parents to help their children gain a skill they could never have accessed before, or engage children with excitement on a topic they otherwise would have rejected – this is too powerful to allude to as “bells and whistlesâ€. In my opinion these are tools that are actively shifting teaching and learning strategies and practice. And because of the world our children are in, if we want to truly excite them, they need to parallel snapchat, rival instagram and be on par with subway surfer. The bells and whistles are indeed a necessity.
Take Morah Milly Grade 4…. Who can assign differentiated courses of digital interactive work for her class to do in their own time at home. Even to student Jo, whose parents can’t read Hebrew.
She gets an instant score readout and can tell how long Jo spent on each lesson and what he was finding challenging. And Milly can make that crucial change on her lesson plan for tomorrow, so she can go over that challenging question that most kids in her grade didn’t understand.
This is using the technology particularly for effective differentiated instruction… and indeed I would argue, now we have these tools – to compare the personalization and differentiation of learning that can be achieved without these tools as opposed to with, is an area that must be meticulously measured and quantified.
Finally, I have to agree with Russell's comment about "eschewing thought pieces that present ed-tech as a binary "Good/Bad" decision" and implore schools to restrain viewing EdTech as black or white. In my humble experience, there is a great deal of grey.. and an array of beautiful technicolour.
Chana Kanzen
CEO
Jewish Interactive
www.jewishinteractive.org
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2017 07:53AM by mlb.
