Richard D. Solomon's Blog on Mentoring Jewish Students and Teachers

Our hope is that this blog will become a forum in which people can exchange ideas on how to recruit, develop and retain exceptional Jewish educators through mentoring and e-mentoring students, teaching candidates, and teachers in our day and supplemental schools. The present focus of this blog is to empower Jewish teachers, administrators, teacher trainers, consultants, and staff developers to integrate web technology (i.e. web tools and apps) into their teaching and teacher training.

Friday, July 13, 2012

How Metacafe can be used in the Judaic Studies blended learning classroom and for the training and mentoring or pre-service and in-service Jewish 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 (i.e. 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 continue our discussion of how the video hosting and sharing website, Metacafe, can be used for both Judaic instruction and teacher training and mentoring.

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 or Ipads. Given parental and school approval, and the development of specific guidelines, smartphones can be used to enhance instruction as well.

Note: Although the videos on Metacafe can be applied in the Judaic Studies blended learning classroom, they can be also be used for training pre-service and in-service Jewish educators for professional or staff development. It is our hope that Jewish educators around the globe will form an online community of practice, a CoP, a group of people who share an interest, a craft, and/or a profession, to enhance the delivery of instruction and training of Jewish educators. For example, here is a CoP you might want to join.

Note: The videos found in Metacafe can be used in both a physical and virtual Judaic Studies classroom.

What is Metacafe?

Metacafe is a website that hosts and shares videos, including ones that relate to Israel and Judaism, that can be used within a Judaic Studies instructional program, and for teacher/mentor training.

Where is Metacafe located on the web?

http://www.metacafe.com/

Click on the links below to see sample videos on Judaism and Israel provided by Metacafe:

Note: Some of these videos may not be appropriate for all students.

On the next post we will discuss how the video hosting and sharing website, Google Videos, can be used in the Judaic Studies blended learning classroom and for the training and mentoring or pre-service and in-service Jewish educators.