Mar
30
Written by:
host
3/30/2010 7:00 AM
A recent segment on NPR's Science Friday featured a science teacher who has her students blog as part of the learning experience. (It's well worth the 45 minutes or so it takes to listen to the entire program.) Since I live in a University community, I've heard students mention the fact that they are sometimes required to use classroom blogs as well. Schools and universities aren't the only ones that can use blogs in the classroom, of course! Sunday school classes, youth groups, Confirmation classes, Bible study groups, or other church groups that meet regularly could use blogs as well to enhance the learning experience. Here are a few suggestions...
- Create a group blog as a place where participants respond to daily readings. For example, if a group uses a printed workbook to record reflections on daily Bible study passages, they could just about as easily share their notes with the rest of the group through a blog.
- Require confirmation students to maintain a blog as part of the Confirmation experience. They could post individual reflections on faith challenges from their daily life, and also work together to create common posts about what they are learning for the whole congregation to enjoy. The blog could also be a place to provide reminders about assignments, upcoming activities, notes for those who missed a session, and so on.
- Use cell phones or a wireless-enabled laptop to post short updates to a blog about a summer youth mission trip. The youth could post a few photos each day as well.
- Create a blog for the parents of the children in your Sunday school classes that gives them information about the topics for each week and provides a few ideas for them to do at home to extend the learning experience.
- Encourage each adult Sunday school class to post a weekly blog summarizing key things from their own weekly discussion topics, as well as information about upcoming topics. Class members can also continue to discuss topics throughout the week by posting comments, other links they've found, and so on.
- Your library committee and other avid readers in the congregation could create a blog where they post book reviews. (Check out this amazing example from a member in my congregation: What Fred Has Read.)
- Create a youth group blog where your youth can post spiritual videos and links that they like.
Here are some bonus tips: First, note that many of these ideas could also work with a Facebook group, as long as everyone is a member of Facebook and checks it regularly. Second, be sure that any blog you create has a link back to your church's homepage. Finally, remember that search engines like Google LOVE to see regularly changing content. The more frequently you post, the more likely someone in your community will stumble upon your church website.
You can learn LOTS more using about blogs as an educator here: weblogg-ed
If you have another creative suggestion - or an example you think is worth sharing with others - post a comment below!
~ by Tim Gossett
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