Serving as the ‘guides on the side’

Five Towns Jewish day schools are using more technology education in the classroom as students from kindergarten from high school are being introduced to a variety of methods and tools that include software programs and a library overhaul.
At the Hebrew Academy for the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR), technology education specialist Benny Gross said that the expansion is in two parts: iPads stored on a cart that are moved from classroom to classroom and an increase in programs for its K through 12th grade students.
“We are in full swing here at HAFTR,” he said. “Our teachers incorporate technology in this school, with a priority in education. We are expanding our technology education cross-curriculum, which we’ve always maintained as our goal. For example, we could just give each child a device, but our iPad carts allow our technology education teachers to reach out to more children by pushing into their classrooms and using the applications on the iPads. The technology education teachers also work with the classrooms on showing them how to use database programs on the computers in their rooms.”
Augmented reality is an application program that kindergartners working in pairs place an iPad over a 3-D image of an item. The children scan the image with the iPad, which helps them practice reading the image’s corresponding word and letter initial.
HAFTR’s lower school technology education teacher Elaine Gross said she helps the teachers and students explore the various applications and database programs independently to become more comfortable using the technology for daily lessons.

“Sometimes I let them figure out how to use the apps on their own,” she said. “Assessment is important, but with balance. We don’t want them to integrate the technology too much so that the lessons aren’t being learned. It’s great for the kids to be exposed to many technological elements, but not so much as to overwhelm them. We don’t throw them the technology.”
At the Davis Renov Stahler (DRS) High School for Boys in Woodmere and Stella K. Abraham (SKA) High School for Girls in Hewlett Bay Park, they have used a technology education program for three years, said the schools’ educational technology integrator, Rabbi Aaron Fleksher. At both schools, which are divisions of the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach (HALB), there is an iBook and Chromebook program, where a device is provided for each student.
“We utilize a Learning Management System, where correspondence between teachers and students involves anything from homework submission to PowerPoint slides,” he said. “This is all done through Gmail accounts.”
While the emphasis is on software programs, there’s also been a renovation of the library at DRS.
“This year, we’ve just started an Adobe Suite graphic design course at SKA, which is very popular with the girls,” Fleksher said. “At DRS, we’ve got a coding program course, which is popular with the boys. Our library at DRS has been overhauled into a book-free library, where everything is digital. All our furniture in it is built for collaborative work.” SKA should be getting its upgraded library in the summer of 2016, and both schools should get their computer labs repaired, Fleksher added.
With technology education, it is the approach to teaching that is also changing with the times, according to Fleksher. “Teachers are not the ‘Sage on the Stage’ anymore,” he said. “They are the ‘Guide on the Side.’”