EdJEWcon inspired me to take my first steps. I just spent the past 3 days learning with and from an incredible group of educators and the way I think about and use technology for teaching and learning will never be the same.

Heidi Hayes Jacobs points out that we have 21st century students learning 20th century curriculum in 19th century school versions. The task is overwhelming – with so many significant issues facing our schools, do we now really have to think about upgrading and doing it NOW? Leaving Jacksonville, the answer I took away is YES! Otherwise, the learners will not engage – it will not be in their language and in their context. It will not be relevant to the learner. As a Jewish educational leader working in a communal setting I left the conference with many questions both for myself – how do I begin to use and model these very tools? – and for the community I serve – how do I collaborate with a ‘coalition of the willing’, the early adopters, to impress upon our colleagues and communal leaders that we have no choice but to move into the 21st Century – into NOW? Too much is at stake for us not to take these steps, the world is changing faster than ever before.

Heidi also points out that the new pedagogy is “self-navigation” with the teacher as coach and co-learner with the student. If that’s the case, then we need educators who have the appropriate skills and attitudes to support students in navigating through their learning. This has significant implications for how we prepare, induct, and support teachers in their practice.

This is my first blog post and as I ask myself – why now? (besides the fact that Andrea, Silvia and Jon asked us to try it), I think about something a dear friend often points out to me, which is that I like to talk things out to process my ideas. I learned this week that blogging and tweeting are the “new” forms of communication that expand our world – that make it global…I am following Angela Maiers’ encouragement when she told us all “you are a genius and the world demands your contribution.” As I take these first steps into expanding my learning in this way, I wonder how many of our learners would flourish if they received the same message and had the tools with which to do so as part of their daily learning environment?

My mind is a Twitter.  I’m all Blogged out.  And I can’t spend anymore time in the Apple App store.  I’m uncomfortable, in brain pain, and petrified of what I don’t know.  And I couldn’t be more excited or invigorated about it.

The last 2 ½ days at EdJewCon 5772.0 were some of the best and most inspiring days I have spent thinking about what Jewish education can be in the coming decades.  (I am intentionally NOT using” in the 21st century” as I have come to be uncomfortable with the term, thanks to all of you  :) ) I am thinking about my responsibility in making this a reality.  After all, I matter, Angela Maiers reminded me.  I keep thinking about what an incredible paradigm shift and reallocation of resources on a communal level would be needed to quickly upgrade and realign what we do, how we do it, and re-focusing on why we do things the way we do.  We talk about Jewish continuity and Jon Woocher suggested that maybe “continuity” isn’t our agenda anymore.  But even if it is, we can’t continue in the way we are approaching Jewish learning and community engagement.  We will leave the learner behind.  And therefore we leave the Jews behind. Our tradition and text can come alive even more if we use technology and current learning tools to enliven and inspire interest in the rich, complex, and meaningful tradition that we are responsible for.

Heidi Hayes Jacobs spoke of the 5 C’s necessary for curriculum and learning to be relevant and current to our learners.  Learning must involve communication, connection, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking.  The content that Jewish education brings to the table is the perfect match.  Inherent in our tradition and our text is communication, connection, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking.  The Talmud and the Commentaries are one long conversation and communication between thinkers, scholars, generations, and societies.  Critical thinking is innate, it is part of the Jewish DNA.

The past few days, learning with Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Angela Maiers, Silvia Tolisano, Jon Mitzmacher, and Andrea Hernandez have inspired me to think deeply about what it means to alter our Jewish educational system.  What do I, as a community Jewish educator, who sits every day in the 3rd largest Jewish community in the United States need to do to get community leaders, funders, parents, educators, and community professionals to understand that this is not a choice.  This is an imperative.  We can’t sit in our 20th century structures, with our 20th century institutional boundaries, and our 20th century learning tools and expect the residents of the 21st century to be inspired by what we offer them.

The opportunity to connect and communicate with the Jewish community on a global level has never been easier.  Israel and Jewish communities around the world don’t need to be distant relatives and others, they can be members of our Jewish communities, working together to do what we as a people are commanded to do, be a light unto the nations and spend our days L’taken Olam.

As uncomfortable and unsure of next my next steps as I am,  I am inspired and motivated to keep thinking, trying to make sense of the Twitter feed in my head, the Twitter feed on my phone, and the conversations both in person and online that I have entered into, in order to figure out our next steps.  Heidi Hayes Jacobs consistently challenged us to think about teaching and learning in a new way.  She modeled ways in which content and curriculum and engagement can come alive in ways it never could before.  We have the choice to make learning relevant, or not.  We can choose not to, but why? And at what expense?

So thank you Edjewcon5772.0.  I will be tossing and turning, my brain will not be sleeping, I will be feeling growing pains, and I will be continually uncomfortable.  Mission accomplished.  Because OR NOT is not an option.

Today we were treated to a tour de force tour by Heidi Hayes Jacobs of the incredible cornucopia of applications and websites that educators can turn to in order to enrich and update the learning  they offer their students.  True, absent a sound educational purpose and plan, they won’t necessarily produce worthwhile learning.  But I have to confess that I was dazzled by the sheer variety, sophistication, and imaginativeness of what is available today. It requires real work on the part of teachers to learn how to use these tools effectively, more, I suspect, than planning a “conventional” lesson.  But, I’m now a believer that it’s worth it, and fortunately, I suspect that teachers can help from their students!

Still, we need to think seriously about how we’re going to provide teachers with a real chance to become adept at weaving these tools into their teaching.  A conference like this is a great start, but it will take a lot more for Jewish education to seize the possibilities now awaiting it.

The first sessions of edJEWcon have me thinking about the relationship of tools and tasks.  In her opening presentation, SIlvia Tolisano rightly noted that what is critical is the task we’re trying to do (getting a hole in the right place) not the tool we use to do that (the drill).  So, the key question we have to be asking as we consider all of the new digital tools and techniques available to us is: toward what end?

In a way, it’s a shame that we jumped right into the technology tools without having had a chance to really dig into what “21st century learning” is all about – not to mention what “21st century Jewish learning” should be.  Still, even at this early point in the conference a few ideas have emerged that seem worth thinking about.  One is that 21st century learning is about cultivating a set of learning skills and competences that are needed to thrive in the contemporary world, and, presumably, in the (near) future.  The list of the five “C’s” presented here – create, connect, communicate, collaborate, and critical thinking – and a sixth suggested on Twitter – curiosity – do constitute an implicit set of values not just for how we ought to learn, but how we need to live in our rapidly changing world.  Widening the scope of literacy to embrace an ability to make meaning of and with a wider range of media also implies a particular stance toward the world that is open and expansive, rather than parochial and narrow.

To the extent that today’s digital tools not only support, but in a sense demand this kind of learning, they are more than merely technical vehicles.  They are part of a process, as Silvia noted, of rethinking learning itself – its purposes, and not just its pedagogies.

Still, I think we need to go even farther, and hope that we will tomorrow.  By helping us to create, connect, communicate, and collaborate more extensively and effectively, by encouraging us to be curious and to think critically, 21st century learning is opening a pathway to re-envisioning the Jewish community of the 21st century.  If we can couple both the tools and the tasks being explored at this conference with the renewed sense of social and spiritual purpose now emerging as the central theme in today’s efforts to engage younger Jews and revitalize Jewish life, we will have a potent formula for reinventing Jewish education writ large.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s sessions to see where the discussions here go.

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