Mobile+Devices+and+Ministry+-+Cell+Phone+Podcasting

Assignment #3
Expected time to complete the written part of this assignment: 15 minutes. Please allow extra time for reading chapter 3 in Toys to Tools, or browse its website.

Religious education and ministry have not kept up with the educational technology options that you will find used in other subject areas. However, what we do have are best practices in these areas that can be easily adapted to fit your situation. There are many projects in chapter 3 that could be easily adapted to use in your parish. Take time to read through chapter 3 (Pages 23-70). Find one project that you would like to adapt to fit your audience and ministry.

Once you have found a best practice that you want to adapt, very simply describe what you are planning to do in the table below.

Liked what I saw on the web page for text and plan to purchase it. || Pat Ruthemeyer - I did not have access to the book //Toys to Tools// by Liz Kolb. However, I was able to locate several online references to Chapter 3, including a detailed chapter outline. Several good ideas for implementation of greater use of cell phones in RCIA surfaced. For example, this fall our Inquirers will be asked to visit surrounding area Catholic churches in small groups. Cell phones could be used to take photos of outside of these churches, statues or stained glass windows depicting the patron saint, etc., to report back to larger group about their experience and to research and give small group presentations when we discuss 'saints' at a later date.
 * ~ NAME ||~ Description of a Project ||
 * || I am adapting the Murmur Project, Page 24, for HS youth. I will create a learning plan where you go over the project, assist them in how to do a good interview, determine who will create the web site, where you will upload the podcast files and more... ||
 * Elizabeth Girton || I am adapting the Murmur Project for my RCIA group from last year. I will create a learning plan to show them how to do a good interview of our oldest parishioners and their memories of when the parish was built 100 years ago. We need to do this before they have all passed on and we do not have the value of their memories any more. We will then upload these podcasts to our parish website for the other members of the parish to keep in perpetuity. ||
 * Ed Reising || As we continue to progress in the media world here at St. Joseph, I will probably adapt the Murmur project for both the RCIA and Minister training. ||
 * MESinger || I would like to adapt the Murmur Project for our RCIA candidates, by assigning each of them a former RCIA candidate (now Catholic) to interview about what drew them to the Catholic Church, what keeps them here, and what surprises they have encountered. ||  ||
 * Deanna Bartalini || Not having the book, it's a bit of a reach to find a project to adapt. However, I do think a scavenger hunt in our church would be interesting. we have many stained glass windows depicting Saints, Mary, Jesus' miracles and parables. The windows could possibly be a springboard into scripture. I could see this activity for youth group, not religious ed because we meet while Mass is going on so we can't go into the church and wander around. Another thought is for Confirmation class, have them use their smart phones to look up answers to different questions. This could be done in pairs so if someone does not have a smart phone (like me) they can still participate. ||
 * Barb SchwabKlaco || I have requested the book from our local library but it has not yet arrived. The murmur project sounds like an assignment I can use with my students throughout the year. Recording short audio responses and editing them together for a presentation into a presentation will be fun. I occasionally ask students to interview people asking questions that range from, "What does it mean to you to be Catholic?", "What do you find most life-giving about prayer?", "Who is your favorite saint and why?" to "What do you believe about Jesus?". I use Edmodo in my classroom which is similar to some of the tools in From Toy to Tool, this helps me track grades, behaviors, and give short quizzes. Using Nearpod with students allows me to quickly create quizzes or polls as pretests, touching base during class and post-tests. ||
 * Kim Adamson || I like the oral history project. I would like to adapt this to where the older kids put together a podcast for the younger students. Have them research different characters in the Bible and then do interviews with each other as the characters. They could either take photos of them dressed up, draw a picture of find a photo in public domain to upload. ||
 * Karen Burford || I do not have Toys to Tools, but spent some time browsing the website and found very little about podcasting. I did some research on my own and set up a Google Voice account. It is an interesting possibility for a free way to collect voice/audio clips to piece together to create a podcast. It is allows the use of a landline if students do not have cell phones. One idea is that students could create a radio drama of a bible story or catechism lesson. ||
 * Michelle Tomshack || Several ideas I had: adapting the Murmur Project - older students can write and record stories of the Saints or Bible stories for the younger students; they could keep a running log of their learning for the year -what they covered, what they learned about God from their studies, how the topic will help in their faith life; they could also keep a record of prayers - different styles, different traditional prayers, different prayer experiences, which they liked the best, which helped their faith life the most. Also, while exploring the website, I liked the idea offered with "Infused Learning." This is a website that allows for instant feedback from students. I need to investigate further, but I'm wondering about using this with the "Flipped classroom" where students read and learned the material at home and participated in activities when gathered together. I'm also wondering if this can be used to ask questions of students when they are not in attendance so they can participate "remotely"? ||
