Games in Congregational Learning

This month, The Jewish Education Project held the Closing Ceremony for our first Game Design for Jewish Learning cohort.  The final session included discussion of Virtual Worlds and their potential, games in the real life Jewish learning environment, and the big picture of where games can take Jewish education in the future.  The educators also shared their own reflections on the program and discussed the ways their teaching had been impacted.  They shared stories of notable increases in student energy and excitement, of their own increased comfort and familiarity with technology, and of how their classrooms have been transformed into more experiential, non-frontal learning environments.  Jill Kaplan, teacher and family educator in Long Island synagogues, said that “as someone who is passionate about Jewish education and loves to play games (in and out of the classroom), I knew this would be a great experience.  What I didn't expect is how this program changed my thinking process: as a fairly non-tech person, I now approach gaming possibilities via a tech route.  Me -- I created not just one, but a couple of games on the computer!  My kids in class love them - and I've gotten really positive feedback from colleagues who used them.  WOW!  Thank you so much for this opportunity!”  We are excited to hear about the Biblical Scavenger Hunts and Jewpardy games that the educators are creating by themselves and in collaboration with each other.  We also look forward to continued work to increase the learning potential of these games to teach Jewish content and to use Jewish values to solve real world problems.

Read about this program in The Jewish Week here.

Learn more about The Jewish Education Project's work.