This is a blog was originally intended to draw interest for a project to revolutionize Jewish day school education by having educators and professionals from around the world collaborate to improve the current state of curriculum available to Jewish day school students.
In time is has become my own personal blog.
One year ago I wrote my last blog posting (yeah I don't blog too often) where I outlined my need for "Smartphone Independence". Basically, I felt the smartphone was overtaking my life, tugging at me every few seconds to check email updates (which often were not there), Tweets from Twitter, games etc. Any time I was bored for a few seconds, out came the phone. Sit down to the table with the family and out comes the phone. Not good.
On the other hand, there were some smartphone features I still wanted. I
did want a handy phone, GPS, camera and video camera all rolled
into one. Hey, I still even wanted email access. I just did not want the thing taking over my life.
The Solution
The solution was simply to lock all the elements on my phone I no longer wanted with an app called APP Lock. I outlined the details of the problem and solution in the previous post.
First Year Update - How did it go?
One year later, I am happy to report that I honestly feel this was one of the best moves I have ever made in my life. I still have my smartphone, it still takes me where I need to go, it still takes pictures, but most importantly, I control the smartphone - the smartphone does not control me.
I have found that I can get updates from Twitter on my desktop by checking in a couple times a day. Nobody died while waiting to hear from me. When I sit down for dinner I don't pull out my phone (there is nothing new there really). Maybe I check for emails a little too often, but it is not out of hand.
The only time I modified the limitations was during Hurricane Sandy, when we were out of power for a week. I had my wife unlock Twitter so that we could get updates from PSEG (our electric company) and to find places that actually had gas. It was very useful. However, after that back to lock up mode.
I realize that not everyone feels the same way as I do about the smartphone, however if you think you need some "smartphone modification", by all means, go for it. You will feel better you did.
Yesterday was July 4th and I finally decided to reclaim some control over my life. I love technology and think it can be very useful, however, I also firmly believe technology needs to work for you and not the other way around. As such, I would like share with you what led me to declare "Independence" from my smartphone yesterday. I'm not giving it up totally, instead I'm committed to making it work for me instead of the other way around.
The Itch
At first, like many others I found the smartphone truly amazing. In one piece of hardware, I got the world at my fingertips. However, in time I realized there is a hidden cost to all of this. For me, anytime a moment of boredom would set in, I would find myself getting "an itch" to check my phone. At first I did not realize it, but in time videos such as the one below made me realize that I was almost acting like some of the characters in them (you try to figure out which ones):
Obviously, I am not alone. Despite the fact I kept on promising myself to cut back, it was just not happening. I know that getting rid of the phone entirely is not realistic for me and wondered what to do next. I stepped back and asked myself what exactly do I really need on this phone? Do I really need Twitter on my phone when I can access it on my desktop? Do I really need all the Fritterware games with me 24/6? Must I get news updates every few minutes on my cell phone browser? For me, the answer to these questions was a resounding "no". I like the phone, camera, camcorder, GPS and email checker all rolled up into one. However, there certainly were elements of the phone that were becoming more trouble than they were worth.
Getting Drastic
I realize that for some people a mere commitment to limit their smartphone use is probably sufficient. However, knowing myself and "the itch", I realized a mere commitment would not work long term. Thus, I decided to do something a little more drastic. I would kill off all the extras on my phone.
Gaining Control Over the Smartphone -
How does one kill off all the extras? First, I uninstalled all of the apps I did not want on my phone anymore including Tweetdeck and the ever so compelling Angry Birds. I also made sure that whatever apps I wanted, were installed on my phone (like my awesome flashlight app). Then, considering I have an Android phone I went to the Android marketplace and got a free app called APP Lock which is simply an app that can block access to any app and requires a password to get around it. (I imagine there are similar things for the Iphone and Blackberry but since I don't own any of those devices I did not check or do any research.) With APP Lock I was easily able to put a block on any of the system apps that cannot be uninstalled such as the stock browser. I also made sure APP Lock blocked access to the "settings" menu on my phone and access to the Android Marketplace. This insured I could not install new apps on my phone (except by using Android Marketplace on my desktop) and nor could I uninstall the APP Lock app itself. Then I asked my wife to set up the passcode and security question without telling me what it is. There I was done. Thus, right now my phone cannot be used for browsing, Twitter, games etc. All I use my phone for is for email, texting, GPS, camera, camcorder and oh yeah make phone calls.
Is it enough or too much?
