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?

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?

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:

It’s becoming more and more common for children’s ministry leaders to create their own video content for large group programs.  One of the options available to leaders is a DSLR camera.  This is a professional-consumer piece of equipment that delivers high quality results without busting the budget.

If you’re children’s ministry is thinking of purchasing cameras and producing original content, I’d recommend investigating DSLR as an option.  One of the resources that helped me learn more about my DSLR camera came from Vimeo.com in a series dedicated to DSLR cameras.  Here’s a sample video! I encourage you to take a look!

Also, here’s an example of a short promotional video we created for parents of middle school students.  The video was shot using our DSLR camera.

A great deal of time and energy is spent in the teaching/learning process within the walls of the church on facts.  Who did David defeat with a slingshot?  How many books are in the Old Testament? This focus is not recent, but a historical trend within our field.  Teaching kids facts about the Bible helps them remember the important stuff later in life.  This trend follows a similar trend in public education (think of memorizing your multiplication tables or dates in History class).  Is this the best way to teach kids the truth of who God is?  According to a recent article by Edutopia, not without risk.

The latest brain research reveals three things:

Learning experiences do help the brain grow, emotional safety does influence learning, and making lessons relevant can help information stick.

How does this apply to #kidmin?

• We need to shape environments with healthy relationships, safe boundaries, and consistent leadership.
• We need to craft experiences that engage more than the cognitive side of a child’s brain.  This kind of action will require a much more affective Bible story experience than the Sunday School model espouses.
• Content needs to be instantly relevant to a child’s life, focusing what children need to care about – not simply know about.

How much time are you focusing on facts in your ministry?

Light Doodles is one of the best places to learn about how to paint with light.  Check them out!

•    Light Doodles Tutorial: how to make a “light drawing pen”

•    Light Doodles Tutorial: light drawing explained

Now that we are finished with all three weeks of our half-day summer camps, I’ll share some of the video components we created!

Each day, we told the Bible story to 225 kids (ages 3-entering Kindergarten) on video.  Throughout the week, we covered the story of Joseph.  Let me know what you think!

Tuesday’s Bible Adventure

Wednesday’s Bible Adventure

Thursday’s Bible Adventure

Friday’s Bible Adventure

Somewhere in the soul of every children’s ministry leader is an inner geek.  And if you are like me, you’re always searching for cool ways to interact with kids in a teaching environment .  I came across this video on how to make Glow Sticks and knew the science could be used in front of a group of kids. Check it out.

Making Cheetos is no easy process.  You can read all about the science of cornmeal, friction, frying, and applying cheese powder here.  But after I spent some time reading about how Cheetos are made, I was most struck by the end of the process: Quality Control.

According to Wired Magazine, “Every half hour, an in-house lab analyzes the chemical composition of samples pulled from the cooking line to verify that the Cheetos have the right density and nutritional content. Then, every four hours, a four-person panel convenes to inspect and taste the snacks, comparing them to perfect reference Cheetos sent from Frito-Lay headquarters.”

It’s pretty clear, the makers of Cheetos care deeply about the process and the end product.  Think about it.  How often do Cheetos get tested?

•    (Scientifically) 2 times an hour x 8 hours x 14 plants x 5 days x 52 weeks = 58,240 tests every year

•    (Team taste test / Performance check) 2 times a day x 14 plants x 5 days x 52 weeks = 7280 tests every year by an entire team

How often do we test what we are doing in our ministries?  How often do you gather the team to review what happened in a service, to run through the plan, to refine the service components?  Recently I have been reminded of how important it is to gather our key leaders to debrief after a large group experience.

This is a great video that challenges current models of education and proposes a different, more organic way to educate children.  Watch the video!

Here are a couple of quotes that I love:

•    “So I think we have to change metaphors. We have to go from what is essentially an industrial model of education, a manufacturing model, which is based on linearity and conformity and batching people. We have to move to a model that is based more on principles of agriculture.”

What is the metaphor for your Christian education model?  Are you attempting to manufacture little followers of Christ with a linear system?  How open is your programming (to change, to the Holy Spirit, to individualization)?

•    “We have to recognize that human flourishing is not a mechanical process, it’s an organic process. And you cannot predict the outcome of human development; all you can do, like a farmer, is create the conditions under which they will begin to flourish.”

When I heard this, I started thinking about an intentional change we are making this fall to orient our ministry more towards spiritual formation and giving kids space to respond to the God they have encountered.  I’m also reminded of some advice from the creators of Flickr who suggested that community does not just happen, it must be hosted.  There is an environmental element to our ministries.  In other words, leaders in children’s and family ministry need to be concerned with the environment where children and families encounter God.  We need to be intentional about creating the “conditions under which they will begin to flourish.”  How much time have you spent crafting your small group or large group environment?

•    “It’s about customizing to your circumstances, and personalizing education to the people you’re actually teaching. And doing that, I think is the answer to the future because it’s not about scaling a new solution; it’s about creating a movement in education in which people develop their own solutions, but with external support based on a personalized curriculum.”

This reminded me of the words of Walter Wangerin, who taught me that teachers are shepherds.  Shepherds take sheep from where they are to where they need to be.  How personal is your ministry?  How flexible is your ministry program?