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?

Saul Griffith posted an article on the Make blog entitled “A Curriculum of Toys: 18 core life skills that can be taught by toys”.  It is a unique look at how educators, parents [and kidmin] can use toys to teach.  The list can really be used as an idea primer as you work to prepare large group teaching.  Certain manipulatives lend themselves well to certain truths.  How often do we talk about transformation, peer pressure, or temptation in church?  Toys could help the teaching translate into a language kids can understand.

For instance, Griffith writes the following about “Shaping Things”:

Cutting, sawing, chiseling, whittling, sanding, grinding, drilling. Give kids real tools, not plastic versions, at any age. Woodworking and metalworking toys, most craft projects, origami, a penknife, scissors.

And “Forces”:

Gravity, levers (moments), projectile motion, friction, pulleys, mechanical advantage, gearing and gearboxes, torque. Mobiles, trebuchets, magnets, juggling, throwing and ball sports, board sports, sailing, seesaws, slides, Lego, and bicycles.

How could Griffith’s list be reimagined for children’s and family ministry?  What toys and tools can we use to teach children spiritual disciplines or Biblical truths?

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?

A year ago I had a vision. (Not the Ezekiel type, more like a day-dream) It wasn’t a grand vision…just simple…practical.  It was a vision of a day when more then 5% of the parents in our church actually used the resources that we provide them with on a weekly basis.

But in this vision thing looked very different from the way they currently look.  Take home papers were a thing of the past and ministry leaders stopped complaining about parent’s lack of commitment because creativity had replaced guilt as the primary motivator for parental engagement.

In 1977 the Atari 2600 started a revolution.  A revolution that has changed the way we look at the world in profound ways.  Games have become the primary form of entertainment in America. Look at television ratings…all the top shows have some sort of game element.

Why is this?  Because we love playfulness and fun.  We love to interact with each other in a game like atmosphere.  When the new couple from church comes over for dinner what’s easier, sitting around answering awkward questions or playing dominos.  It is likely that the content of the conversation will be the same during the course of the night for both situation, but the level of enjoyment will be vastly different. It’s the whole reason for icebreakers at a conference.  It makes hard conversations fun.

So what if we used the gamification of our ministry environments and curriculum to help parents engage in the spiritual formation of their children.  It’s not about dumbing down the content.  It’s about making the content more fun and engaging.

It’s not that we have to convince parents to be good parents.  I have never met a parent that didn’t want to be a great parent.  We are simply looking for ways to make being a great parent more fun.

So we can either look for new avenues for multiplying engagement, or we can just stick with the old stand by…guilt.

Gabe Zichermann believes there are three key components to gamification: positive reinforcement, incentive, and competition by team.  How could we use these components to bring gaming elements into our ministry environments?

What’s your story?

KB

One of the publications I subscribe to for the latest updates and reviews on apps for learning is Children’s Technology Review.  Recently Seth Hunter, a PhD student at MIT Media Lab, wrote an article in CTR that addressed the principles of designing games and apps that speak the language of digital learners.

A quick excerpt from A Real Virtual Playroom: Designing Media to Foster Creative Engagement:

Children are increasingly exposed to a diverse media ecology of devices in their play spaces. Recent studies by the Sesame Workshop indicate that the average child over 8 years of age spends more than 10 hours a day interacting with media devices like phones, televisions, video games, and computers. Being an active citizen in society increasingly requires being able to navigate and participate in the activities facilitated by these devices.

This is a fascinating area for designers to explore because increasingly portable devices are putting computers in our pockets and our children’s bedrooms. The dynamics between gaming and creative play, the digital and the physical, the fantastic and the real are converging. Children often fluidly transition between media devices and physical toys, imaginary play and real communication, inventing their own rules and playing games on personal devices.

Hunter presents six questions for educators to pose as they design digital learning experiences:

The study of digital learners has been a research project that I have engaged in over the past 10 years in ministry.  Understanding technology’s impact on children is one of the questions I seek to answer.  My research has led me to extend this caution to children’s ministry leaders: be careful of falling into a trap that leads you to believe that technology is only for older kids.  Research shows that toddlers are using technology and experimenting with tablet computers and touch displays.  Digital learning is not just about a 5th grader who likes computers.  Digital learning is about the toddler in your nursery.  This video is a great anecdotal example.

A toddler accustomed to using an iPad thinks magazines and other print materials are broken.

Other resources about toddlers as digital learners:

• 4 tech tips for parents to embrace digital education
• Squirmy Toddler? There’s an app for that
• How much time are our youngest children spending in front of screens? (Video Link)
• Toddlers need more than a digital education
• Video Games for Good

No one ever taught me to think like a designer.  In fact, I never even dreamed that children’s ministry would remotely overlap with design.  Between us, I was wrong.

Think about it.  As children’s ministry leaders, we design solutions for kids and families coming in and out of the learning space (check-in and check-out).  We help shape materials and curriculum that are used inside and outside the church.  We create structures for conversations to take place so kids can understand what God’s Word has to say.  We design.

So do educators.  Let me share a basic principle that I’ve learned about children’s ministry.  Children’s ministry is closely tied to Christian Education.  As a children’s ministry leader, I am a Christian Educator.  Instead of math and science, I get to passionately teach the truth of God’s Word to children in large and small group environments.  So do you.  And there is a vast overlap between the world of education and the world of design.  Recently I found a toolkit from Sandy Speicher and her team at IDEO that highlights this overlap and gives resources and processes to help educators think like designers.

