There’s tons of items online and even here at Cory Center about working with and teaching digital natives. The children in our classrooms don’t know what it is like not to be bombarded with information, images, and messages. They interact differently with technology than their teachers.

Rather than fight to get them to be more like you – which will never happen – be creative, see how you can leverage the world that they live in to help pass along the message you have.
One idea, inspired by the RSA Illustrate people is to augment your talk with drawings…here’s a sample that I’ve used:

The week I used this, the student’s were captured. I had their full attention for the length of the video and several moments after – not a peep. I used the moments after to clarify the message and drive home a few points….

And believe it or not, this video only took about 2 hours to create. I’m sure that my next one will go from brain to screen much quicker since there will be less of a learning curve on my end.

Here’s what I used:

1. Story – we’re using Tru, but any story will do
2. iMovie – Windows movie maker may work as well
3. Garage Band – any way to record your voice so that you can import it into your movie software
4. ScreenChomp app on my iPad – I’m seeking another app, but this one will serve me for now. It’s possible to do the entire talk on ScreenChomp, but their server seems to have issues with large videos.

Here’s the process:

1. Record the story. (This is where I used Garage Band)
2. Using screen chomp, illustrate a point. It’s helpful if the illustration is longer than what you are saying.
   * With screen chomp, you have to save the movie to their server, then download the mp4…another app may save the file locally.
3. Import into iMovie.
4. Using the clip adjustment, adjust the speed of the clip to fit the portion of your talk.
5. Repeat 2-4 until you’ve illustrated everything
6. Show the movie

As you can see, with the right tools, this is a simple process that enables you to make a quick video to get a point across or to illustrate an entire talk. Just don’t over use it, the natives will get restless.

What are you doing to facilitate native learning in your classroom?

Today’s kids prefer to process images before text.  As leaders and storytellers present the truth of God’s Word, it is vital to incorporate visual elements into the teaching and today’s nonlinear presentation tools resources are the right tools for the job.  Why use a nonlinear tool?

• Visuals can be accessed in any order
• Increased interactivity
• Unique point of view – presenter can pan and zoom on the visuals
• Greater flexibility with multimedia and social media

1) Prezi – The mother of all nonlinear presentation tools.  Create your presentation on a large canvas, zoom in and out on the canvas, jump around from text to image to video.  Other similar tools without the panache include Pachyderm, Dizzy.js, and Speakflow.

2) PowerPoint – If Prezi is the mother of nonlinear presentation tools, PowerPoint is the father.  While not created inately for nonlinear work, with plugins like ActivePrez by GMARK, PowerPoint can add a toolbar at the top of any presentation to allow the presenter to jump back and forth through the visuals seamlessly.  A similar plug is pptPlex.

3) ProPresenter - Awesome and powerful software for Mac or PC.  I’ve used ProPresenter in multiple ministry environments and it is my favorite tool for presenting.  A fully featured impressive product.

4) Projeqt – So many cool features in this web tool: pull live tweets, blog feeds, insert audio notes or interactive maps, and view streaming video (to name just a few).  Projeqt is a crazy cool tool that you have to check out.

Have you used any of these tools or other nonlinear presentation software?  Let us know in the comments!

In children’s and family ministry there is an ongoing struggle to adopt digital tools, but perhaps more importantly there is an ever-present debate about replacing paper Bibles with digital Bibles.  Why is that?  Are children’s pastors, Sunday School teachers, and VBS program coordinators fearful of Marshall McLuhan’s portent from the 1960s “The medium is the message”?  Are we apprehensive, wondering if somehow the digital medium will overcome the message of Scripture?

