{"id":11505,"date":"2020-09-28T12:58:04","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T12:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.kamiapp.com\/?p=7516"},"modified":"2023-03-30T12:27:21","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T00:27:21","slug":"kami-for-jewish-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.kamiapp.com\/blog\/kami-for-jewish-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"Kami for Jewish Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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When thinking about the teaching of Gemara and Jewish studies, it’s likely that your mind doesn\u2019t immediately leap to cutting edge edtech. For the study and contemplation of such ancient and sacred texts more traditional modes of study spring to mind. But as the world moves online, technology is increasingly being utilized by innovative Rabbis and Jewish educators to enable more interactive and accessible study.<\/p>

Leading the charge is Jewish Studies Teacher and Rabbi Jonathon Simons in Manchester, UK. We caught up with him to learn a bit more about how he and his students have been using Kami<\/a>.<\/p>

Going digital and discovering Kami<\/h4>

A keen Kami user for the past 6-7 months, Jonathon at first saw the app as a good way to pursue paperless working whilst also preserving his teaching materials.<\/p>

\u2018Many of us [Jewish studies teachers] use proprietary tools like Smartboard or Promethean to make our materials. But what happens is as these tools are phased out or you move onto other schools, you can\u2019t take your work with you.\u201d <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>

Understandably frustrated by this early on, Jonathon committed to never using proprietary programs and instead focused on tools not tied to the school he happened to be in at the time. This had the huge advantage of generally being more accessible and meant his materials were adaptable to any medium.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

Kami, alongside other tools like Docs and Slides, allowed Jonathon to create a fully mobile and adaptable set of learning materials. If he wanted to update a worksheet he could simply locate the old one, edit it and be ready to go. There was no loss of old work and everything was conveniently stored ready for use.\u00a0<\/p>

Now working at Broughton Jewish Cassel Fox Primary School in Manchester, Jonathon seeks to enrich his lessons with technology.<\/p>

\u201cMy responsibility at the school I teach at was originally to integrate technology into Jewish studies lessons.\u201d An exciting task, but one which Jonathon quickly found required more of an overarching structure and system in place. \u201cI actually stopped looking into all the potential tools and worked back from the basics to set up that fundamental infrastructure [to allow digital distribution and hand in of work].\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>

Jonathon\u2019s school is now comfortably set up with Google Classroom and as a Google Trainer Jonathon was able to help teachers get to grips with this system. But once the structure was in place there was much more Jonathon wanted to achieve \u201cI\u2019ve always been looking at going paperless and Kami ticked the boxes for what I wanted to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>

Using Kami in the Jewish studies classroom<\/h4>

Kami provided Jonathon with a range of functionality to aid him with teaching in the Jewish Studies classroom.\u00a0<\/p>