Comments on: K! Magazine: “What Would Luther Do?”

By: Larry Shallenberger

Larry Shallenberger — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:44:49 +0000

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.

By: Rex Miller

Rex Miller — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:57:47 +0000

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

By: Larry Shallenberger

Larry Shallenberger — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 22:46:06 +0000

Here you go, Glen!

http://childrensministryandculture.wordpress.com/2007/09/04/thinking-critically-about-the-media-we-use/

By: Glen Woods

Glen Woods — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 05:49:06 +0000

Larry,

Could you explain what you mean by extensions and amputations, or perhaps point me to a resource? Thanks!

By: Larry Shallenberger

Larry Shallenberger — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 20:53:35 +0000

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.

By: Rex Miller

Rex Miller — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 20:29:13 +0000

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

By: Glen Woods

Glen Woods — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:48:14 +0000

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!

By: Larry Shallenberger

Larry Shallenberger — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:01:24 +0000

I try, Keith, I try.

By: Keith Johnson

Keith Johnson — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:59:35 +0000

“Electronic Flannelgraph”!!! INSTANT CLASSIC QUOTE!!! Brilliant, Larry!

By: T-shirts - London

T-shirts - London — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:45:55 +0000

Also looking forward to this mag.