Session 7: The 21st Century Classroom

To open our session on the 21st Century Classroom, Shaina gave a dvar Torah (dedicated to the memory of Steven Covey, author of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," who passed away this week). We looked at the last few verses from parshat Pikudei:

34. And the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the Mishkan.		לד. וַיְכַס הֶעָנָן אֶת אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד וּכְבוֹד יְ־הֹוָ־ה מָלֵא אֶת הַמִּשְׁכָּן:
35. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud rested upon it and the glory of the Lord filled the Mishkan.		לה. וְלֹא יָכֹל מֹשֶׁה לָבוֹא אֶל אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד כִּי שָׁכַן עָלָיו הֶעָנָן וּכְבוֹד יְ־הֹוָ־ה מָלֵא אֶת הַמִּשְׁכָּן:
36. When the cloud rose up from over the Mishkan, the children of Israel set out in all their journeys.		לו. וּבְהֵעָלוֹת הֶעָנָן מֵעַל הַמִּשְׁכָּן יִסְעוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּכֹל מַסְעֵיהֶם:
37. But if the cloud did not rise up, they did not set out until the day that it rose.		לז. וְאִם לֹא יֵעָלֶה הֶעָנָן וְלֹא יִסְעוּ עַד יוֹם הֵעָלֹתוֹ:
38. For the cloud of the Lord was upon the Mishkan by day, and there was fire within it at night, before the eyes of the entire house of Israel in all their journeys.		לח. כִּי עֲנַן יְ־הֹוָ־ה עַל הַמִּשְׁכָּן יוֹמָם וְאֵשׁ תִּהְיֶה לַיְלָה בּוֹ לְעֵינֵי כָל בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּכָל מַסְעֵיהֶם:

We asked: what do these verses have to do with the notion of a 21st Century classroom?
Some of the responses included:

• The cloud is going with the crowd, not forcing it along, or dragging behind.
• The fire and the cloud represent illumination - enlightening students - and protection - providing and safe space for learning.
• The piece about Moses not entering is reminiscent of the concept of tzimtzum, withdrawing oneself to make room for creation. Even those with knowledge need to hold back to make room for others' growth.
• The feeling of a makom kadosh - a holy space - is key to any Jewish learning environment.
• There's a sense of commitment, vision, passion - the fire could be representative of bringing out the godliness within each of the Israelites (learners).

Shaina noted that, in her experience, there were a lot of texts about teachers, learners, what to learn, etc., but not so many about the space. So this was a reminder of that, and the importance of seeing ourselves as doing holy work.

The main conversation was hosted by Jill. The humping-off point was the following infographic that had been posted in the Jewish Education Project staff Facebook group:

We discussed what we appreciated about this representation, what was missing, and began building our own thoughts out on a wall covered in butcher paper...

The following video was referenced several times:  

As was the following article by Dan Libenson, "Jewish Education for a Time of Wandering."

Session 6: Truth and Values in Social Media

Our most recent edition of OOH3 was a text-based conversation facilitated by our colleague Rabbi Ed Harwitz. We looked at the following text:

“How does one dance before the bride? Beth Shammai say: The bride as she is. [One does not exaggerate in praising the bride. If she is not beautiful one does not say that she is.]  And Beth Hillel say: ‘Beautiful and graceful bride’! Beth Shammai said to Beth Hillel: If she was lame or blind, does one say of her: ‘Beautiful and graceful bride’? Whereas the Torah said, ‘Keep thee far from a false matter.’ (Exodus 23, 1) Said Beth Hillel to Beth Shammai: According to your words, if one has made a bad purchase in the market, should one praise it in his eyes or depreciate it? Surely, one should praise it in his  eyes. Therefore, the Sages said: Always should the disposition of man be pleasant with people.” Talmud, Kethuboth 16b

What does the above example teach us about how we treat other people - including how we treat them in social media spaces?

The ensuing conversation covered everything from the nature of truth and journalistic integrity to the evolving role(s) of women in Jewish thought.

Click here to listen in on the entire conversation.