I hope not.  And my hope is based more on my desire to see leaders and teachers use tools that speak the language of the learner more than my love of technology.  Here are 5 ways to use a digital Bible in your ministry setting:

1. Start with Youversion.  Youversion is a web tool and app for almost every platform. Download here.
2. Make notes on the passage you are studying in your ministry environment and share it with parents on your ministry Facebook page.
3. Promote a reading plan for volunteers.  You can sign up for a reading plan and receive daily email reminders and content that you can forward to a volunteer team.
4. Submit your own reading plan.  Studying something specific?  Put together a reading plan and submit it to Youversion so everyone on your team can follow along digitally.
5. Use Live Events to make your small group curriculum available to leaders to use in their groups.

Using Live Events functionality you can get interactive in a small group setting.  With a smartphone or tablet, let kids post their own prayer requests and praise reports and answer questions using live polls.

What are you waiting for?

For decades, animation has won over audiences both young and old.  From the first animated film, Snow White, to the Toy Story trilogy, animation has become one of the most powerful storytelling tools in our culture.

In the early days of children’s ministry, a church producing original animations was inconceivable.  The time, cost, and expertise required greatly exceeded the average church budget or staff.  Technology has changed all of that.   Now the average Sunday School can produce high quality, original animation for free.  If you’re interested in using animation to help teach children, let me introduce you to some of the tools available.

Toontastic: Toontastic is an iPad app that uses drawing tools to bring original artwork to life. Toontastic isn’t just the brute strength of animating your artwork.  It is a storytelling tool that helps users determine a story arc, setting, and the characters.  Imagine using this with your storytelling team in a training setting to help them illustrate the Bible story!

Xtranormal: Xtranormal is a web animation tool.  You provide the script and Xtranormal animates it for you.  I’m serious.  You type in the script and Xtranormal does the work.  You select the characters and backgrounds, then add the script by typing it or submitting your own audio recording.  Xtranormal allows you to choose the emotions, actions, and gestures for the characters along with the camera angles and sound effects that go along with the script.

What other tools have you discovered to aid storytelling in your children’s ministry context?

Understanding digital learners is the most critical knowledge gap in children’s and family ministry today.

Wow. I think I just summed up what I have sensed for the past 10 years in ministry.  That phrase captures the reason why I started blogging four years ago, the purpose of my ongoing research, and the explanation behind my heart beating so quickly when I get up in front of a group of Sunday school teachers and volunteers to talk about today’s kids.

Understanding digital learners is the most critical knowledge gap in children’s and family ministry today. 

If you are involved in any type of children’s ministry (VBS, Sunday school, Awana, club programs, Sunday morning services), you are in the thick of reaching digital learners.  Discovering their characteristics, tendencies, habits and traits (especially as it relates to media) can bolster your efforts.  In most cases, it will send those efforts into a new orbit.

A great place to start is by reading and reviewing the 2010 seminal report from the Kaiser Family Foundation entitled “Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds.”

The report highlights the following:

• Young people spend 7:38 each day consuming media
• Due to using multiple devices at once and the explosion of mobile tools, total media consumption averages 10 hours and 45 minutes daily
• Two-thirds of young people own their own cell phone, 76% of young people own a portable music device

Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds is a must read for any children’s ministry leader.  Download it, review it, and share your notes with parents and volunteers.

What stands out to you as an action step after reading this research on kids and media?

I am always looking for new tools to help me understand the forces of technology.  The technological future has great implications on the culture and environment kids will grow up and learn in.

Envisioning Tech has put together an interactive map that aims to predict where technology is heading in the next 30 years.  “Looking at emerging trends and research, one can predict and draw conclusions about how the technological sphere is developing, and which technologies should become mainstream in the coming years.

Envisioning technology is meant to facilitate these observations by taking a step back and seeing the wider context. By speculating about what lies beyond the horizon we can make better decisions of what to create today.”

According to the visualization, cloud computing, gesture recognition, speech recognition, pervasive video capture, and augmented reality will be mainstream within the next 5 years.  Take note of these terms because they will play an important role in the lives of the next generation of kids and families.

For the past few weeks I’ve been talking about why you should be a reader as well as suggesting some excellent books. Even so, I know that some of you are thinking, “I’d love to read more, but I simply don’t have time.” I understand the constraints of time, but, sorry, I don’t buy it.

