“Think of devices like the iPad, and its little brother, the new camera-equipped iPod Touch, as the bicycle of the digital age. These devices are at the center of a modern child’s play. They capture and manage information.”

— Just read this quote from Warren Buckleitner in an article from the Detroit Free Press, an educator, education researcher, and contributor to the New York Times.  What do you think?  Is the iPad the tool for exploration and play that the bicycle was for previous generations?  I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments!

Scholastic and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation put together Primary Sources: America’s Teachers on America’s Schools.  This research project collated the feedback of teachings in the Unites States.  One of the topics discussed was, “What needs to change to make work life as a teacher better? Here are the critical responses:

• Supportive leadership
• Time for teachers to collaborate
• Clean and safe building conditions
• Professional development that is relevant to personal and school goals
• Collegial work environment
• Access to high-quality curriculum and teaching resources

+Click here to view an infographic summarizing the research

A couple of responses for leaders in children’s ministry:

1. If you asked leaders and teachers in your children’s ministry how you could make the volunteering life better, how would they respond?
2. What ways are you providing supportive leadership for your volunteer teams?
3. Are you providing an environment for teachers and leaders to collaborate, to work together, to brainstorm?
4. Is there anything about your children’s ministry building or safety plan that needs to be adjusted?
5. How do you make training relevant to the person, their relationship with Christ, and the role they play on the team?
6. What are the top three ways you foster a healthy serving environment?
7. Is it time for you to do a switch-o, change-o to your curriculum?

From the Executive Summary put together by the Pew Research Center in their report on The Decline of Marriage and the Rise of New Families:

The transformative trends of the past 50 years that have led to a sharp decline in marriage and a rise of new family forms have been shaped by attitudes and behaviors that differ by class, age and race, according to a new Pew Research Center nationwide survey, done in association with TIME, complemented by an analysis of demographic and economic data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

A new “marriage gap” in the United States is increasingly aligned with a growing income gap. Marriage, while declining among all groups, remains the norm for adults with a college education and good income but is now markedly less prevalent among those on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder. The survey finds that those in this less-advantaged group are as likely as others to want to marry, but they place a higher premium on economic security as a condition for marriage. This is a bar that many may not meet.

The survey also finds striking differences by generation. In 1960, two-thirds (68%) of all twenty-somethings were married. In 2008, just 26% were. How many of today’s youth will eventually marry is an open question.  For now, the survey finds that the young are much more inclined than their elders to view cohabitation without marriage and other new family forms — such as same sex marriage and interracial marriage — in a positive light.

+click to enlarge

This research highlights changing definitions of the word, “family.”  Those involved in children’s ministry or family ministry should take note of these evolving definitions in an effort to shape them within the church community and in an effort to strengthen families in their midst.

Tip of the hat to Edutopia for the basics in this guide.

For many people, Twitter conjures up the worst of the internet: disjointed, meaningless phrases, unrecognizable abbreviations, and endless drivel about where someone’s getting their double mocha today.

So, Why Tweet?!?!

For the inquisitive educator, there are some jewels herein that can lead to stimulating discussions, new resources, and an ongoing supportive network. You just have to know where to look.

Okay, okay, I’ll “tweet.” How does it work?

Part chat, part short-form blog tool, Twitter operates on the idea that you can “follow” anyone else. Once you’re following someone, you’ll see their tweets. Likewise, whoever follows you will see your tweets. The more people you follow, the more disjointed and noisy your feed. So choose wisely! Now, to get started…

Set up an account

1) Go to Twitter.com and click Get Started Now. Fill in the fields. Where they ask for your Full Name, we suggest using your real name if you want to use Twitter as a professional networking resource. This way, people can recognize you.

2) Once you’ve completed the registration process, click Create my account. It will ask you to enter some text to ensure you’re not a robot.

Find people to “follow”

3) Now that you’ve got your account, Twitter will present you with a whole bunch of interesting folks to follow. If you’re feeling adventurous, by all means, go through this wizard.

4) Or just keep it simple and start by following Edutopia. Go to http://www.twitter.com/edutopia and hit “follow.” You can probably find other names you recognize by clicking on the names on our page, and following them. Don’t be afraid to explore!

We recommend that you only follow people who genuinely interest you. You can always un-follow someone, later. (They will never know.)

Listen

5) After you’ve started following some folks, take some time to listen to what they’re saying. Don’t be ashamed to ask if you’re confused, or an abbreviation doesn’t make sense. When you’re ready, jump in!

Participate in a conversation

6) Note on the listing above that each chat is designated by a word preceded by a #. A hashtag is a unique keyword preceded by a # sign that allows you to focus your discussions on specific topics, like science education or project-based learning. [Or children’s ministry, family ministry, or student ministry]

7) When you participate in a chat using a hashtag, you will be able to see some people whom you are not following. You can certainly choose to follow some of these new folks. This is, in fact, a great way to meet others who share your interests, and thus build up your personal learning network (PLN).

Expanding Your Network

Your participation does not have to be limited to chats. As mentioned above, you can begin to grow your network by following people and finding additional hashtags of interest to follow.

Twitter abbreviations

You will see a number of abbreviations used on Twitter. Here are a few of the most common ones:

@username is how you respond to someone else directly.

#topic_name is how you designate a topic for a chat.

RT means Re-tweet, which is someone passing along a Tweet that was generated by someone else.

Twitter is a powerful tool, but it can be a little confusing. Please feel free to ask any questions here. Or, if you’re an experienced Twitter user, we’d love for you to weigh in on what’s working for you.

I’ve been looking at research done by Harvard professors Erika Christakis and Nicholas Christakis on the difference between preschool play and skills-based curricula and the long-term impact on students of both methods.

