Adrian Durlester
We’re back with another installment of tips, ideas, and resources to help you be a better user of technology in your teaching. This infographic “How to Focus in the Age of Distraction” illustrates lots of things you can do to avoid the pitfalls.Print it out and post it in your workspace!
This infographic is found on one of my favorite online educational resources, Edudemic. Edudemic also has a wonderful article and resource called “The Uncool Teacher’s Guide to Getting Hip“. Another great list on Edudemic is Top 10 Free Online Tutoring Tools for 2012. Their 350 Best Education Resources Chosen By You is an invaluable collection of links.
Another favorite blog of mine to check out is The Daring Librarian. Her 10 Super Geeky Tips for the New Year is useful for geeks and neophytes alike.
I don’t have an iPad, but if I did, I would definitely be using this app: Explain Everything. It’s creating a lot of buzz in the education community.
Google+ (aka Google Plus) has seen tremendous growth, and since my last griping comments, Google has finally opened up Google+ for Google Apps users. How to Use Google+ Hangouts for Teaching is a great article on ways Google+ could be of use in education.
If you’re still not sure what role networking (social and otherwise) can play in Judaism, read this fascinating article, Networking, An Ancient Jewish Practice by Rabbi Arnie Samlan on the DarimOnline blog.
For those of you using Google Chrome as your primary browser, Richard Byrne‘s Free Technology for Teachers blog which I’ve mentioned previously has this useful article 10 Useful Chrome Web Apps and Extensions for Teachers and Students.
If you’re on Twitter, have you checked on #jedchat yet? JEDCHAT is a Twitter Chat for all Jewish Educators. We hope to chat every Wednesday night at 9PM Eastern Time. You can find out more on their blog.
Intellectual property rights have become a complicated issue in the age of the internet and digitization. Right now, Congress is considering two acts, SOPA and PIPA, to address concerns with foreign sites that seek to circumvent copyright and intellectual property rights. The legislation has the support of the music industry the motion picture industry, the cable industry, and others. The supporters of the legislation claim that anyone who opposes these bills is “in favor of piracy.” Opponents argue that the bills go too far, and don’t reflect fair input from all interested parties. (Claims from organizations like the American Federation of Musicians, or the Motion Picture Association of America seem to indicate that all musicians and those in the movie industry support the bills, but that’s not the case. There’s no consensus, and some prominent artists like Aston Kutcher and Peter Gabriel have voiced their opposition.) I’ll allow readers to make their own decisions. You can research the proposed legislation on line. Just don’t try to do it on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 on Wikipedia, because they, along with a number of other websites, are shutting down to protest the proposed regulations. Other internet services have called the blackout “silly.” To be honest, it’s hard to find unbiased articles on the controversy online, so you’ll just have to do your own filtering. Just search for SOPA, PIPA, Wikipedia Blackout, etc.
As the debate rages as to how to manage and insure intellectual property rights in the digital age, I encourage to engage your students in discussing this important issue. A good starting resource on Jewish Law as it relates to copyright can be found at Jewish Law. If you’d like to educate yourself about copyright law, you can use the list of links I’ve compiled for the jewish music community at the Hava Nashira site.
As you use technology tools in your work, I’d love to hear about your experiences! Do you have a favorite online resource that might be unknown to others, or simply one that’s so useful you want to share it anyway to be sure as many people as possible know about it? I’d love to help you share the love. Need more information, some hand-holding, some translation of techo-jargon? You can reach me at my contact points for my Technology in Jewish Education consulting work: e-mail yoeitzdrian@durlester.com. Twitter: @yoeitzdrian I also blog and tweet as @migdalorguy and @havanashira.
Adrian A. Durlester (aka MigdalorGuy or Yoeitzdrian)