My older son is an avid reader but until I tracked his 2010 reading I had no idea how much he read. Granted you probably have significantly less free time than a 3rd grader and you’ll be reading longer books so I wouldn’t expect you to read nearly as many. So, I’ll start with an easy challenge, read 10% of the number of books he read.

Before jumping into the challenge, here are three things that my son helped me to better understand how to make time for reading, maybe they will help you out as well.

Routine

Bedtime at our house is 8:00 for the children and lights out at 9:30. For that 90 minutes they may choose a quiet activity. My oldest always chooses reading and much of the time the younger one does the same, though he’ll call for tuck-ins before 9:30. This simple choice means that my older son reads a phenomenal amount of books. Granted, Magic Tree House books are shorter than the ones that I am reading, but page for page, I am sure he out reads me.

Variety adds Spice

There are some series that my son loves and as a result he’s read all of the series. Because of that he either needs to stop reading or find other topics. His love of reading has led him to some odd series and driven him deep into the non-fiction shelves at the library. I think this has further sparked a love for reading. As I mentioned last week, if I hang out with the same style of books, I burn out. I need to mix in some fiction. Further variety means that you have more things to talk about – and for my son, knowing things that I don’t further sparks that desire to read and learn.

Enjoy it

Sometimes it can be helpful to labor through a book. I needed to do that for a number of books while in seminary but that labor takes a toll on your desire to pick up the next book. As I mentioned above, my son likes to know things I and his mother do not and there are a number of series that he adores. That’s his enjoyment. I find enjoyment in fictional stories about covert operatives and learning how to be a better leader. Find your sweet spot and spend most of your reading time there.

Still thinking about that challenge above? Don’t, it was offered in jest. Last year my son read over 1110 different books so even 10% of that would mean close to 2 books per week.

Nevertheless, I still want to encourage you to read so I’ll close by adding 2 tips of my own.

Set a Goal

Sometime in the 90s I decided that I would read at least 10 books each year. It seemed like a reasonable goal at less than 1 per month. Since then, I’ve never failed to read that many, in fact, I’ve always read more. I currently oversee a growing ministry, have 2 young children and a desire to spend time with friends and other leisure activities – but I still found time over the last 2 years to read more than 50 books plus over 100 stories to my children. Goals have helped me do this.

Make Time

Finally, it all boils down to making it a priority. I opened with the complaint of “I don’t have time” but in all honesty, I don’t buy it. We make time for the things that we want to do and if you agree with me that reading is important, you’ll have to set some time aside to do it.

As I mentioned above, my son uses 90 minutes each day to devour books. If you’re an early riser, maybe you can set aside 30 minutes on some mornings. If you stay up late, why not turn the TV off 30 minutes early and read instead?

Do you have tips of your own?

Last week I asked what you were reading. @Amy Dolan responded with a video blog over at Lemon Lime Kids and I thought to further encourage the community I would share some of the books that I am currently reading, have on my list, and just finished.

My reading list generally falls into a five different categories: Children’s Ministry/Parenting, Leadership, Fiction, Biography and General Ministry/Theology.

I don’t usually read Children’s Ministry books for new ideas, for that, I prefer to read blogs instead. Generally by the time a great idea makes its way into a ministry book, many churches have found the pros and cons and someone has blogged about it. However, CM books are great at reminding me of things that I already know but don’t always remember to practice and there are some authors that are great at sharing timeless principles. I just finished reading Stretch – Structuring Your Ministry For Growth which was a great help as I think through moving some classrooms around.
I’m also reading Parenting by The Book: Biblical Wisdom for Raising Your Child. Reading parenting books helps me as a dad but also helps me know what books to recommend to parents.

I read leadership books mostly because I love reading leadership books – it’s kind of a hobby. I finished The Fred Factor: How Passion in Your Work and Life Can Turn the Ordinary into the Extraordinary a few months ago. It’s a very quick read that talks about having excellence in all you do. I don’t have another book on deck in this category – maybe you could leave a comment and suggest a good one.

