K! Magazine: “What Would Luther Do?”
K! has an excellent article by Rex Miller, the author of the Millennium Matrix, entitled “What would Luther Do?”(March/April 2008)
Miller writes:
“The basic educational model (secular or religious) including the classroom arrangement, subject classifications, and teacher/student relationship has not significantly changed since the 15th Century. The locus is learning subject content with some memorization, and some form of testing to see if anything stuck. Churches have also learned that if they want to keep the kids attention that htey have to play games, hand out rewards like candy or tokens to redeem, sing some energetic songs, and perform “edutainment.”
“Think about that scenario for a moment. Compare it to how children relate to and experience their current world. Their online world is far more sophisticated and interactive…
“Our kids’ world functions in a multi-disciplinary, highly customized, real time, interconnected, convergent, on-demand, interactive, “ain’t nothing the way you think it is”, hands-on, multi-sensory laboratory of the mind. Learning has moved from static content to highly contextual real world applications.”
Miller also writes, “We’re still using old mindsets even though some are trying to use new tools.”
Larry, The Millennium Matrix is an excellent book. I heard David Jeremiah talk about it in one of his sermons not too long ago so I bought it and read it. Rex is a deep thinker and communicates a message that every children’s pastor needs to hear! I am glad you liked it. Ryan
Ryan Frank
February 28, 2008 at 12:56 am
i can’t wait to get my copy of this mag…it hasn’t came in the mail yet!
travis spencer
February 28, 2008 at 1:56 am
Ryan, It was a strong article. Worth the price of the magazine. A few issues back I wrote a complementary piece for CM MAG, “The Show Must Go.” I agree with Miller’s assessment of tech in CM. We all instinctively know that we need to bring technology into our classrooms and children’s church. However, I fear that we use it like “electronic flannelgraph” and produce passive learners. It will be interesting to see how publishers navigate this shift. Group has Grapple. Waiting to see who makes the next move.
Thanks for the article Ryan, I’ll be referencing it in some upcoming talks.
Larry Shallenberger
February 28, 2008 at 7:50 am
I agree with the above opinions of the article and book by Rex as being a great thought provoking and one we all need to wrestle with to figure how this effects us and what we need to do.
I also enjoyed your article Larry a while back and I too agree whole heartedly that “K magazine” rocks. I really liked the picture of that cute and adorable picture of the boy in the red football uniform in the “Remember When” pictures that were posted on page 36.
Todd McKeever
February 28, 2008 at 11:15 am
Todd, I noticed you had an article on preschool min. Haven’t read it yet. But congrats…
I know I cracked on you K!- people a bit for obliquely using CM Mag as a foil in your advertising campaign. But I’m beginning to see the positive vision emerge.
K! is a startup, but a startup with much promise.
Larry Shallenberger
February 28, 2008 at 11:58 am
Also looking forward to this mag.
T-shirts - London
February 28, 2008 at 2:45 pm
“Electronic Flannelgraph”!!! INSTANT CLASSIC QUOTE!!! Brilliant, Larry!
Keith Johnson
February 28, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I try, Keith, I try.
Larry Shallenberger
February 28, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Interestingly, I had also been thinking of writing a blog post which compares some of the electronic media to flannelgraphs. You beat me to the punch. And it really is a good quote.
However, in defense of flannelgraphs, at least they can be used interactively by allowing kids to help place the flannel figures on the board to advance the narrative of the story. 
I don’t use them now(although I did for a few years when I first began in children’s ministry), but I remember my mom using them when I was a child quite effectively. Yet, the culture has morphed into a different era and I longed ago figured that out the hard way.
My intent had been to suggest that the cutting age video of today will become the outdated flannel graph approach of tomorrow, given the desire of learners to interact with their learning environments. Yet, that day might not be too far off, especially with the growing popularity of social networking and collaborative wiki environments. These are interesting days in which we live. Hopefully our collective love of current forms of media (sorta like some who love flannelgraphs of old) will not prevent us from transitioning to more holistio forms of learning which deploy media elements, but with stronger integration into offline interactive learning relationships.
Great blog post and very interesting excerpt from the magazine. Thanks!
Glen Woods
February 29, 2008 at 11:48 am
Let’s not forget the immortal words of Marshall McLuhan when we look behind the technology to see where the real changes and mindshifts lie. “The medium is the message” conveys the idea that the technology itself is part of the story. The metaphor behind the new technology creates an image of community learning, interactiveness, student generated content, systems thinking, rapid prototyping, instant feedback and simulation.
Rex
Rex Miller
March 1, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Rex, If we’re bringing up McLuhan then we also need to recall that every medium brings with it “extensions” and “amputations.”
Thanks for you excellent article, Rex.
Larry Shallenberger
March 1, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Glen Woods
March 2, 2008 at 1:49 am
Here you go, Glen!
http://childrensministryandculture.wordpress.com/2007/09/04/thinking-critically-about-the-media-we-use/
Larry Shallenberger
March 2, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Larry,
Great point. One amputation is the dominance of mega-celebrity pastors in favor of more interactive venues. Another amputation is the highly polished pre-packaged teaching for more participative and iterative content.
Rex
Rex Miller
March 4, 2008 at 8:57 pm
I wonder Rex… in children’s ministry video curriculum we see children’s pastors or cool “MC” who narrate the videos. In most cases these are people who the children never meet.
In this adolescent phase of tech-use I think we are seeing more pastor-centric presentations and less interaction.
We’ll get to the land flowing with milk, honey, and interaction when the Millenials and the New Adaptives start writing the materials.
Larry Shallenberger
March 5, 2008 at 10:44 am