Now, some of you might find this a little over the top and some of you might say I did not go far enough. First of all, I did not get rid of email and texting which can be distracting. Also, what I did is also not totally foolproof because theoretically I can still go to the Android Market via my computer and install any app I want onto my phone from there and it would not be blocked. Thus, for example, I can install a new browser and it won't be blocked. The only way to prevent access to Marketplace from my desktop would be to reset the phone and link the whole phone to someone else's Google account. For myself, I don't feel that to be necessary right now. Others might say, isn't that a little over the top? I get that. However, the nice thing about this is, it is a personal thing. Decide what works best for you. For myself, nobody is forcing me to do any of this.
Do I now have a kosher smartphone?
As I was setting this personalized version of my smartphone, I realized this might be a feasible way of making a smartphone "kosher" or least "semi-kosher" depending on what is allowed and what your definition of kosher is. For example, to protect a phone from being used to view inappropriate images, the phone should be linked to another person's Google account and that other person should apply the APP Lock blocks to any app on the smartphone that can display images. The other person should check the user's phone from time to time to see what apps are on it and make sure their password still works. It might not work for all, but it certainly can work for some.
Independence
In any event, getting back to my smartphone. I must say, after doing the aforementioned procedure, I immediately began to feel like old self again. I had effectively gotten rid of the "itch". I was INDEPENDENT again. After all, there is no point in being busy with your smartphone if there is nothing there. No Twitter, no news, no games etc. I still have a phone, GPS, camera, camcorder, texting and email which is nice and if I find those too distracting, I can adjust that further as need be. Hopefully, I will update you folks in a year from now as America once again celebrates INDEPENDENCE DAY and let you know how it went.
In conclusion, I would like to thank all those who helped raise awareness about this issue. Including the daytodisconnect initiative which took place this past year, to Lipa for his great video and to the organizers of the #asifa for inspiring me to think about this issue at my own personal level. Thanks to all!
On July 11, 2011 nine year old Leiby Kletzky went missing in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn, NY. A massive search effort was organized to find him, but less than 48 hours later Leiby was found murdered. From a communications standpoint, one of the interesting things about this event was the way it played out on Twitter. Within hours, hundreds of people had authored thousands of tweets related to the missing boy. This communication was possible because people used the #bpboy hashtag in their tweets. This hashtag was used to share news about the latest developments in the case, help coordinate search and rescue efforts, inform people about funeral arrangements and it gave people a platform from which they could express their condolences, shock and anger.
The #bpboy hashtag came to my attention on July 12, at about 2:00 PM. I noticed that about 350 tweets had already been created with the #bpboy hashtag so I created a Twitter archive for all future tweets that would use the #bpboy hashtag. In less than twelve hours there were thousands of tweets. You can view the archive here and some interesting stats here.
I think there are a number of lessons to take away from this story:
1) The power of Twitter within the Jewish community. It is clear that many Jews are using Twitter as a communication tool. Even ultra-Orthodox Jews in Boro Park.
2) It is possible to create a real sense of community on Twitter. There were so many tweets from concerned people who wanted to help or express themselves it was just amazing to see.
The question them becomes, could Twitter have been an even more powerful tool within this community? For example, it took about 9 hours from when the boy went missing until a hashtag was created and another 12-14 for the hashtag to take off. Put another way, it took almost 24 hours for this Twitter community to be created and for them to find each other. Looking to the future, could Twitter be used in such a way that it might prevent another tragedy?
I think it can. For starters, Twitter could have been used to alert people much earlier that the boy was missing. Time was crucial here. By the time authorities were notified, the kidnapping had already taken place. In general, the sooner the right information gets out, the better the chances of recovery. Imagine if as soon as the boy was reported missing every cell phone within the community received an urgent bulletin with a picture of the boy attached explaining to look out for him? The speed in which a large group of people could be reached would be of tremendous value.
Second, Twitter could also be used to guide the rescue efforts more efficiently by tweeting where help is needed or what resources are lacking. Some of this was done, but to best of my knowledge there was no communication with the community at large to check Twitter if they can. For example, Hatzolah and Shomrim both tweeted during the event but to the best of my knowledge no announcement was made that their tweets could be followed on Twitter. How were people to know? If these organizations would have relayed that information, people might have been out in the field instead of trying to figure out if and where their help was needed. It would have relieved stress from overburdened command centers.
Third, a lot of rumors or misinformation could have been posted on Twitter as well. If people would know to follow certain people or lists, the spread of misinformation could be prevented. Imagine if somebody would have tweeted a rumor the boy was found and everyone could go home. It could have been a disaster. Having clear and reliable information made available could go a long way towards preventing rumor mongering.
