Eliezer Jones's Blog (41)

It is time for a Jewish Education Technology Conference?



This question was asked by Rabbi Tzvi Pittinsky, a respected educator, educational technologist and colleague. Here is the original post: http://bit.ly/GVKizC



This is an important question that has large implications for the field of Jewish education. However, first let me commend Rabbi Pittinsky and Rabbis Aaron Ross for putting this evening together. All the way from…

GoAnimate.com: 21st+Century+Skills by Eliezer Jones





Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

This is a GoAnimate video about a quote by Christine Meloni who stated that…

I have seen videos made by Google's Search Stories Video Creator and I thought I would try it out. Above is one that I made based on searches for what we do at the YU School Partnership. The video was pretty simple to create. You have seven fields to put in search terms and your choice of a web search, blog search, news, books, products, images and maps. I put in my name,…

As most of you probably know, Steve Jobs passed away yesterday at the young age of 56 from pancreatic cancer.

Steve was a visionary and not only revolutionized technology and computers, but as the mark of all good leaders, inspired others. No longer did you own a Mac or a…

Today I found a tweet question about Hebrew support for Microsoft Office 2011 for MAC. As a Mac and outlook user, the 2011 office suite update was a welcome one. However, when being announced last year it was stated that Hebrew would not be supported. The reasons had nothing to do with a lack of love for the chosen people, but rather a lack of support for Hebrew Unicode right-to-left (RTL). Hebrew, Arabic and Persian are not currently supported due this technical short-coming. There was a…

Every once in a while I like to take a step back and admire how far we have come in such a short time in reference to technology. I got my first computer for college and it had a whopping 1.3 gigabyte hard drive (I would not even buy a flash drive that small today). My current computer has 1 terabyte of space (1000 Gigabytes) with an external 2 terabyte hard drive attached. As technology expands so do storage needs.

It is impressive that we have been able to keep up with the…

If you did not know, YU 2.0 was created on the Ning social platform. I had spent months researching various platforms to create a community of practice. I actually began with Ning and then tried other platforms like Joomla, Elgg, Dolphin, Drupal Gardens and wordpress. They all had basically what I was looking for, with each having one advantage over the other. However, in the end, I came back to Ning for its ease of use and…

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about ebooks. Primarily I have been thinking about how they may be a cost cutter for schools in the future, while meeting the needs of today's learners. I began to wonder if backpacks will become a thing of the past? I have been reading on the iPad and the kindle and wondering which is better. I think the readability of the kindle is far superior to the iPad, but the additional applications of the iPad is far superior to the kindle. I certainly do…

If you did not catch this clip from the Daily show last week or find it being passed around your friends facebook page or twitter account, here it is. It is a very funny and engaging clip that can be used to trigger a conversation, project or just enhance a classroom lesson on such topics as Eruv, Jewish observance, Rabbinic law, Haterim versus loopholes, Shabbat, Orthodoxy, Anti-Semitism, Self-Hating Jews, Ahavat Yisroel (love for fellow Jews),…

I am excited to announce that YU 2.0 has procured an iPad 2 in the first wave of the product (had to stay up till 3am CST to buy online before they sold out) and will be posting about the iPad 2 and the many ways it can be used in the classroom. We will have a regular post on the best apps for…

This Saturday night begins another wonderful Purim and for many day schools that means a week filled with Purim party preparations, special programs and special lessons. For those of you who utilize video in your lessons, here are a few that you might enjoy.

1) This video is one that I edited for this weeks JTube on Jewlarious.com. It is from the show "No Ordinary Family" and this clip can be used to discuss the hidden aspect of G-d and the core message of…

I am a visual learner and when I stumbled upon mindmeister a while back I had found a friend. Mindmeister is an online mindmapping and brainstorming tool. I have used it to plan out websites, organizational charts and to create a list of Judaic websites, tools and resources. I have…

As this month has been designated as North American Inclusion Month (NAIM) by Yachad/the National Jewish Council for Disabilities (NJCD), I though I would share resources on assitive technologies. One of the greatest aspects of technology in the classroom is the way it can be used to reach a diverse population of students. A classroom is made of many types of learners and with the appropriate use of educational technology all can remain engaged. This includes those with different learning…

I came across this YouTube video on my friends Facebook page that just put into perspective how far technology has come in such a short time. This clip is from the Today Show in 1994 and a discussion about the internet gets started and confusion ensues. Enjoy!

Visit msnbc.com for…

This video below was posted a couple days ago on YouTube and has been making its way around the blogs. It is focused on higher education, but it certainly speaks to K-12 education.

I have been focused on this message for a while and have heard these ideas in different formats. However, it is an important message and the video does a great job of presenting us with how access to information and use of information has changed dramatically in recent years. For a while, I thought…

"Think Big. Think Bold. Think Ahead." This was the opening statement made at the Apple Learning Tour I attended today. This was meant to encapsulate how todays educators should be thinking, but certainly would be an appropriate Apple mantra.

We were all given iPads, MacBooks and iTouches to use throughout the day. With them we were introduced to the many educational apps and…