Richard D. Solomon's Blog on Mentoring Jewish Students and Teachers: How WeKWL, a free app that facilitates student engagement and collaboration, can be used to promote Judaic instruction and to mentor/train Jewish educators

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

How WeKWL, a free app that facilitates student engagement and collaboration, can be used to promote Judaic instruction and to mentor/train 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 discuss how WeKWL, a free app that facilitates student engagement and collaboration, can be used to improve Judaic instruction and to mentor/train Jewish educators.

Note: Google Play offers a free WeKWL app as well. It’s url is as follows:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/detailsid=edu.umich.imlc.wekwl

Assumption: The teacher or mentor teacher has an 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 WeKWL can be applied in the Judaic Studies blended learning classroom, it 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.

What is WeKWL?

WeKWL is a free app that facilitates student engagement and collaboration via brainstorming in a Judaic in the Judaic Studies and secular classroom.

Note: WeKWL can be used in a face to face and virtual classroom.

Where is the WeKWL app located on the internet?

How WeKWL, a free app that facilitates student engagement and collaboration, can be used to promote Judaic instruction and to mentor/train Jewish educators

Click here to find a video explaining how WeKWL can be used to promote Judaic instruction and to train/mentor pre-service and in-service Jewish educators.

On the next post we will begin our discussion of a free IOS (Apple) app, WeMap, that empowers students to engage in collaborative brainstorming via mind mapping.