The bottom line is, Twitter can be an effective communication tool particularly in times of emergency, we need to tweak it to perfection!
I am particularity interested in using Twitter as a platform for communication within the Jewish community as such I have created a mock website to explain my vision. If you could leave some feedback about this article or the website which is called TweetingJews.com I would love to hear from you! (Please realize at this point the website is only projecting a very general idea.)
Quick, what dos Mozilla Firefox, Linux, Moodle, Openoffice.org. Audacity and Filezilla all have in common? Answer: They are all examples of great open source software available for free on the web. In general, open source products are developed by people around the globe who contribute their time and expertise to develop a product which is then made available for free to the public at large.
Recently there has been some discussion about exploring an open source model for Jewish education. It sounds idealistic, everybody chipping in their little part, the question is - how practical is such an idea?
As someone who has actually tried to organize an open source project or two for Jewish education, I would like to share what I learned from these experiences and what I see the challenges to be.
One particular project I tried to launch revolved around developing some Judaic Studies curricular materials. (I have blogged about it here in the past.) My thought was to start with something small that educators can collaborate on over the summer. I thought the free time in the summer and the limited materials that needed to be covered would make be a good first candidate for an open source project. However, sadly enough the project never got off the ground. I will be the first to admit that I was probably the source of the problem, however there are some lessons I took away from this. I view these as challenges which need to be overcome in the future.
Challenge #1 Are Jewish educators even online?
The first step in any open source project is finding like minded people willing to contribute their time and expertise. Where does one find such people? Techies use the internet to find each other. Where do you find other Jewish educators online? I posted invitations on Lookjed, I created a Facebook group...I even tried faxing an invitation to all schools in the Lookjed directory. However, at the end of the day, I question what percentage of Jewish educators were even aware of such a project. Many Jewish educators have ideological opposition to using the internet at home. If you can't find a big enough pool of contributors your project is almost dead in the water unless it is very small and specific. Although I thought my project was small and specific, obviously it wasn't small and specific enough.
Challenge # 2 Do educators have the time and technological expertise?
Even if we can find Jewish educators online, how many of them feel comfortable using technology collaborating tools? It is one thing for people who make their living as developers to use technology to connect and collaborate on the development of software, but can you ask them same of educators? Put another way, asking techies to use tech is somewhat different than asking non techies to use tech. Do we have any good examples of successful open source educational curricular projects out there on a national level? There is talk of open source textbooks, Wikipedia might be a close example but they are not exactly the same. I have seen some attempts for Jewish educators to get together on a wiki, but I am unaware of any great results in terms of team collaboration and project successes. With time the tools will presumably get easier to use, but the steep learning curve for contributors remains a challenge.
Another related thing to consider, is the time factor. While the average software developer probably makes a decent salary and most likely has a small family as the average American does, those involved in Jewish education are often making a minimal salary and work two jobs to support a larger than average family. That does not leave a lot of free time to dedicate to projects. Some of us are a little crazy, but the majority are not. Working on a project requires dedication and at a certain point one needs to ask themselves why am I doing all this work for free?
Challenge # 3 Who is leading and/or sponsoring the project?
Speaking of free, when you read about most of the successful open source projects you will notice two things they have in common. The first is, they are almost all led by a group at the top who are dedicated to the project on a nearly full time basis. Second, these people at the top are usually SPONSORED in some way. They are not working for free.
For example: Openoffice.org is supported by Sun Microsystems, presumably because they want to chip away at Microsoft. Moodle headquarters is supported by hosting services who use the Moodle trademark and contribute a portion of their profits to the head team. Linux developers make their money by offering support. Sourgeforge.net which hosts open source projects for free makes money by selling their platform software to businesses. Even Wikipedia has its own foundation and can easily make money by advertising. The point is, very few large projects are developed wholly by people with altruistic intentions. Filezilla was started as class project and released as open source because the developers didn't think anybody would pay money for it with so many commercial options available. Audacity is about the only project I know of that does not have a steady source of funding other than donations. It is a small project to be sure.
Thus, I think even if open source were to be used in Jewish education, at least the core team would need to be sponsored in some sort of manner and given organizational support. Sponsoring a core group would most likely get a project off the ground to the point where a greater mass of contributors can join at a later time and be guided to what their role can be.
I don't want to sound pessimistic or be the naysayer who says it can't be done, but until I see a successful open source Jewish educational project I remain unconvinced about the viability of using open source to solve Jewish educational needs. I know for example, the Jim Joseph Foundation made a grant to 14 fellows to build online communities of practice, I am curious where that will lead to after two years of training.
