My response to Bradley: It started with chalk….

Last Updated on Thursday, 27 January 2011 09:10 Written by bryfy Thursday, 27 January 2011 09:10

Dear Bradley,

The timing of this letter could not be more perfect, as I sit here finalizing my presentations for the Jewish Educators Assembly (JEA) of the Conservative Movement and National Association of Temple Educators (NATE) of the Reform Movement – both organizations have dedicated their conferences this year to Jewish Education and Technology. Is this focus on technology just a passing phase or does it signal a long-term strategic approach by the Jewish educational world?

I have tried to imagine what it would have been like as a teacher introducing chalk into the classroom for the first time. Consider what it must have felt like to be able to present the written word in front of an entire class for the first time. And then the amazement in the students eyes as you erased those words and replaced them with new, equally exciting equations. The first teacher to bring a radio into the classroom must have seemed really cool, and television, a VCR, a computer….the list truly does go on.

But as much as I wonder at what those teachers and students were going through it just isn’t the same as what is taking place now. As unbelievably radical as the technologies mentioned above seemed at the time – at their core the educational process, the transmission of knowledge from teacher to student, remained remarkably similar. Teacher, full of information filling the empty vessels that sat in the classroom.

I don’t want to over-sensationalize the situation, but the reality is that today’s technology has the power to change the entire educational paradigm – and in many instances it already is. Here I am not just speaking about the vastness of information that is now available to any user, or the speed at which they can access this information – although both are very important. But technology today is a game changer.

Like no other time in history today’s technologies allow the learner to become the educator, the consumer to become the producer, and the novice to become the expert. Despite claims our social interactions are diminishing, nothing could be further from the truth. People today are connected with more people than ever before, establishing communities with people they have never met, and finding common meaning and purpose with others from around the globe. And your example of the iPad has put us on a course to change the written word forever. Mark my word in not even a decade’s time our children will laugh at images of students lugging their backpacks full of textbooks to school.

For the Jewish educators out there perhaps two pieces of encouragement to help answer the questions that Bradley poses. The first is that many changes take place when the people who know what is really needed on the ground make their voices heard and demand better quality. Tell designers, publishers, companies, boards, lay people and anyone who will listen that you are not prepared to continue offering outdated education to your learners. With the amount of good will and resources available to us, there are very few reasons why the Jewish community should continue to lag behind the general world in this regard. And secondly, if you don’t know what you want or need – ask your learners. Ensure that you have youth planning your educational programs with you, designing your websites and blogs, sitting on your educational boards – having their voices heard. As Janusz Korczak said, “children are not the people of tomorrow, but are people of today.”

And despite all of this, at the end of the day, Bradley, you are 100% correct. Technology is only a tool. It is true that it represents many of the changes taking place in the world today – and in some instances might even be encouraging them and speeding them up. But at the end of the day, behind every piece of technology, there is still a human being creating, designing and implementing the gadget. The difference however might be, that technology is no longer what people do, it is who they are.

David