Richard D. Solomon's Blog on Mentoring Jewish Students and Teachers: How Smilebox.com can be used to promote instruction in the blended learning classroom

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

How Smilebox.com can be used to promote instruction in the blended learning classroom

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 Smilebox , a digital scrapbook web tool, can be used to promote instruction in the blended learning classroom.

What is a digital scrapbook?

A digital scrapbook is similar to an e-portfolio; it is a curated collection of online artifacts (e.g. photos, images, documents, fliers, videos, audio files, etc.) that capture the life experiences and highlights of its creators.

For more information on digital scrapbooking click here.

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 Smilebox 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.

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

What is Smilebox?

Smilebox is digital scrapbook web tool.

Where is Smilebox located on the internet?