PS I don't consider the various lesson planning sites such as chinuch.org or SJED as examples of successful open source models. For the most part these are sites where users just contribute lesson plans they created. There is no collaboration between contributers and the result is a jumble of lessons with hardly any rhyme, reason or methodology to it.
Wow, I can't believe it is almost a year since my last postings...however writing is a serious commitment and time is short.
In any event, the question for today is, would you like to take part in an online discussion on the subject of curriculum development?
Some Background
My feelings on the lack of curricular materials available for Jewish day school are known. Just read my postings from a year ago. In brief, curriculum development is an area that seems to have received little attention in Jewish day school education. With schools struggling to stay afloat and support staff, very little resources remain for curriculum development. While there have been some notable gains in this area over the years, for the most part Judaic Studies students have been suffering due to a lack of professionally developed resources.
For example, there has been much discussion about the "Illiteracy Epidemic" - the phenomenon that many day school students cannot independently read a posuk of Chumash after twelve years of day school education. Some have suggested that a lack of educational standards and organized curriculum is at least partially to blame. After all, there is no objective way of measuring student achievement nor are there resources that can effectively develop our students understanding of Judaic Studies text in a methodological manner. Contrast this to what students have in secular studies where textbooks are developed by teams of professionals and based on the latest educational research. Our students simply lose out from walking around with photocopied sheets developed by an overworked educator not specifically trained in the field of curriculum development.
Recent innovations in digital technology are giving us access to more tools than ever (e.g. Smartboards or other forms of computer based instruction), however this too is essentially an exercise in curriculum development. Educational opportunities are simply being missed due to a lack of methodologically developed resources. (Could you imagine a Judaic Studies curriculum supported by an innovative textbook, an accompanying professionally designed Smartboard lesson and opportunities for individual online review?)
To be sure, the obstacles are many. Costs. Who would pay for upfront development costs? Is the market too small and fragmented? Are there organizations that can help in this area? What opportunities are there for combining resources? Are there other models that can be used to develop effective curriculum? Are there resources not widely known about? These are some questions that deserve consideration.
Recent Developments
The immediate reason for this posting is due to a recent development. The latest edition of Jewish Action magazine was devoted to the subject of "chinuch". One of the recurring themes in the articles was the need for new efforts in the field of curriculum development. To be brief, I posted my thoughts about this subject on LookJed and suggested it was time for educators to get together and brainstorm ways of improving this situation. The moderators of LookJed were kind enough to offer their assistance in hosting a web conference (after Pesach) and joining in the discussion - if there is enough interest.
Thus, if curriculum development is a subject that interests you, it is important that you let me know and I would be happy to keep you updated. Even better would be if you would post your thoughts about curriculum development on LookJed as well. Personally, I would like to see a conference that can be archived and discussion continued in an online forum so that everyone's thoughts can be heard. The thoughts expressed can be organized in a final document which can be used as a blueprint for future planning. If we garner enough interest we are hopefully bound to get someone's attention. Thus, no matter where you stand on the subject your thoughts are important and will be heard.
Thank you for interest and please forward this information to someone who would be interested in such a session as well. Feel free to distribute it at work as well.
In this blog I'd like to lay out my vision as to how we might go about creating an open source curriculum. As always, I would love to hear alternate viewpoints or what you like about this plan.
For starters, I think it would be best to start small. Although the ultimate goal is to develop a Chumash curriculum which would develop literacy skills, that project would presumably be complex in nature. As such, it might be best to start with something simpler in order to work out any bumps in the system. I would suggest starting with a Dinim curriculum mainly revolving around the chagim. It could be a curriculum for one chag at one grade level or it could be a curriculum for all chagim at all grade levels depending on the amount of participants. If we can do this successfully, we can then consider moving on to Chumash or other areas.
Ideally, I envision groups of educators organized by grade level with each group being led by a master educator who would facilitate. Thus, suppose you are a fourth grade teacher, you would join the fourth grade group. If you were an eight grade teacher you would join the eight grade group. This way you can target you curriculum development towards an audience you know well and can experiment with. Also, you might be able to glean insights from other participants that might help you in your own classroom teaching at your grade level.
Stage One:
Stage one would be to research what existing curriculum is out there already. No need to reinvent the wheel. Perhaps there is an already suitable set of standards out there. Even if a perfectly suitable curriculum does not exists, any existing curriculum would provide a nice reference point. Also, whenever you develop curriculum you want to make sure schools will find it suitable. Thus, in stage one (or even prior to it), I would ask schools if they would mind faxing or emailing a detailed dinim curriculum if they have one. After looking at what is available, we could break down the topics according to grade level.