The practical take-away involved writing a social media policy. A policy is a great way of ensuring thoughtful, authentic sharing in social media. Darim Online and Idealware worked together to create the Nonprofit Social Media Policy Workbook, which guides organizations through the conversation to developing a policy. Click here to view the guide.

Session 5: Innovation and Nonprofits

In this session, Miriam Brosseau updated the group as to her experiences at the 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference, focusing specifically on a plenary session on Innovation and Nonprofits - a panel hosted by Beth Kanter, and including Brian Reich, Laura Andreessen, Meg Garlinghouse, and Greg Baldwin.

To kick off the discussion, Jill Minkoff talked about the volumes of text regarding innovation in the Jewish tradition; it is really an imperative. After the fall of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, for instance, it took many people many years of groundbreaking work and deep thought to reconstitute the religion into one that could exist in the absence of a central focal point for worship, a truly innovative shift (and one done in a "nonprofit" setting before that term ever existed). Or take the layout of the Talmud, a "linked" conversation that happened across time and space, cataloging the evolution of a people. Innovation is in our DNA.

The group then moved to the broader topic. The plenary included a diverse panel of thinkers from the nonprofit world. Thankfully for us, it was recorded and is available for viewing here.

The group watched a select piece of the panel (approximately 38:00-48:00), which addressed the question "Why is it so hard to for nonprofits to be innovative?" Here are some of the big ideas that came out of this portion:

From Brian Reich:

• we need to look at the context of innovation - where and when it is happening, what are the external factors
• organizational innovation vs. issue innovation
• the idea that nonprofits should be working to "put themselves out of business"
• innovation doesn't come from organizations, it comes from individuals
• we need to be failing, learning, and trying new things in real time - be bold and experimental, blow up our whole line of work and start afresh

From Laura Andreessen:

• the nonprofit space doesn't have the market forces acting on that for-profit businesses do, which changes the nature of the game
• innovation comes from collaboration
• the onus is on philanthropists to start investing in innovative projects

From Meg Garlinghouse:

• we need to start releasing ideas in beta, testing them with our constituents, learning from the results - create that feedback loop
• iterate, make incremental change

The group came out with several big thoughts, including the following:

• There is a semantic disagreement among the panelists, but also a philosophical one. Some seem to argue for big, immediate change, while others are in favor of a more incremental approach.
• What is the definition of innovation? One understanding is the process of implementing a new idea, putting it through the system.
• Organizational culture inhibits individual innovation. If we relate this concept to physics, it's comparable to inertia - a body at rest tends to stay at rest; a body in motion tends to stay in motion. Things don't change unless a powerful enough force acts upon the body. The quicker the change is needed, and the more mass that body has, the more force required for change.
• How do large, established organizations change? Take the example of the railroad, which avoided going out of business because the companies knew they owned not just the tracks, but the land on either side of them. So when it came time to lay other kinds of cables that would stretch across the country, railroad companies had the answer. Or, to take another angle, think about the light bulb, which had to be made to look like a flame so that it felt comfortable, enough like what folks were already used to doing, to make the shift.
• Central agencies have typically been in the business of wholesale, while the organizations we work with are the retailers. What happens to this model in a world where, increasingly, companies go direct to the customer?
• Are "traditional" Jewish organizations innovating? It would be difficult to find an example of a successful synagogue, for instance, that is doing "business" the way it always have; they've changed at some point along the way.
• What if Jewish organizations are putting themselves out of business by not changing, what is our responsibility? Do we try to help them, make them aware? Do we let the free market decide? Will folks go to the organization offering the best product/experience, or will institutional loyalty reign supreme?
• The Pizza Problem: people want pizza. They don't even know that they want what we have. How do we demonstrate that?
• Almost all of the models of innovation come from the product world. It's time to shift the model, look for examples of change that change lives.
• How do institutions work with free agents, creative folks out there doing good work who aren't connected to a pre-existing system? 
• Issues outlast the changing tools. No matter how fast the tools change, use the ones that help make an impact.

How do we focus the conversation on nonprofits and innovation moving forward? How does this affect the way we think about our work and our impact in the world?