I try to read a biography each year. I’ve found they are filled with tidbits that help me in my ministry and my life. Most recently I finished reading Decision Points. Very educational – no matter what your political leanings I think you can always learn from someone who was skilled enough to reach the office of President. I have a few possibilities for next year, maybe Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy or one of the books on Jimmy Carter.

In General Ministry, this years best book was The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict Loved the book and have spent the last 10 weeks teaching our children’s church the principles of resolving conflict biblically. Currently I am re-reading a book that I read in 2006: Seven Practices of Effective Ministry.

Finally, fiction…Last year I probably would not have thought to include this category in a post but I found out that it is vital to my reading. I read a minimum of 10 books a year, usually the total falls between 20 and 30. Add on the blog reading and social networking on top of that and I found that I was burning out, I’d sooner sit in front of the TV rather than read. For me, fiction rekindles a desire for reading when I am feeling burned out. Even better, if I read a fiction book every 3 books or so I have found that I can avoid burnout in the first place. My favorite author is Vince Flynn and I’m finding that I enjoy Tim Green (who also writes children’s novels). Right now I am reading Bill Myers’ The Judas Gospel: A Novel. Myers is a Christian author and I’ve never not enjoyed his writting – but I am a bit of a sci-fi geek.

So, other than this long post, what are you reading? Why not comment below or blog about your books and send us the link in a comment?

Here’s a scary thought….
Most people don’t read.

A number of years ago I was wondering what percentage of the population read 10 or more books a year. While I was unable to find out, I did learn that 58% of the U.S. adult population never reads a book after high school and 42% of college graduates never read a book after graduation.

The problem with this is that if you are not reading, you are missing a key ingredient in becoming a better leader. As David Gergen has said, “Not ever reader is a leader, but every leader is a reader.” If you want to lead well, you need to read diligently.

Most of the best ideas that I have found have come from nuggets buried in the pages of great books. Some of my favorites have been from Patrick Lencioni, Andy Stanley and Jim Wideman but there are others great ideas to be found from lesser known names as well.

If you don’t have a set reading goal and your leading, don’t let your ministry stagnate because you don’t want to pick up any knew ideas – grab a book and start reading!

What are some books that you’ve read recently and would recommend to others?

I remember when my parents brought home our first wood console television. This hefty monstrosity never moved from the room my parents placed it in.  Like many families, the television served as the “first screen” in our lives.

Not long after the television took up permanent residence in my childhood living room, the Macintosh Classic became part of the family.  After this computer, I have never lived without a “second screen” in my home.

And while years later in college I did begin using a cell phone, the phone did not dramatically change my life.  It was a simple tool used primarily for emergency calls.  It was not until four years ago when I bought my first truly mobile device (an iPhone) that the “third screen” arrived in my life.  Now I am addicted and I’m not the only one.  As my wife and I have migrated to newer mobile devices, our old devices ended up in the hands of our two daughters.  Take a long drive with us in the Pontiac Vibe and you’ll see a family engaged in Angry Birds, Facebook, Twitter, Pandora, and YouTube on a range of mobile devices.  A simple car ride demonstrates a tremendous cultural shift from the wood paneled RCA television I grew up with.

This “third screen” as author Chuck Martin refers to it, is “the present and the future.  It is profoundly changing human behavior.”

The kids in our churches are children of the “third screen.”  They are always on, always plugged in, always in control.  Sometimes I get concerned that children’s ministry leaders are pretending that we still live in a world where the “first screen” is the only screen.  In this “first screen” world, television is thoughtless entertainment.  We need to make strides to take advantage of the other two screens through websites, web tools, games, design, and media creation.  Matthew May lists some key takeaways from Chuck Martin’s book The Third Screen on the Open Forum that relate to children’s ministry.  Check them out and comment on how you think we can make ministry more mobile.