JEdCamp Boston
Sep. 23rd, 2014 03:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidA couple of Sundays ago, I went to JCDS for JEdCamp (Jewish Education Camp; an un-conference like BarCamp, but much much smaller).
There was a single opening session for everyone, then three 45-minute sessions where anyone could offer a topic, followed by a catered dinner with closing thank-yous. Interestingly, the preference was for more interactive sessions, not a lecture, and all of the ones I went to were like that.
The introductory session included two activities relevant to Elul zman. The first had us in pairs, talking about what we see visually while listening to the shofar. This was difficult for me, because I tend to process it more as sound and emotion, not visual, as did the person I talked to, but we both figure something out that felt reasonable; he chose a Rothko painting (it might have been this one, but if not, that was one on his short list), and I chose a photo like this one). He sent those images to a dropbox address, then someone blew a shofar while a slide show of all the images sent in played. After that, the second activity was teaching a tune for one of the verses in Avinu Malkeinu that isn't usually sung (..there is no other King than You). Which was nice, but didn't have the same impact for me at all.
The first session I chose was an introduction to design thinking, using the process on the idea of forgiveness in a lightning-fast class. The presenters were from BrandeisHSP Design Lab, which runs programs for teens; they've used it to design Shabbat (in a group of teens ranging from non-religious to orthodox; apparently one English student's family always had tea in the afternoon, and that was happily added to what the group decided was their Shabbat observance), and coming-of-age rituals, among other topics.
We started with a quote from Rambam (Misnah Toraw, Hilchot Teshuva, Ch 2 law 9), about how one needs to seek forgiveness from those we have wronged, since Yom Kippur only helps for sins against the divine, then paired off for the rest of the exercise. discussing individual situations and getting feedback from our partners, suggesting possible resolutions/solutions/approaches for them and later making physical representations of the solution they liked best. There was far too little time, but it did give an idea of how this process works. The presenters said that in a real situation, people would pair off multiple times, getting more information every time.
The second session I went to was about Scratch Jr, a tablet-based version of Scratch, which allows even pre-literate kids to program, making little films, using stock or imported backgrounds, characters, movements, and sounds. It was fun to play with.
The last break-out session I chose was about makerspaces, and as it turned out, I had almost the most experience with them, albeit not in the academic setting, and definitely not for younger kids.
The closing session was mostly about wraps, salads, and thank yous.
There was a single opening session for everyone, then three 45-minute sessions where anyone could offer a topic, followed by a catered dinner with closing thank-yous. Interestingly, the preference was for more interactive sessions, not a lecture, and all of the ones I went to were like that.
The introductory session included two activities relevant to Elul zman. The first had us in pairs, talking about what we see visually while listening to the shofar. This was difficult for me, because I tend to process it more as sound and emotion, not visual, as did the person I talked to, but we both figure something out that felt reasonable; he chose a Rothko painting (it might have been this one, but if not, that was one on his short list), and I chose a photo like this one). He sent those images to a dropbox address, then someone blew a shofar while a slide show of all the images sent in played. After that, the second activity was teaching a tune for one of the verses in Avinu Malkeinu that isn't usually sung (..there is no other King than You). Which was nice, but didn't have the same impact for me at all.
The first session I chose was an introduction to design thinking, using the process on the idea of forgiveness in a lightning-fast class. The presenters were from BrandeisHSP Design Lab, which runs programs for teens; they've used it to design Shabbat (in a group of teens ranging from non-religious to orthodox; apparently one English student's family always had tea in the afternoon, and that was happily added to what the group decided was their Shabbat observance), and coming-of-age rituals, among other topics.
We started with a quote from Rambam (Misnah Toraw, Hilchot Teshuva, Ch 2 law 9), about how one needs to seek forgiveness from those we have wronged, since Yom Kippur only helps for sins against the divine, then paired off for the rest of the exercise. discussing individual situations and getting feedback from our partners, suggesting possible resolutions/solutions/approaches for them and later making physical representations of the solution they liked best. There was far too little time, but it did give an idea of how this process works. The presenters said that in a real situation, people would pair off multiple times, getting more information every time.
The second session I went to was about Scratch Jr, a tablet-based version of Scratch, which allows even pre-literate kids to program, making little films, using stock or imported backgrounds, characters, movements, and sounds. It was fun to play with.
The last break-out session I chose was about makerspaces, and as it turned out, I had almost the most experience with them, albeit not in the academic setting, and definitely not for younger kids.
The closing session was mostly about wraps, salads, and thank yous.