Session 4: Discussion of the Book "Grouped" by Paul Adams

This session was facilitated by Irene Lehrer Sandalow, who was brought on board to The Jewish Education Project in the Day School Department. She is managing a program called "Parent to Parent," in which day school parents are brought together and empowered to evangelize on behalf of their children's schools, especially through social media channels, in an effort to create community and boost interest in day schools through word of mouth. Irene found the book "Grouped," thought it would be useful for her work, and introduced it to the rest of the staff. Rebecca Saidlower, Associate Director of Marketing for the agency, also helped lead a discussion that brought the concepts in the book down to earth using the real-life example of promoting the Young Educators Award. The following are the notes taken during the session.


Book Discussion:
"Grouped: How Small Groups of Friends are the Key to Influence on the Social Web"
March 29, 2012

Introduction:
POP of Discussion

Purpose: Learn how ideas are spread through social networks and how it applies to our work
Outcome: Gain new tools and tips to deepen our impact in our work at the Jewish Education Project
Process (aka Agenda)

• Large Group: highlights from the book
• Case Study: Jewish Ed Project Young Pioneers Award with Rebecca

Can we apply some of the lessons learned to promote this award?

It was a very rich conversation around the ideas that the book promotes and how it applies to our day to day work. We specifically discussed how we can use these ideas to promote the Young Pioneers Award. Here are some highlights of the conversation:

-The book challenges Malcolm Gladwell's theory of the "influentials." To effectively reach people, you need to market for small groups of friends. (Not, for example, the "buzz moms" in synagogues.)

-Importance of building trust with the people you are trying to reach. More people are likely to trust their close friend's opinion rather than somebody who is not so close to them, even if they are a more trustworthy source.

- Interesting that our social connections follow a common pattern: 5-15-50-150-500. It is hard to have connections with more than 150 people. 150 is a physiological limit of our brain.


-People are averse to change. To change attitudes, you need to change behaviors.

-We can observe "Group Think" with parent groups. People take advice from their close friends without checking if they are right.

-We are more likely to connect and do things with people who are like us, share similar interests, religion etc. Adams calls it "homophily". (Some of us call it "Tribal Bias.")

-We are more likely to share information when we are emotionally triggered by the content.

-We feel strong emotions when the value proposition of our decisions are reinforced or challenged. If the reasons of why we made a certain decision is affirmed by what we observe, we feel especially content. If the value proposition of our decision is challenged, we feel deceived. This brings to question about the importance of the "integrity of our message." More and more of our marketing culture uses grandiose language like " groundbreaking", "most innovative", etc. But can we deliver on that promise? And if we don't, why does it say about our brand? The Kony 2012 documentary was a very powerful social media campaign, but after it came out that he lied about some facts, it hurt the credibility of the film for a lot of people. This is true, even when the documentary accomplished what it meant to accomplish.

- To develop trust, you need to personalize the communication. This is especially true in emails. If an email is addressed to a small group or to the email recipient, we are more likely to read it or take action on the email.

-If the content you are promoting is part of their life and natural environment, people are more likely to talk about it with their friends.

- The Young Pioneers Awards outreach strategy needs to be more "social." Take advantage of Pinterest. Create a message about the award that would make people want to talk to their friends about it. We have the start from the institutions'/ educators'/ community's interest. What are the needs of the educators? We need to built a culture around the award, consider the timing of the outreach etc. It cannot feel forced. Before launching the award, we should ask input from the different staff members.

- How do we get people to share information without asking them to share it?

Move away from the idea of finding "influentials." It is neither cost-effective nor efficient. We are all influential in different contexts. You need to find everyday people who are passionate about what your brand does, and market to them. They will go on and tell their friends.

We need to find people who are passionate about our work. These people are not necessarily the "influentials." This idea is reinforced with the principles of community organizing. Community organizing campaigns are successful because the people who are involved are passionate about the issue, not because they are especially influential in their community.

Some questions that came up in our discussion:

• How do we balance the need to be authentic and transparent with the fact that we are making missteps?
• How we measure what we discussed today?
• How do we change people's environment, attitude, and behavior?
• How do we create content that is most meaningful that people will want to share?