Stage Two
Educators at each grade level determine if the aforementioned topics are appropriate for their grade level. Are some topics missing? Should some topics be deleted?
After the topics are selected, next comes the task of defining the actual standards associated with each topic. For example, if one topic is "Chodesh Elul", then subtopics would describe what we want students to know about the month of Elul including any skills or values we would like them to acquire. Thus, an appropriate standard might be "students will know what the word Elul stands for" (Ani L'dodi etc). Although now is now is not the time to go into detail as to how standards are selected and developed, basically each topic is examined and the question is asked, what do students need to know about this topic? What skills should they acquire when learning this topic? What values should they acquire?
Stage Three
After identifying standards, assessments are created. Although it might seem counter intuitive to create an assessment prior to creating the actual lesson, nonetheless creating the assessment before the actuall lesson ensures that the assessment targets the actual standards. It also brings into focus the learning opportunities that need to be provided in order to ensure that students can master the assessment and ultimately the selected standards. It should be pointed out that assessments need not be quizzes or standard "spit back" questions. For example, an assessment could mean students make a project of some sort, write a paper etc. As assessment is just a way for a teacher to receive feedback as to whether or not his or her students understand what was being taught.
Stage Four
Create the actual curricular materials. The materials will be aligned to the standards and initially will be created for print. Once print materials are in place the task of designing a digital curriculum to support the written curriculum could also be developed e.g. Smartboard lessons, PowerPoints, webcourses, videos etc. The goal would be to produce materials which are engaging and educational. Ideally, we should try to move up the ladder on Bloom's taxanomy when possible.
Obviously, the success of such a project hinges on having a community of collaborators. Without that we don't get anywhere. How to develop this community is a good question which will need to be explored.
Again, this is just my vision of how things might be run. If you disagree or have other ways of improving on what I wrote, please feel free to express your thoughts.
This is my first entry into the blogoshpere world. I never imagined myself sitting down to write a blog because first of all, who would read it? Second, in my educational training I was taught to avoid "frontal teaching" methodologies when at all possible. On the surface blogging would appear to be the most frontal teaching method ever invented. However, in time I hope this platform will evolve into a forum of collaboration as opposed to a platform in isolation.
The Problem
The problem I wish to address is the lack of professionally developed curricular materials which are available in the field of Jewish day school education. If you look inside the knapsack of the average day school student, you will probably find a slew of photocopied sheets flying about in every direction. Hmm. Underneath those sheets you will probably find a professionally designed science book, social studies book etc. Even if you do find a commercial Judaic Studies workbook of some sort, how does it compare in professional terms to the science or math book? Needless to say, the materials created for secular studies subjects have huge amounts of resources which go into their professional development which make them enticing, engaging and effective. The same can't be said for photocopied sheets or a workbook made by a teacher working on a project in his or her spare time.
Why is this important? For starters, don't we want our students to have a strong desire to learn Torah? Today's student is surrounded by so much professionally developed media, that to them these sheets must seem to have been printed before the flood. Wouldn't Torah be that much more desirable if it were visually appealing as well?
More importantly however, the lack of professionally developed materials really impairs the ability of our students to comprehend Torah. This is because our day school system is relying on a system of instruction which has practically no methodology to it. To explain, the average Jewish day school teacher is told when hired to "teach x perakim of sefer y" over the course of the year. There is no guidance as to which skills should be focused on, which vocabulary words should be stressed, how do the skills taught in fourth grade build on what was taught in third grade etc? In effect teachers are toiling to teach without any methodology or professionally developed material to work with. This leads to confusion on the part of the student as well. Everything just seems so random and confusing.
This is the problem I would like to address. How can we go about creating a professionally developed system to guide teachers and students alike which will be creative, engaging and enticing? How can we develop a system which will help our students acquire the skills they so desperately need to read our cherished texts? I don't mean to limit this to printed materials. Can we create digital media which will enhance student skills and understanding?
I have some ideas which I hope to outlay in the future, however most of all I would love to hear from others. Feel free to comment below and if this sounds like a project you actively wished to involved with, please join my Facebook group so we can connect and do some real collaboration. Is anybody out there?
I am a classroom educator at the Jewish Foundation School in Staten Island, NY and run my own website http://www.torahskills.org.
In addition, I am pursuing a Master's in Education with a specialty in Curriculum and Educational Technology.
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