Here is what the primary design process looks like:

• DISCOVERY. I have a challenge. How do I approach it? Creating meaningful solutions for people begins with a deep understanding for their needs.
• INTERPRETATION. I learned something. How do I interpret it? It involves storytelling, sorting and condensing thoughts, until a compelling point of view and clear direction for ideation emerge.
• IDEATION. I see an opportunity. What do I create? With careful preparation and a set of rules to follow, a brainstorm session can yield hundreds of fresh ideas.
• EXPERIMENTATION. Building prototypes means making ideas tangible, learning while building them, and sharing them with other people.
• EVOLUTION. This involves planning next steps, communicating the idea to people who can help realize it, and documenting the process.

As a children’s and family ministry leader and educator, processes help us make disciples and accomplish the work of our calling.  Check out the IDEO resource and comment on how you think it could be used in #kidmin.

If you want to understand what’s at the center of teaching digital learners and the way they prefer to learn, start by exploring the term “participatory learning.” Kids (to borrow a term from Henry Jenkins) are “cultural activators.” They use the tools of technology to actively change things. It is a common misconception that all media (TV, video games, mobile devices, web, computers, handheld game systems) is simply mind-numbing entertainment designed to waste time without any tangible benefit. Kids are proving us wrong.

Henry Jenkins in the video below talks about the world of the Harry Potter Alliance – a Harry Potter fan site that has reached over 100,000 individuals with a mission “to educate and mobilize young people across the world toward issues of literacy, equality, and human rights.” Children are joining forces online to make the world a better place. The Harry Potter Alliance is simply organizing them. While the scope of each project the HPA is involved in may not coincide with my personal beliefs, the actions they are taking in digital space serve as a model for leaders in the church.

In other words you and I, as children’s and family ministry leaders, can organize and capitalize the time and passion and heart of children online to make a prolific difference in the world for the cause of Christ. Kids today are not a passive audience; they want to get in the middle of creating something unique. What can we create together?

Professor and author Liz Losh presented the 10 Principles of Digital Learning for Parents at the Digital Media and Learning Conference to help families understand how best to “get digital” with their kids.

1. Play with your child. Dr. Spock served as the wise messenger for enjoying time with your child. We need his modern-day proxy to spread the same message with digital media, too.
2. Go low budget. Learning with digital media doesn’t have to be expensive. Not every digital game needs controllers. There are plenty of free software and educational sites that use media tools.
3. Bring digital politics to dinner table. Talk about digital neutrality, the integrity of one website over another, the value of information, and the power of freedom that comes with it.
4. Distrust ratings. Don’t believe in systems of good and evil with numbers attached to them. Define what are your own issues and values. Ratings are more than just about sex and violence — they’re about who holds power.
5. Talk about advertising. And the huge role that advertising plays — overt and subtle — in the media that surrounds us.
6. Find a place for your computer. Not just a physical location, but a mindset for how and where you want to incorporate a computer into your life. And don’t let anybody else define that for you.
7. Know the limits. Not all digital media games described as educational are really educational. Figure out what’s important to you and set your family’s own boundaries.
8. Wear your heart on your sleeve. Don’t think of yourself only as a boundary keeper, but a loving, caring parent interested in your child’s life.
9. Learn how to express yourself digitally. That’s the language kids speak.
10. Reach outside your immediate community. Show your kids the importance of including all kinds of people in your life, across different communities and borders.

These principles might be helpful to share with parents who are looking for tools and resources to navigate all of the technology their kids are exposed to and use. What principles would you add? Let us know in the comments!

Video games are tied to childhood like the fish and the sea.  Children wade in the waters of technology; they survive and navigate digital environments.  However video games have historically been viewed as cheap entertainment with little value.  Certainly sociopathic games like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas; bloody titles like Manhunt, God of War, or MadWorld; or addictive multiplayer games like World of Warcraft have given parents and legislators fuel to the notion that video games harm children.

A recent study published by the Journal of Children and Media examined how violent video games impact the moral reasoning among children ages 7-15.  The study revealed that children’s perception of violence is impacted by exposure to acceptable forms of violence in video games.  Other results from the study reveal

• 71% of the video games reported contained at least some mild violence.
• 25% of the video games played contained intense violence, blood, and gore.
• Children who reported playing a number of video games, consistently played the same type of games whether violent, sports, etc.

But there is hope.  Fun, casual, active video gaming for the family was introduced with the advent of the Nintendo Wii and continued with Playstation Move and Xbox Kinnect.  According to Wired Magazine, young children love controlling video games with their bodies and voice commands, except the number of games for young children is fairly low.

Enter Once Upon a Monster, a video game that will be released later this year.  While Leapster, ClickStart, and websites like Starfall provide young audiences with gaming experiences designed to teach reading and math skills, Once Upon a Monster is designed to teach kids to “real human themes like shyness, friendship, bravery, sensitivity, and empathy” using familiar Sesame Street characters like Elmo and Cookie Monster, according to project leader Nathan Martz.

Check out the trailer for the video game!

Once Upon a Monster is a unique gaming notion.  Previously games were generally in two categories: entertainment and education.  Once Upon a Monster delves into using a game to teach real-world, emotional skills.  Inherent in the gameplay is the idea that the actions you take as you physically interact with a digital character impact other people.  The opportunity here is incredible.  Somehow game makers have realized the power of the digital to teach children not letter sounds and colors but social good.  My imagination is running wild because I envision a future where games like these undergird early childhood ministry.  What about you?