Session 3: Information Overload

Intro: Who is suffering from info overload syndrome? Why? What are the symptoms?

We all are. It makes us dizzy, gets us confused, and forces us to shut down.

We deal with it by being very particular about what information we take in, when, and from whom. We back off. We get outside.

Text study:

1. R. Joshua said: If all seas were ink, and all reeds pens, heaven and earth scrolls, and all mankind scribes, they would not suffice to write down the Torah I learned, even though I abstracted [from my masters’ teaching] no more than a man would take when dipping the point of a painting stick in the paint tube.
(Shir haShirim Rabba 1:3; William G. Braude’s translation)

2. What was Rabbi Akiva like? A worker who goes out with his basket. He finds wheat, he puts it in; barley, he puts it in; spelt, he puts it in; beans, he puts it in; lentils, he puts it in. When he arrives home he sorts out the wheat by itself, barley by itself, spelt by itself, beans by themselves, lentils by themselves. So did Rabbi Akiva; he arranged the Torah rings by rings. (Avot de Rabbi Natan ch. 18)

3. "On another occasion it happened that a certain heathen came before Shammai and said to him, "Make me a proselyte, on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot."[1] Thereupon he chased him away with the builder's cubit that was in his hand.[2] When he came before Hillel, (he also asked Hillel to teach him the entire Torah while standing on one foot) Hillel replied, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah while the rest is commentary; go and learn it."[3]
(Talmud in tractate Shabbos 31a)

What do these texts have to say about information overload?
Text 1: There has always been more information out there than we are capable of taking in.
Text 2: Sorting. Being deliberate. Personal style - Akiva's way of organizing info may have come from his coming to Judaism later in life. There is value in the process of collection, holding info, and sorting.
Text 3: Summarizing, but also getting at the ikar. Immediacy.

(These texts have a flow - dealing with big ideas, categorizing them, getting at the essence, and back to dig deeper.)

Clay Shirky argues that we're not suffering from information overload, but filter failure.

What is the difference between info overload and filter failure? Do you agree with Shirky?


Information overload is part of the human condition. We need filters, and we get them from the beginning. "From the time we are born, there is no unmediated experience."

"Program or Be Programmed" - addresses issues of who is in control of our filters and the information we ultimately get.

Example of the Omnivore's Dilemma - I can eat anything, so how do I decide what to eat? Kashrut is Judaism's answer; a filter for making that decision.

Our filters are increasingly social - the online world is catching up with our habits/behaviors on-land. Google Plus is a perfect example.

Tachlis/Examples: Filtering good information


Social Bookmarking on Diigo with Marni

• Allows you to collect, store, organize, and share links
• Share with colleagues - create a group to store interesting information
• Bookmark links quickly and easily with browser plug-ins
• also allows for annotation

RSS Feeds with Arnie

Watch the video tutorial from Common Craft here.

• Bring content from interesting folks together in one place, organize it to your liking
• Skim headlines, read synopses, or dive into full articles
• Curate content for your networks

More on RSS feed and examples of good blogs/publications to follow here.

How else do we deal with information overload? What are the implications of info overload for our work, from our perspective and that of the people we work with?

Session 2: Access and Ownership

The latest edition of Open Office Hours 3.0 examined ideas of access and ownership.

Part 1: 
We began with a text study:

Access and Ownership Text Study

What resulted was a multi-faceted discussion which highlighted, among other things, the following ideas:

