This document discusses integrating social media and technology into Jewish educational programming for teens. It argues that teens are more comfortable sharing their thoughts online than in person, so Jewish educators should meet them on the platforms they already use. The document proposes using Tumblr, Wordle, and SlideShare to allow teens to engage in online conversations, express ideas visually, and share presentations virtually. This would make Jewish learning more accessible and in the language teens are fluent in.

1. Leeba Morse
Theory and Practice
Final Problem of Practice
“…to be effective Jewish educators, we need to learn to speak and become fluent in the
language of our children.” (Digital Wrestling)
Teens today are much more comfortable using social media to share their thoughts and feelings
rather than their words. BBYO programming currently doesn’t include virtual interfacing. We
should be meeting them where we are and incorporating their platforms for interaction into
our lesson planning. How can we use social media the teens are already using for educational
purposes?

2. Literary Support
“Our children are using social media to accomplish the eternal goals of adolescent
development, which include socializing with peers, investigating the world, trying on identities
and establishing independence.”1 Those four accomplishments mirror those taught in a
classroom. This is happening because, “The Net Generation children using GlobaLearn are
beginning to process information and learn differently than the boomers before them.2”
Educators can and should capitalize on this as “new media tools offer great promise for a new
model of learning- one based on discovery and participation. This combination of a new
generation and new digital tools will cause a rethinking of the nature of education-in both
content and delivery.3” I take from this that we have to integrate technology into lessons to
create an environment where students are comfortable sharing and participating which lead to
a more positive learning environment.
The article ‘Social Gaming for Change’ states that “The more time we spend interacting
within our social networks the more likely we are to generate a subset of positive emotions
known as ‘prosocial emotions’ such as love, compassion, admiration, and devotion.”4 Playing
with one’s social network facilitates the development of prosocial emotions, and strengthens
community ties, both of which are useful tools for SCG that want to promote community
1
Klass, Perri. "Seeing Social Media More as Portal Than as Pitfall." Nytimes.com. 9 Jan. 2012. Web. 1 May 2012.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/health/views/seeing-social-media-as-adolescent-portal-more-than-
pitfall.html?_r=4>.
2
Tapscott, Don. "Growing Up Digital, The Rise of the Net Generation." Print.
3
Tapscott, Don. "Growing Up Digital, The Rise of the Net Generation." Print.
4
"Social Gaming for Change." Firstmonday.org. Web.
<http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3578/3058>.

3. building.” Teens today are more virtually social than in-person but this still provides them with
positive community ties and social feelings.
As teens are already on-line, the support they need from educators is guidance on how
to make searches productive. Dr. Rich says “We should not view social media as either positive
or negative, but as essentially neutral,” he said. “It’s what we do with the tools that decides
how they affect us and those around us.”5 Social media is here and educators have to explore
how to use it. One way to do that is to use technology to update existing classroom
experiences. Heidi Hayes Jacobs suggests that educators should “replace a dated assessment
with a modern one. …We should aggressively go out of our way to search for better ways to
help our learners demonstrate learning with the types of products and performances that
match our times.”6 This is a simple way to integrate technology because in enhances rather
than changes the classroom learning and teaching.
"How is Torah taught? The teacher sits at the head of the class and the students sit
around him. The teacher should not sit on a chair while his students sit on the ground. Rather,
either everyone should sit on the ground or everyone should sit on chairs."7 This teaching from
the Rambam speaks to the equalizer that technology can be. It’s a common language that
5
Klass, Perri. "Seeing Social Media More as Portal Than as Pitfall." Nytimes.com. 9 Jan. 2012. Web. 1 May 2012.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/health/views/seeing-social-media-as-adolescent-portal-more-than-
pitfall.html?_r=4>.
6
Jacobs, Heidi H. "Curriculum 21, Essential Education for a Changing World." Print.
7
Rambam, Laws of Talmud Torah, 4:2

4. allows teacher and student to both ‘sit on chairs’ together. “To be effective Jewish educators,
we need to learn to speak and become fluent in the language of our children.”8
Ani Ma’amin
http://www.tumblr.com/blog/leeba-morse
Password: schoology
Solutions and technology tools
The three tools that serve as a solution to my problem of practice are Tumblr, Wordle,
and SlideShare. The teens I work with often use Tumblr as a means to share their thoughts and
express themselves. I think that Tumblr could easily be integrated into learning by having teens
type their thoughts as the lesson or program progresses – they could respond to one another
and post related multi-media in real time. I think this forum will strengthen their sense of
community with one another because this generation makes connections on-line. The final
takeaway to a technology integrated program like this could end in a word cloud of the Tumblr
posts – a way for the learners to see the highlights of their collective learning.
Wordle is a visual manifestation of ideas and expression and allows for a new digital
conversation between learners. This conversation is akin to a modern havruta. “Havruta offers
learners opportunities to foster interpretive, social, and ethical engagement and thus has great
potential for a range of people in different contexts with different learning goals.”9 Wordle
8
Lasday, Jeffrey. "Digital Wrestling." Ejewishphilanthropy.com. 30 Aug. 2011. Web.
<http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/digital-wrestling/>.
9
Kent, Orit. "A Theory of Havruta Learning." Journal of Jewish Education. Print.

5. offers the same experience – a range of people in different contexts fostering engagement
through visual expression.
Tumblr and Wordle account for idea expression and virtual conversation; to take this
one step further I suggest utilizing SlideShare. This on-line presentation sharing format would
allow our 700 members in the Bay Area to share their ideas in a concrete and organized format.
Additionally, SlideShare would allow access to teen speeches/presentations from the comfort
of the home. The main focus of my problem of practice is teen comfort levels with social media
vs in-person sharing and SlideShare would help a teen reach many more people continuously in
their language of virtual technology.