Introduction to the use of web-based cartoon tools for both the Judaic Studies blended learning classroom, and for mentoring and staff development of pre-service and in-service Judaic educators

When mentoring our pre-service and in-service teachers we need to describe and model both research-based and clinically tested best practices, and demonstrate how these best practices can be applied in the real (i.e. physical) and virtual (online) classroom for both teaching and teacher training. The combination of face to face instruction in a physical setting and online learning is called blended learning. In this section of the blog we will describe how the internet can serve as a supplemental resource for instruction and the mentoring of pre-service and in-service Jewish educators. In this post we will begin our discussion on how  web-based cartoon tools can be used in  a Judaic Studies blended learning classroom and for the mentoring and staff development of Judaic educators.

Assumption: The teacher or mentor teacher has a interactive white board (i.e. SMART Board, Promethean, etc.), a Tablet PC (also called a Slate or Blade), a computer presenter or computer with internet access attached to an LCD projector in the classroom. It would be ideal if students or mentees had access to their own laptop computers as well.

Note: The web-based cartoon tools can also be used as a face to face classroom learning activity without adding the online component.

In the next post we will share the first of several web-based cartoon tools, Makebeliefscomix.com.