Presentation for NATE 2011 in Seattle.

1. Bringing MachshavahtoMachshevim A Mindful Approach to Technologyin Jewish Education

2. Where We’re Going http://www.flickr.com/photos/petrilli/524469845/

3. תְּרוּמָה

4. Why Technology in Jewish Education?

5. Four Central Arguments forTechnology in Education

6. Digital Natives :

7. There are also no such things as “digital natives.” http://www.flickr.com/photos/45688888@N08/4191381737/

8. Just because many of today’s youth are growing up in a society dripping with technology does not mean that they inherently know how to use it.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/2959807121/

9. Understanding technology requires learning. danahboyd, “It is easy to fall in love with technology…” http://wp.nmc.org/future/ideas/danah-boyd/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/center_for_jewish_history/4423194804/

10. Efficiency :

11. For the first time in history, the human mind is a direct productive force, not just a decisive element of the production system… http://www.flickr.com/photos/24293932@N00/3232437082/

12. Thus, computers (and) communications systems… are all amplifiers and extensions of the human mind.

13. What we think, and how we think, become expressed in goods, services, material and intellectual output… Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society, p.31 http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcmaster/4687461168/

14. Endless Possibilities :

16. the more we learn to conform to the available choices, the more predictable and machine-like we become ourselves. http://www.flickr.com/photos/thorinside/224186451/

17. We train ourselves to stay between the lines, like an image dragged onto a “snap-to" grid: it never stays quite where we put it, but jerks up and over to the closest available place on the predetermined map. http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefanobe/2536181741/

18. Likewise, through our series of choices about the news we read, feeds to which we subscribe, and websites we visit, we create a choice filter around ourselves. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nittpick/3739987200/

19. Friends and feeds we may have chosen arbitrarily or because we were forced in the past, soon become the markers through which our programs and search engines choose what to show us next.

20. 10101010101010101010101010101010 101010101010101010101010101010101 1010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010 101010101010101010101010101010101 101010101010101010101010101010101 10101010101010101010101010101010 10101010101010101010101010101010 1010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010 Our choices narrow our world, as the infinity of possibility is lost in the translation to binary code. Douglas Rushkoff, Program or be Programmed, http://www.boingboing.net/2010/09/27/program-or-be-progra.html

21. Just-So_ Stories :

22. “Just-So” Stories The just-so account supposes that change has to happen in just a certain way, each step leading implacably to the next; the maker could do and think no other… http://www.flickr.com/photos/contemporaryjewishmuseum/4906104286/

23. This just-so explanation is entirely retrospective in character.

24. Looking back in time… it appears perfectly logical that the free-spinning wheel would cause a change from rope coiling to drawing up a pot, but how could the person who first replaced his or her gourd with a stone know what we know? http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2553825128/

25. Perhaps the potter was puzzled, perhaps exhilarated—which are more engaged states of consciousness than “it had to happen just like this.” Richard Sennett, The Craftsman, p. 122

26. To use technology or not to use technology… Sink or Swim? Missing the Boat? Us vs. Them? http://www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/2649932391/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalmaritimemuseum/3837184514/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/taylorhood/59867611/ …should not be the question. http://www.flickr.com/photos/purplemattfish/3141017889/

27. MacDonald & Shirley, 2009

28. Recognizing Opportunities andAccepting Complexity

29. Allowing Emotional Longingsand Aspirations

30. Pausing andTaking an Inner Account http://www.flickr.com/photos/astroguy/2453830302/

31. Deep and Thorough Understanding http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2548928970/

32. Ethical Conviction and Action

33. Skillful Blending

34. Educators and Communities http://www.flickr.com/photos/kubina/471164507/

35. What We Do With Today’s Technology

36. What We Do With Today’s TechnologyIn Education

37. WebQuests http://www.zunal.com/

38. WebQuests “A webquest is an assignment which asks students to use the World Wide Web to learn about and/or synthesize their knowledge (of) a specific topic.” Source: http://www.teachersfirst.com/summer/webquest/quest-b.shtml

39. WebQuests

40. Museum Box http://museumbox.e2bn.org/

41. VoiceThread

42. http://www.flickr.com/photos/gerardmontigny/144109317/

43. VoiceThread

44. Rejecting technological determinism should be a mantra in our professional conversations. http://www.flickr.com/photos/runran/3357279334/

45. It’s really easy to get in the habit of seeing a new shiny piece of technology and just assume that we can dump it into an educational setting and !voila! miracles will happen. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kansasphoto/2917436006/

46. Yet, we also know that the field of dreams is merely that, a dream. http://www.flickr.com/photos/werkunz/3599784525/

47. Dumping laptops into a classroom does no good if a teacher doesn’t know how to leverage the technology for educational purposes. Building virtual worlds serves no educational purpose without curricula that connects a lesson plan with the affordances of the technology. danahboyd, “It is easy to fall in love with technology…” http://wp.nmc.org/future/ideas/danah-boyd/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_beaver/4343206061/

49. Thank You Jeremy Price Doctoral Candidate Technology and Science Education pricejn@bc.edu http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenosaur/4051305996/ http://bit.ly/nate-jfp