Computers in class

Can the iPad 2 change the face of education?

     When the first iPad came out in April 2010, it was marketed as a textbook/classroom tool for students. Almost a year later, however, it has not taken off in the classroom in the ways that Apple had planned. The launch of the iPad 2 this past weekend again restores those hopes with several new features and additions which hope to reignite those promises of revolutionizing the classroom.

Online Journals and Customized Content

Remember when you were young and kept a personal journal filled with stories and memories of your days? Just because penmanship skills are passé, it doesn’t mean that writing in a journal is. The journal has gotten a reboot, with penzu, a website that allows you to write a journal and include photos in it. Users can choose to keep their entries private, or share them with others.

Have Your Students Live A Double Life

Let your students explore the intrigue of living a double life by having them create their own avatar. Using this site, your students can create their own alter ego by customizing their avatar’s features, clothing, and background. Students can also add a voice to their avatar by recording their own commentary, or uploading text which the program will convert into audio.

Online Passwords: Headaches or Lifesavers?

     Have you ever had a friend who has unknowingly sent you some kind of spam through email and then had to spend hours or even days sending around more emails telling everyone not to open the previous message because their account was hacked? Sure, we all have. It may even have happened to you.

High Tech; Low Tech; No Tech

I love my digital toys.  I use at different times an iPhone, iPad, and laptop.  I’m going paperless at the office. I was an avid PC Magazine reader until it stopped publishing—ironically put out of business by the internet.  And so my eyes lit up when—reading the presentation schedule for an upcoming conference—I saw a session “Innovate or Die.”

Think you can't afford a smart board for your school?

     When I ask someone to tell me how much a smart board costs today, the most common answer I hear is in the range of $10,000. Did you know you can have all the features and functionality of smart board in your school for much less? Want to know how?

Maybe Not So Easy: Technology and the GA

The General Assembly. Biden. Netanyahu. 4,000 Jewish professionals and lay leaders. High trief food options. Kippot at Café du Monde and on Bourbon St. Where to start? Most notable for me: technology was everywhere. From Shalom Sesame and the engagement of pre-schoolers, to teen programs, to engaging with marginally affiliated Jews in small communities, technology is in everyone’s solution set.

My Rewired Brain

My brain is getting rewired.  I can feel it. I’ve been testing an iPad—the office bought two for evaluation purposes.  As part of my test, I’ve been doing my newspaper reading—the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal—on the iPad.  I try to the papers (why do I call them “papers”?) before work, and then catch up on parts I missed when I get home.  (And, sometimes I skip the arts section, not to mention sports.) So how’s it going?  It’s changing the way I read the paper.  Here’s how:

From Normal to New Normal

I received an excited phone call last November from an East Coast religious school.   The educational team was almost breathless.  Construction had displaced school for a year and they had to reduce Hebrew instruction to one day per week.

Are They Paying Attention to Us?

Terry Kaye was in Los Angeles last week, in part to present to the Principals’ Council retreat organized by Janice Tytell.  She reports that for the first time at one of these sessions, many of the participants were on laptops and handheld devices throughout the session, taking notes and looking real-time at the websites and other digital resources she was referring to in her talk.

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