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!

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?

Volunteer training is part of any Sunday School program, children’s ministry, or mid-week club.  Investing in children requires an investment in the volunteers who will lead them.  That’s where VoiceThread can be a helpful tool.

Music changed with the Internet.  Napster popularly yet illegally allowed people to share their music collections song by song for free.  Songs went from being sold in stores by the album to being sold online individually.  Whole music libraries went from a media cabinet to your pocket.  But most importantly, because music became cheaper, more accessible, and mobile, it fundamentally changed from a hobby to a way of life.

Children today exist with a curated soundtrack to their lives.  Understanding and influencing that soundtrack is a powerful tool for ministry leaders.  That is why I love Spotify.

Free: With Spotify, you can listen to music for free.  No more buying tracks and typing in the 58 digit alphanumeric codes to redeem an iTunes gift card.   You love free, so does your church administrator.

Selection: Unlike other music tools, you choose the music you want to listen to, create playlists, and have access to the latest music instantly.  Your music collection just went from one thousand to several million.

Relevant: I love checking in with kids to see what they are interested in.  Last week I asked my daughter’s kindergarten class if they had ever played “Scribblenauts” because I had read about the game.  Blank stares told me everything I needed to know.  Now, I can ask kids what they listen to and instead of burning through budget dollars to buy it I can listen to it legally.

Simple: To use Spotify, just visit the website and create an account. Spotify has apps for smartphones and your Mac or PC.  It just works.

Unfortunately because of licensing restrictions, you are not allowed to use your Spotify account to play music publicly (in your church, school, etc.).  However, I get so much value out of using Spotify personally that this is not a make or break feature.

If you use Spotify, please share what you are currently listening to!

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.

I ran across this article this week on sounds that our kids have never heard.  Come to think of it, I’ve never heard of a couple of them – well one of them anyway. My how times are a’changing.  But this isn’t a blog about strolling down memory lane – it’s about things are don’t “fit” in our culture anymore.

What are some things in your ministry to kids or youth that you are using that don’t fit anymore?   I know of hundreds of churches (and I’m sure you do, too?) that are still using technology and other methods to disciple children that don’t make sense.  Just because something is new doesn’t mean it’s bad!  Now, granted, I’m still a parent who doesn’t think my kids need a cell phone until they start driving – and they don’t have an iPod or personal computer – but are there areas in our discipleship of kids where modern inventions can be used?

I’m not just referring to technology, but about our methods as well.  We seem to have stuck our churches into doing things a certain way and to a specific demographic of people.  Are there things that need to change to better impact the future generations?

We meet for services on Sunday mornings, have Wednesday night programs, and various special events throughout the year.  Some churches have responded with adding Saturday night services (and even some Sunday afternoon services), but I’m thinking even more radical than that.

• What about doing away with weekly services and moving to monthly ones?  Then, on the “off” weeks, having families connect to minister to the needs of their community?
• Or how about ONLY meeting once per week for worship and assigning families into gospel community groups for fellowship and being on mission?

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

One of the questions I’m receiving from children’s and family ministry leaders revolves around kids and cell phones.

Should we allow cell phones in our children’s ministry environments?

How should we use texting to enhance children’s ministry?

What are some good family boundaries for mobile families?

Clearly the issue of kids and their cell phones is a big deal to the field of children’s and family ministry leaders.  That’s a good thing because kids are becoming increasingly digital.  In April, Intel released the results of a survey entitled “2011 State of Mobile Etiquette: Parents, Children and Their Relationship with Mobile Technology.”  Here are some highlights from the survey:

• Half of children 8-12 years old report that they have two or more mobile devices.
• Nearly 1 in 5 children 8-12 years old (19 percent) say they have 3 or more mobile devices.
• Children report spending approximately 2-3 hours per day using their mobile devices
• Compared to younger children (ages 8-12), teens spend significantly more time on
• their laptops (3.7 hours vs. 3 hours) and cell phones (2.9 hours vs. 1.9 hours).
• One-third of children report they would rather go without their summer vacation than give up their mobile devices.
• Fifty-nine percent of children have witnessed their parents commit common mobile infractions, including use of a mobile device on the road (59 percent), at dinner (46 percent) and during a movie or concert (24 percent).
• Nearly half of U.S. children (49 percent) say they don’t see anything wrong with using technology at the dinner table.
• 42 percent of children think their parents need to disconnect more when they are at home.

How many kids in your ministry come to church with a cell phone? When parents ask you what kinds of healthy digital boundaries should be set in the home, what do you say?  Let us know in the comments!