Blogging is a tool introduced to me in the IDE-611 course. Throughout the course we had to blog weekly. I found blogging interesting and fun. I enjoyed exploring my topic and coming up with new posts; plus it was very interesting to learn about other topics from the blogs by my classmates.  

My first blog was about a technological tool which I chose to be the Pinterest site. The second blog was on a topic of my choice which was: Technological Tools and Recourses for The Jewish classroom. 
I continued to blog on this topic after the class was over but felt I needed more time to polish my posts, therefore, I didn’t take steps in publicizing it. 

Blogging is definitely a great tool to support educators in my field. It does require time investment, and steps into making it accessible to readers. Blogging is also a wonderful tool to keep up with student’s work and correspond with them. I think I will use this tool in the future to communicate and collaborate on topics in Jewish education.  

 There is a vast need for Hebrew curriculum experts, and while my experience in teaching Hebrew to all ages is valuable I was only offering it to the schools in which I was already teaching. I avoided venturing into any kind of online education because I had thought that online language courses are very challenging and I was certainly no computer or social media expert. Yet, as I started taking the classes related to the CAS in IDD, I quickly realized that I don’t need to be a computer whiz in order to learn about online teaching. In fact, this fast growing field in education is a consistent source of new opportunities available for online language learning. As I continued taking the rest of the classes required for this CAS, I was delighted to get a refresher on the latest methods and strategies for instructional design and assessment, gain online learner and instructor competence, take a class in project management planning, and be introduced to inspiring concepts in planned change and innovation.

This particular CAS was the one element that connected all the dots. At the end of this long journey into the fields of higher education including courses in second language acquisition, cultural literacies and measurement and evaluation, I can now apply Curriculum and Instructional Design to my career as a Professor of  Jewish Studies and the Hebrew Language. This is a career with no borders. With the tools and knowledge from this CAS of Digital Instructional Design will enable me to confront challenges arising out of the deterioration of Jewish education in the United States. I can apply my experience and the latest in online studies of second language acquisition to making a positive change reaching far more students and educators.