How do these approaches differ in a children’s ministry environment?

I’ll use an example based on the Christakis research:

Preschoolers in ministry programs using either curricula might learn about the fourth day of creation.  In the skills-based program, the children would be asked to fill out a worksheet or recite/guess the correct day with what was created.  In play-based curriculum, the child might hear stories or read books about the sun, moon, and stars and build their own sky, retelling the story as they place the different pieces within a group.

What’s the difference?  The child doing the worksheet or focusing on answering the question correctly is honed in on a “one-dimensional task.”  The play-based program offers children the opportunity to interact with other kids and requires kids to communicate the story in their own words.  The research reveals that classes that adopt a play-based curriculum often learn more and develop greater emotional IQ, team building skills, and self-awareness than children in skills-based classrooms.  Do you think that would be true of your children’s ministry?  Think about it: which model do you follow more closely?

Here are some examples of play in children’s ministry programming:

• Team building exercises (check out our podcast on Team Building with Kids by Brodie Swanson)
• Activity stations with multiple players
• Drama centers in early childhood environments
• Reflective questions (instead of right or wrong questions) – Reflective questions are designed to help leaders guide students towards a deeper understanding of both the topic they are investigating and themselves. You can even train students to ask reflective questions.

Today’s kids have unprecedented access to digital tools and information that far surpasses any other generation in history.  I argue often that these tools are critical components to effective children’s and family ministry.  However these tools and the information available to today’s kid is not without risk.  Take for instance the infographic, “What the Bible Got Wrong.”

The premise of this graphic, according to FastCompany, is that the bars at the bottom represent the 1,189 chapters of the King James Bible. White’s for the Old Testament, gray’s for the New Testament. Then a red arc links all the verses that contradict each other.  This graphic is being touted as an accurate, visual representation of the Bible’s inaccuracies.

As kidmin leaders, we need to be ready to face kids whose only experience with the Bible is this picture.   How do you respond?

• Get real familiar with the story of how the Bible was written
• Promote resources like Whats in the Bible to families
• Start wrestling with these passages

Nielsen just released a report on the “Media Universe” in the United States.  Here are the highlights of the report for children’s ministry:

• The average number of TV sets per household is 2.5
• Almost 1 in 3 kids comes from a home with 4 or more TV sets
• Kids 2-11 watch an average of 25.8 hours of television every week
• Kids 0-12 send/receive an average of 1178 text messages per month

+click to enlarge

For more, download Nielsen’s State of the Media – U.S. Audiences and Devices

The Cory Center for Children’s Ministry is a proud contributor to the What Matters Now in Children’s Ministry Video Edition, which ended yesterday.   It was an amazing week of online interaction and learning!

Jeremy Collins of Pajamaconference.com – thanks for putting it all together from a technical perspective.  Be sure to check out the Children’s Ministry Telesummit!

KidzMatter, Tadpole Tails, What’s In the Bible, Kidmin Conference – thank you for sponsoring the event

Thank you Contributors: The Lads, Daniel Nott, Dan Scott, David Wakerley, Randy Isola, Greg Carlson, Annie Oosting, Liz Perraud, Mike Johnson, Karl Bastian, Amy Dolan, Gary Strudler, Henry Zonio, Ruben Muelenberg, Greg Baird, Denise Muir-Kjesbo, Rob Reinow, Dave Csinos, Matt McKee, Byron Ragains, Sharon Sherbondy.

If you’re interested in viewing the videos, some of them will be available via digital download or DVD in the near future.  All proceeds will benefit the What Matters Now Global Edition (find out more at cmwhatmatters.com).

Social media is here to stay, so shouldn’t toddlers be given a chance to dip their toes in at an early age? After all, in just a few years they will have to be fluent in using all the new tools available.

We think the answer is a firm YES. That is why we have created the IOBR, the first social media tool for toddlers.

The IOBR is a device with which toddlers can update their status to their friend. Usage of the IOBR requires no special skills. No reading, no computer skills, nothing that a toddler does not naturally master.

The actual status update is done by placing the appropriate block in its designated place on the box. For example, an “eating” update is sent by placing the square block with the “plate, spoon, fork” -icon in the square-shaped hole on top of the box. This results in the illumination of the corresponding status light on the friend’s device.

— From the IOBR Website

This idea turns the idea of sharing inside-out, literally.

What Matters Now in Children’s Ministry: Video Edition is ready for you!  Go to http://pajamaconference.com to register.

If you’re already registered for the What Matters Now in Children’s Ministry: Video Edition, here’s how it works:

1. Click on the “Speakers/Topics” link at the right.
2. Click on the picture of the speaker/topic you want to watch.
3. Click on the play arrow in the video box.
4. Watch video.
5. Leave your comments and/or interact with other attendees’ comments.
6. Click on “Speakers/Topics” link at right and repeat steps 2-6 as many times as you want until 11:59 p.m. PST on February 2!

Feel free to watch the videos at your leisure and as many times as you want. We also encourage you to post your thoughts on Facebook, Twitter using the hashtag #cmwhatmatters, Kidology, or CMConnect.

We also have some live chats set up for you to interact with Amy Dolan (Confidence), Henry Zonio (Ingenuity), and Matt Guevara (Global):

• Amy Dolan: Thursday, January 27th at 3:00 P.M. CST
• Henry Zonio: Monday, January 31st at 2:00 P.M. CST
• Matt Guevara: Wednesday, February 2nd at 12:00 P.M. CST

If you want to participate in any of the live chats, bookmark this link: http://www.pajamaconference.com/index.php?option=com_blastchatc&Itemid=338