The Joshua Venture Group (JVG) defines a Jewish Social Entrepreneur as someone who “identifies a void or significant opportunity in society and acts to address it with the aim of effecting positive social change.”
I am ecstatic to announce that I am a Joshua Venture Group Dual-Investment Program 2012-2014 Fellow, leading the venture Tamritz. I embrace this new challenge as a social entrepreneur and edupreneur with all the verve that something new and foreign brings to anyone’s spirit, and might I add trepidation. As I have been told by older, wiser leaders, a little fear is never a bad thing–it keeps you on your toes, keeps the adrenaline pumping!
My new venture is Tamritz, a national collaborative digital badge learning network for Jewish Day School students and teachers. In Hebrew, “Tamritz” means “incentive.” Tamritz will provide the incentive for Jewish Day School students and teachers to discover, share and learn together. I hope to significantly impact the Jewish Day School landscape, invoking JVG’s entrepreneurial charge. The Tamritz web site is under construction, so check back after the first of the year, once the branding, design and content is unveiled.
This is my final post on the Techbabble blog (sniff, sigh), and I am moving my professional transparent sharing and reflection space to the shiny new Tamritz Blog. I will blog there frequently about digital age learning, new media, badge learning and more. As a connected learner and connected educator, I plan on relying on my blog as a journal of my own learning, but also as a space to encourage a dialogue within the Jewish Day School community about badge learning and learning with new media. I hope you will join the conversation. I am also tweeting @tamritzlearning and using the hashtags #jedbadges, #jedchat, #jed21, #jewishfutures and #openbadges. You can read more about Tamritz as a new venture on the Tamritz web site.
In the meantime, here are a few resources to introduce you to digital badge learning and learning with new media:
Cultural Anthropologist Mim Ito on Connected Learning, Children and Digital Media (7:06)
A Few Articles About Digital Badge Learning:
“Digital Badges Would Represent Students’ Skill Acquisition” from Education Week
“Digital Badges for Learning in the Classroom and Beyond” from MacArthur Foundation
“Digital Badges for Learning” remarks by Secretary Duncan at DML Competition
“Intended Purposes Versus Actual Functions of Digital Badges” by Daniel Hickey, Center for Research on Learning and Technology, Indiana University
“Some Things About Assessment That Badge Developers Might Find Helpful” by Daniel Hickey, Center for Research on Learning and Technology, Indiana University
“Mozilla Open Badges: another take on the shape of the ecosystem” by Carla Casilli, Mozilla Open Badges
“Six Ways to Look at Badging Systems Designed for Learning” by Barry Joseph, Global Kids
“Unpacking Badges for Lifelong Learning” by Sheryl Grant
“Why Badges? Why Not?” by Cathy Davidson, co-founder of HASTAC
“Why a Badge is Better Than an A+” by Alison Anderson
“Show Me Your Badge” from The New York Times
“How to Earn Your Skeptic Badge” by Henry Jenkins