Introduction to EL 3517: Media and Technology in Parish Education

Media, technlogy and education.  I suppose that like a lot of my fellow gen-x brothers and sisters, my first exposure to the use of popular media for education purposes came from either Sesame Street or Schoolhouse Rock.  Schoolhouse Rock has probably had the most lasting effect me (I preferred to watch Cubs baseball games in the afternoons over Sesame Street) and tells me that popular media can be hugely influential tool for learning.  

(I'm including the Blind Melon version of this purely because I like their cover slightly more than the original)

So I really wasn't certain what to expect when I saw this class was being offered, but I knew I enjoyed a previous class with the instructor and I knew that I felt like my abilities as an educator in a religious setting were not nearly as strong as I wished, nor was I particularly satisfied with my ability to utilize technology in a meaningful way to engage audiences or to help drive home a learning point.

In a conversation about this personal problem, I noted that I felt like I was a very competent 'operator' in that I could take pre-made materials and implement them quite well, but that I felt like a failure as a 'creator' in that I either did not possess those gifts, or I did possess them, but didn't trust them.

In my first Education class for seminary, I went through the process of developing a portfolio assessment of my knowledge, skills and attitudes as they related to the area of theological education.  Each attribute in those three larger areas could, basically, be said to be something we felt fully competent in, an area where we felt we had some ability, but could improve, or an area where we had no familiarity.  To be completely honest, I self-identified most areas as being areas of potential growth.

In my personal assessment, I identified areas around the skills related to creating and developing content in general and in developing content that supported biblical and theological reflection more specifically.  While in the intervening time between when the first class was taken and now, my knowledge and comfort with biblical theological themes and discussions have certainly increased, my comfort in creating an environment to foster learning has not increased and this remains a potential area for improvement for me.

My goal in this class is to better understand how to use additional tools to create a more interactive learning environment within a theological setting. 

Through the readings, lectures, discussions and projects, my desire is to create a course focused on a pressing social issue that the church is dealing with (e.g. immigration, poverty, hunger, malaria, etc) that establishes an environment where all participants feel like they are ‘knowers’ to use a Parker Palmer term, and to create a course where digital tools are used as a means to create more meaningful engagement with the course materials and with each other.

I look forward to hearing examples how people have used digital technology and digital media to engage a wider and more diverse audience and to learn what has worked well and what they would do differently.  It is my hope that through the sharing of experiences and the sharing of ideas that my creative spark will come to life.

Looking forward to the journey ahead...