• The rigidity of the rabbinic text. There was some discomfort with the way Rabbi Eliezer was treated, how - as, arguably, the more creative, innovative thinker - he was pushed to the outside and his opinions weren't held in as high regard. Nonetheless his story, as well as many minority opinions, are recorded in the Talmud.
• This led us to talk a bit about ownership and authority - what is the relationship between the two concepts?
• The value of access or ownership. The group generally acknowledged that today there is a shift in the way knowledge is accessed, and how it is valued. Teachers, for instance, used to buy curricula and rely on that for their lessons. Now there is more of a focus on creating your own lessons and making them publicly available for others to share and modify to their own liking.
• Some want ownership, but don't want to "give away all of their secrets."
• Subscriptions as a middle ground between access and ownership (more of a business model). We discussed the difference between, say, buying a DVD and streaming a movie on Netflix with their subscription service. It is even more complicated when you realize that when you buy a DVD, you don't actually own the movie; you own that particular copy. Someone else owns the rights to the screenplay, the music, that edited version, etc.
• We similarly addressed the music industry. The viability of much of the entertainment sector is based on a new type of knowledge sharing, and new concepts of value.
• The case study of Wikipedia. We talked about the process behind Wikipedia and the concept of co-creation. Though for many of us Wikipedia is all about access to information, for many it is a massive collaborative enterprise. Co-creation implies some sense of ownership. In the case of Wikipedia, we many not all take part in its building, but we all have the option and ability to do so.
• Is access better than ownership? Should we as a society not worry so much about ownership? Can we even claim ownership when the ability to do so, and the definitions, change so rapidly and so often? 

We acknowledged that we are living in a world of access, and that the definitions and differences between access and ownership are not so clear.

Part 2:

The second piece of our discussion was dedicated to skill-building. In keeping with the theme of access, we talked about making the most of our own access by improving our search habits.

There are two basic ways to better your search results:

1. Narrow/refine your search terms
2. Narrow/refine your search engine

When it comes to the first, it is important to understand the value of Boolean logic. Learning how to use Boolean logic in your search will help you narrow down the parameters of your results to just those relevant to what you're looking for.

Google Advanced Search "does" Boolean search for you by breaking it down into a form-like structure:

It is also helpful to look at the entire page before you being your search. Once a search term is entered, look along the top and down the left hand side for ways of narrowing your search by type (image, news, etc.), time (items shared a week ago, a year ago), location, etc.

It is also helpful sometimes to shift your search to another engine, or subset of the search engine, altogether.

Google Scholar can be helpful to a point, but many of the articles it pulls up require payment.

Google Books allows you to search the content of many books in addition to author and title.

Google Blogsearch allows you to see what's happening in more conversational spheres online around your topic.

DuckDuckGo is an example of a clean, ad-free search engine with helpful tips to narrow your search and improve your results.

SocialMention allows you see where a search term is coming up in conversation on various social media platforms. This can be great not only for search, but for brand management and project follow-up. It is also helpful to sometimes conduct search on Twitter where you can find curated resources from interesting people. You then have the option of following up with the people who provide the best value and add them to your network. It's a great discovery tool for both resources and connections.

What questions remain when it comes to access and ownership? How do these concepts resonate in your work?
What other tips and tricks can you share to help improve online search?

Session 1: Leaders in a Connected Age

Miriam's Intro:

Why we’re here:

We are leaders living in a connected age.

What are the implications of this? That's exactly what we'll explore in these meetings.

Motivations for initiating/hosting this:

• critical piece of being a networked organization is fluency with these tools
• important to open up the conversation with staff, get feedback, learn with and from one another
• capacity-raising, help us all get a little more tech-savvy
• opportunity to get reps from different departments together around shared idea

What’s with the name?
Open Office Hours 3.0 is intended to imply:

• drop-in style meetings - no expectation that this will be an ongoing group/network
• flexible subject matter
• but what about the 3.0?

Explanation/discussion of Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0
1.0: static web - the democratization of information
2.0: social web - the democratization of participation
3.0: mobile web - more ubiquitous, harder to see, more integrated


Main activity:
We watched “The Machine is Using Us”


What does this have to do with leadership?

• Ideas of form and function
• Content creation and content curation
• Interconnectedness/Linking
• Access vs. Ownership
• Collaboration
• others?

...these are precisely the concepts we need to be thinking about when it comes to leadership in the 21st Century.


There is an inextricable link between the way the Web is built, the way it looks, and how we can interact with it. In our coming sessions, we’ll talk about the point-and-click how-to-ness of the Web, but we’ll also address these bigger issues and the implications of the connected age on our work.


If you attended the session, please leave your reflections here or comment on the blog.


The next session's general topic will be concepts of access vs. ownership. Date/time forthcoming.