Mercava, a new online platform for Jewish learning, is billing itself as the “future of Jewish education.”
Russel Neiss, a Jewish educator and ed-tech gadfly, isn’t buying it. He dismisses Mercava’s rhetoric as “wild claims & marketing mumbo-jumbo.”
Neiss, who has worked in Jewish day schools and is the co-developer of various Jewish educational apps, including PocketTorah, disputes the notion that technology is a panacea for all that ails education. A few months ago, Neiss circulated a mashup of a 1950s newsreel promoting B.F. Skinner’s “learning machine” as a game-changer to show that such outsized expectations are nothing new.
Now, inspired by the launch of Mercava, Neiss has created a satiric Twitter handle called @iJEdRevolution. Using a “bot” programmed by Neiss, the Twitter account draws from a list of Jewish educational and technology buzzwords and trendy gadgets to automatically generate “revolutionary Jewish ed ideas” every hour.
The resulting tweets are nonsensical, yet amusing — at least for those exposed to their share of jargon. Some recent posts:
A sustainable, big data, imaginative, Jewish values social network for waffle makers, with photos and illustrations. #jedlab #jed21
— iJEdRevolution Bot (@iJEdRevolution) January 16, 2014
An always-on, meaningful, big data, Jewish values CMS for Raspberry Pi, with animations and Wikis. #jedlab #jed21
— iJEdRevolution Bot (@iJEdRevolution) January 16, 2014
An inquiry-based, Hebrew language makerspace for touch-screens, with user-generated content. #jedlab #jed21
— iJEdRevolution Bot (@iJEdRevolution) January 16, 2014
A recursive, individualized, Mishnah telepresence bot for mobile phones, with animations and timelines. #jedlab #jed21
— iJEdRevolution Bot (@iJEdRevolution) January 15, 2014
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