Game Design for Jewish Learning Initiative

Imagine that instead of playing Farmville, Jewish teenagers were playing a new game, called Kibbutzville.  Studies have shown that children spend 10,000 hours playing games by age 21...and 10,000 hrs in a school classroom (from 5th grade to 12th grade). Game playing therefore has the potential to be an entire parallel track of learning to traditional schooling. This idea is spreading through the general educational community, and now The Jewish Education Project is helping apply it to a Jewish learning context.

The Jewish Education Project is launching the first year of our new Game Design for Jewish Learning initiative.  This program is bringing together 10 educators who represent 18 middle school or High School congregational settings, from across denominations in the greater New York area.  This inaugural cohort is learning about how games are designed with education in mind, and how to use gaming effectively as an educational tool.  Additionally, each educator is receiving a grant to create a new Jewish game.  In the inaugural session this month, our congregational educators already discussed the potential to use games to teach Hebrew, Jewish History, Jewish culture and Jewish values.  The participants will also be armed with the tools to share gaming concepts and ideas with the other educators at their institutions.   We are excited to see the results of this initiative over the course of the upcoming year!

This new initiative was featured in an article in The Jewish Week which discusses how Jewish educators are using games to educate children and teens.  Read the article here. 

Learn more about the power of games as an educational tool here.

Youth Director explains a new idea for a game involving balance.