Educational Technology Tools Review

Eitan Novick

Below is a review of a few educational technology tools. For some of these tools I
created resources/products in areas of Judaic studies, but for some of them, I had ideas that I felt
fit exceptionally well with English grammar and literature, an area of my own personal interest.

Poll Everywhere
This tool can be used similarly to asking everyone to put their thumbs up or thumbs down
in response to a question or to voting with your feet. It is a way to utilize active learning in a
lesson and involve every student. I would ask a question and have students use the poll to record
their response. This would give immediate data on the percentage of the class that answered in a
certain way.
The poll I created can be seen here:
http://www.polleverywhere.com/multiple_choice_polls/Abs9jeOPinhJYd0 (username:
enovick87@gmail.com, password: institute). It asks the question, if someone becomes a bar or
bat mitzvah in the middle of Sphirah, are they chayiv to count from that point forward? This
question would come after we learned some of the halachot in depth and the different opinions as
to the nature of the mitzvah. But we will not have learned this question in specific, rather
students would have to utilize what we had discussed and apply it to this new case. Afterward, I
would create a second round of polling with 2 open-ended polls, asking those who answered
each way to explain their reasoning. Then I could go through the answers that came in,
discussing those that are relevant and asking students if they would like to elaborate.

The other way I would like to use a tool like this is to provide options to the class for
what to do next. For example, I could offer the class to either (a) have chavruta time and use the
pasukim to fill in a graphic organizer, (b) group projects based on the pasukim, or (c) individual
writing assignments. Then I could decide what to do next (or if there are enough students who
chose each option, maybe have different students doing different things).
And finally, I think this tool would be a good way to offer the chance for students to
anonymously ask me for extra review of the material. I would put a poll up on the board asking if
everyone understood the material I just went over, and students could respond via the poll so no
one is embarrassed to say they didnt understand and would like to spend some more time on it.

BitStrip
Here is the BitStrip I designed: http://bitstrips.com/r/9JW29. This one is in the realm of
English grammar, but it can also be used to illustrate a story in chumash.
There are two ways in which I would incorporate this into a lesson. The first, is to present
this comic when learning about the grammatical rule as a way to help the students understand
and remember it. But after they are exposed to one such comic, and we spend some time working
with the technology (certainly for older high school students, they should pick it up quickly), I
would set up a group activity in which the groups would choose from a list of grammatical rules
and would have to make their own representation. They would then present their comic to the
class. We could even put together a book of all the comics, which would become a sort of
resource guide.

ShowMe

For this tool, I was unable to create my own as it is an app, and I dont have a device on
which it would work. But nonetheless I came up with some ideas for how to utilize it in the
classroom.
I think this is a great tool for creating a virtual database of resources. For example, in a
chumash class, I would create a ShowMe for every cluster of pesukim we were learning. These
would be similar to the ones created by this user on The Great Gatsby:
http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=2yV2Bf6. Students can utilize these resources if they are having
trouble understanding a pasuk or section of pesukim. It is also a chance for more advanced
students to move ahead and take on material on their own.
I think a tool like this would be very useful when it comes to the parshiyot associated
with the building of the mishkan and the avoda, as pictures and visuals can be very helpful in
understanding those pieces.
I also would have students create their own ShowMe presentations and then show them to
the class. I think this would work well in the context of annotating (again, similar to the Great
Gatsby example). That concept could easily be applied to a section of pesukim in chumash. I
would teach the skills of annotating: what to look for, how to mark up a text, etc. And then I
would ask them to do it on ShowMe, creating voice overlay to talk through their thought process.
I would then have records of their annotating abilities. I could have them do it every so often and
map their progress. I could also watch the video with them and go over where they did well and
where they need more practice.

Popplet

The Popplet I created for learning T.S. Eliots The Waste Land can be found here:
http://popplet.com/app/index.php#/980256 (username: enovick@yu.edu, password: institute).
This is what I call a webbed text. The Wasteland is full of allusions, references to other
sources, phrases in foreign languages that need to be defined, etc. So this is the first two stanzas
of the poem with offshoots, or webs, connecting it to these other pieces that are so intrinsic to
understanding the poem. I also color coded them by different categories. This is very similar to
learning Gemarah in that there are other sources always pulled into the text in front of you. A
learner has to spend time understanding those outside sources in order to understand the text at
hand.
I would use this in a lesson as a living document. I would put the text of the poem up and
some of the offshoots and then others would be able to add their own offshoots, questions,
comments, other outside sources they think might be relevant, etc. Ideally, each student would
have the ability to add to it whenever he or she wants (either through an iPad, or by waiting for a
turn at a designated computer). When you add a comment or popplet the program records the
name of the individual who did so. So thats a good way to see whos participating, who
understands the concept, etc. It also creates a document that is a real group effort. This exercise
makes visual the concept of literature (or Torah) being an interconnected web.