Hooray !! There is a light at the end of a very dark tunnel.

monseychick

Wed, Jun 18 2014, 2:37 pm

THE JEWISH KHAN ACADEMY: A PROJECT THAT WILL PERMANENTLY CHANGE JEWISH EDUCATION JEWISH EDUCATION – ANY TIME, ANY PLACE, ANYBODY written by Rabbi Dr. Nachum Amsel

Introduction

The Internet and technology are now facts of life in everyday living in the western countries and has already become an integral tool of education in many classrooms. Distance learning and on line classes have had moderate success. The Jewish classroom has also been on the cutting edge of technology. Some Jewish day schools, for example, have already abandoned text books and use all text and learning through an Ipad given to each student.

When television became widely used in the 1950’s, some predicted that this new medium would be the focus of a new way of mass teaching. Although there were Educational Television stations that had some successes, they never had the impact that educators thought it would have. When the personal computer entered each home in the 1980’s, many educators believed that this would be “the” vehicle for teaching in a new way. But it did not happen. The same was predicted for the Internet in the 1990’s but, it, too, did not reach educational expectations. Although distance learning has been mildly successful, it has not changed education significantly. Now, for the first time, we are witnessing a phenomenon (created by “accident”) that is actually changing the classroom and the way students learn.

Used by more than six million students each month, a video teaching program called Khan Academy, developed by Salman Khan, has students excited to learn and learning of their own volition for the first time. This free program, accessed by YouTube, is used today by students studying for exams, adults who want to brush up on certain subjects, and entire school districts who have "flipped the classroom" so that what used to be learned in the classroom by frontal teaching lessons with passive students, is now learned at home, with each student progressing at his or her own pace, and the "homework" is now projects in the classroom with teachers (and students) assisting students. But Khan Academy is used extensively by students in the traditional classroom as well. (for a fuller understanding of the impact and principles of this revolution, please see the 20 minute TED video on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTFEUsudhfs). Salman Khan has summed up his purpose and goals of Khan Academy: "I want it to be a virtual, stand-alone school, where anyone in the world who wants to learn anything can go there, start from the basics, progress as far as they need to go, get feedback, get assessment, practice. Eventually I want to become the operating system for what goes on in the classroom, where every student is allowed to work at their own pace, and the teacher actually becomes more of a mentor or a coach."

The impact upon and the fun experienced by students who use this methodology, as well as the progress of these students cannot be denied, according to both anecdotal data and testing of students.

THE BIG IDEA

By replicating and improving upon Khan Academy in the Jewish world with all Jewish subjects, Jewish education would certainly be changed forever. Imagine a humorous and easily-understood effective class on every Jewish topic, on every level from grades 1-12, in every Jewish discipline – taught by a superstar-wow teacher using amazing graphics. This would be available for free to any child or adult who wanted to learn or review any topic in Judaism, and would appropriate to include every class currently offered in any Day School, any Congregational School or Jewish Charter School taking place in any English-speaking country. By seeking and obtaining the very best teachers in each subject, this huge undertaking would have to be done only once, and it would then be available for anyone in the English-speaking world, to learn day or night, review and learn further. Assessment and progress is built into the system.

The Jewish Khan Academy would include the learning of the topics of a) Torah/Chumash, b) Halacha/Dinim/ Jewish law, c) Machshevet/Jewish philosophy and Jewish values
d) Nach/Prophets/Scriptures e) Mishna/Gemara/Talmud f) Jewish History and g) Tefillah/Jewish Prayer. Of course, some subjects would have to duplicated and differentiated with parallel classes, based on the sensitivities of Jewish background (knowledge of Hebrew and students who know no Hebrew, for example), useable for students affiliated with every flavor and level of Judaism. A curriculum for the different tracks would have to be agreed upon, in advance, by top educators, and extensive testing to obtain the best and most effective “wow” teachers would also be needed prior to implementation of the program. In addition, the top creative graphic designers would match the visual aspects of the oral teaching so that students would learn by seeing and hearing.

Thus, for teaching Torah, there might be elementary levels with no student knowledge of Hebrew, for students with knowledge of Hebrew, higher level (high school) studies of topics and commentaries for those with Hebrew and those with no Hebrew knowledge. In many subjects, however, such as Jewish history and Jewish values, no such differentiation should be needed. Assessment, which is an integral part of the methodology, and measuring students' progress from different schools and levels would be needed before a final product would be "ready".

Because all this learning material would be available on line, no schools would "have" to change its current learning practices unless it wanted to. Immediately after implementation, this revolution could greatly benefit the following groups of Jewish students that already exist:

1. Students who needed to study and review materials and ideas taught, before any big test
2. Students who missed a day or week of school due to illness could easily make up the work.
3. Home-schooled Jewish students
4. Adults who wanted to learn, enhance or review their Jewish studies.
5. Students in areas and schools where the Jewish faculty is weak and have poor or few Jewish studies teachers
6. Adult Education classes in synagogues
7. Schools that already use advanced Internet technology and flipped classrooms
8. Jewish youth groups. Jewish retreats and camps for their informal study programs
9. Children denied admission due to vile politics or other circumstances

This project would in no way diminish the need for the Jewish studies teachers and not "force" any Jewish school to change anything in the way it currently teaches Judaism, although this methodology might be able to alter class size. Classrooms that are indeed "flipped" I.e. the materials and content are learned by students at their own pace at home, still need the teachers even more than ever during classroom time, in order to guide and help students in areas of weakness or to strengthen individual student projects and enrichment. But the role of the teacher in these classrooms would change by helping individuals, with peer to peer learning greatly enhanced. The potential of Jewish students across the globe helping each other learn on a daily basis is both fascinating and already possible.

COST
The cost and process would include a) organizing a team of experts to decide what specifically needs to be taught and which lessons would be recorded b) finding those "best" teachers to record the thousands or tens of thousands of classes, and then c) the cost to actually record the classes professionally, with graphic designers to cleverly synch up and match the oral aspect of the class d) recruiting the best graphic designers to create the visual “bells and whistles” and make the classes truly come alive e) setting up the system on the Internet for storing all classes and making them available for free to all f) developing tools for monitoring each student's progress g) assessing and testing the progress of each student before moving on to the next level. The cost would be not be small, but only a one time outlay, a once in a lifetime expense. Once completed, the system would stand on its own, as each school would decide to "buy into" or not use this system of learning on a formal basis and pay for the students' assessment.

The Destiny Foundation, founded and directed by Rabbi Wein, is uniquely qualified to assemble the team and implement this project. Through its work with over 400 educational institutions in fifteen countries of every background from pluralistic, community to Charedi Orthodox (in addition to Reform, Conservative, Modern Orthodox), from day schools to Afternoon Congregational Schools to JCC's, it is in a position to find the best teachers to satisfactorily implement the project for all Jewish students of all ages and backgrounds. The Destiny Foundation also has the technological staff to make this work smoothly online, and make it available for everyone to use.

(For further information, contact N. Amsel, namsel@netvision.net.il or 212-444-1656 – before 5 PM ET)