darim online

It's the start of a new Religious School year and you want to do something to start the year with a bang. It would be good to find a way to help parents and children meet the teachers right away. And it's always nice to use new technology to show that the synagogue is moving with the times. These were some of the aims as we embarked on a new project at The Community Synagogue.

Over the past six months Matan, founded 12 years ago, launched the inaugural Matan Institutes for Jewish Educators.  In March, 18 Education Directors came together for two days of intense learning related to Jewish special education; in August, 40 congregational school teachers spent one day with Matan learning how to make their classrooms accessible to all learners. 

We are stepping through the threshold of a new age.  Connected, individually empowered, globalized, diverse and personalized.    The technologies of today are far more than digital communication tools – they are transforming society at an increasingly rapid rate, with important implications and opportunities for the Jewish community.

As a newly minted “Technology Integration Educator” in my community, I’m struggling with the definition of my job title.  What does the phrase “technology integration” really mean? How do we integrate technology?  I can’t help but wonder if, when the overhead projector, or the radio, or even the blackboard for that matter, were introduced into the world of education, taskforces and positions were created to explore how to “integrate” these new technologies.  I think not. 

Darim Online is thrilled to announce our 2012-2013 cohort for our Social Media Boot Camp for Educators. The Social Media Boot Camp for Educators is a year long experience for Jewish educators and Jewish educational organizations to help them advance their use of social media for marketing, communications, family engagement and curricular uses.  The program has been generously funded by the Covenant Foundation since 2008.

How to utilize social media, in today’s world of work, can be quite overwhelming to the average brain. Things have changed so rapidly with how we communicate, both in and outside of the workplace, that our brains are simply overwhelmed with new data. This rapid societal change has literally turned our work worlds upside down. Neuroscientists have found that the brain must go through four sequential steps, when trying to learn anything new, so it can properly transition itself to a higher functioning level.

The Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) hosts a phenomenal conference every year -- the NTC. Attracting professionals, and lay leaders, from organizations both big and small (actually humongous international orgs as well as tiny local operations), from executive directors to IT staff and program professionals, it is a cornucopia of ideas, tools, strategies and do-gooding-ness. I go because I value the exposure to the best, brightness and most creative people in the field.