Those of you interested in Torah and Web 2.0 might remember the Facebook Haggadahs that made the rounds of Internet these past 2 years. The 5769 Facebook Haggadah and the updated 5770 Facebook Haggadah combined a great deal of Torah knowledge, a keen sense of humor, and an uncanny ability to match Facebook in both style and substance to make for an enjoyable and educational satire.
For Jewish educators, the Facebook platform can be the perfect forum for student projects to present a series of events, ideas, and complex relationships about a Perek of Chumash, a major event in Jewish History, or about the Sages of the Mishnah, Talmud, and medieval commentaries that make up the Daf Gemara we use today. The challenge for teachers has been that, while this idea is one that students love and can really learn from, the technical details of making a Facebook page can be daunting for anyone who does not have serious experience in graphic design.
Enter http://www.myfakewall.com/. This website allows anyone to log in and create their own "Fake" Facebook Wall. It includes all the Facebook features that make for a rich classroom assignment. One can create a Facebook Wall complete with a profile picture and biographical details about the individual or event being studied, names and pictures of friends of this individual, favorite photos, and both regular and photo postings. One can even add "fake" comments for each of these postings. The end product has an uncanny resemblance to a Facebook page.
Below, I have embedded an example of a "Fake" Rashi Facebook Wall. It took me less than an hour to make. I am confident that our students with much more time, motivation, and creativity could use this platform to produce Facebook projects that enlighten and inform.
Check out this Napoleon Bonaparte Fakewall created by some of my students: http://www.myfakewall.com/w/12APNap78
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