 * Julie Scott || ======I just downloaded //Toys to Tools// through the Kindle app on my iPad - awesome resource. I like the YOUMAIL suggestion. Before coming to Mass, this would be an excellent resource for a SCRIPTURE STUDY, FAITH NUGGET, INSPIRATION, etc. Each person would call in to hear a personalized lesson for the week's readings, and record a response to the brief lesson. For the moderator, it would be great to see who's calling, greet caller by name, Auto-Reply, translate voicemail to text and e-mail, and voicemail sharing. This could be a great format for those home-bound, living away from the parish, hospitalized, incarcerated or just too busy to attend. It would be awesome to have GUEST SPEAKERS call in with expertise in particular areas .... imagine if Pope Francis were to call in with his faith sharing. Why not?====== ||
 * Joan Fye || I found a podcast tool -- phonecasting on the **From Toy to Tool:** **Cell Phones in Learning** blog. Last year i had all the faith formation children sign a card for the Pastor at Christmas. This year we could you use this tool to podcast a Christmas greeting to our Pastor. ||
 * Sarah Pascual || I don't have the book so I'm winging it on this one. Every year, I take my class through the church as we pray the stations of the cross. We could create a podcast of the stations, or expand the project to include a photo of each station to display with the audio. ||
 * Terri kerley || I have several ideas that I would like to try to do this fall. One is to do a brief history and tour of our church to put on the front page of our website for all to see. I also think the Polleverywhere is a great tool to check in with your students to see who is going to mass, or what their stand is on issues like the death penalty etc. and thirdly, I want to have everyone download the Bible app to use in class. What a time saver instead of passing out the bibles and looking up the passage we need, etc. What a great tool right at their finger tips! ||
 * Patti Gehred || Our office is moving from the beautiful grounds we inhabit right now to a new location. I would love to do something like the "Murmur" project as a way to share memories of our time on this sacred spot. ||
 * Bob Wurzelbacher || the website of Toys to Tools wasn't particularly helpful, but I really like the Murmur Project idea. It can be used, as suggested, as a way to create an oral history of your parish, perhaps giving each student the assignment of interviewing someone else and putting them all together. Or one can give each student the assignment of researching a saint and making a 30 second animoto film on it, the watch everyone's videos and choose your favorite among those to do a differnet project on. ||
 * Loretta Nazario || Without the book and the not so useful website, I will also wing it. I love the idea of getting the RCIA participants to use their cell phones to interview their prayer partners. It would serve 2 purposes - they would meet each other, making the prayers more personal, and the participant would get an idea of another person's faith journey. ||
 * Laura Sams || I also downloaded the Kindle App to my iPad and purchased Toys to Tools;It was significantly cheaper to download, only 9.99. I like the idea of students interviewing people by using their phones and recording onto Gabcast. In the past, we have had students bring in Christmas items that represented their favorite Christmas family traditions. They could interview family members, neighbors, etc to learn about family traditions and customs. ||
 * Anne Marie Prangley || I like the idea of using the oral quizzes prior to an RCIA class. The participants become engaged before they enter the classroom and the teacher gets a better sense from where the participants are coming. I like the idea of Cellfish. I could send out pictures related to different seasons or holy days. The recipients (enrolled parish members, committee members, etc.) would have a picture to turn into phone wallpaper which would lead to opportunities for reflection throughout the day. The same could be used with upper grade school students in variety of ways. I also like the Murmur Project for faith sharing projects. ||
 * Cara Stolarczyk || I don't have access to the Toys to Tools book but I too really like the Murmur Project Idea. Not only could you use this for an oral history of the parish, but you could use it as an oral history within or across a handful of families. I could see someone interviewing their siblings, parents, grandparents & relatives to have them share about some element of their personal journey in their relationship with Jesus and how they see their "story" fitting into our larger Church story. ||
 * Jan Von Handorf || As someone who likes history, the murmur project caught my attention. I work with adult students in the Lay Pastoral Ministry Program – some of whom are working on certificates in ministry, others on a master’s degree. Students could interview parish lay ecclesial ministers in their parishes or ministry sites about their most memorable moments and experiences in ministry formation. Podcasts could be posted on the www. A pictorial timeline of the campus, students, and activities over the years could also provide supplemental information. Collecting personal stories and sharing photos are engaging ways to celebrate a special parish/program anniversary. ||
 * Fr. Joe || I'm teaching a NT course to Jrs. Could use Murmur Project set up to help students do a project that replicates how we came to have written Gospels-- oral histories that remembered the miracles, parables, conflicts, etc., of Jesus preceded the first written gospel by about 40 years. Students could be put in different groups: some groups would record the oral history for miracles, parables, etc. Another set of groups would take the various recorded oral history collections and "form" a gospel out of the events of Jesus life. Probably best to simply make an "outline" for their gospel rather than write out every story in full. I think it would let the students have a sense that a process produced what we have as our written gospels.
 * Claire Hamilton || In the past we've done scavenger hunts at our Confirmation retreats using slips of paper and tokens. A cell phone scavenger hunt seems like a great way to to update the project and capture the students' interest.. I also like the idea of producing a audio cast from a collection of student interviews regarding how they earned their contributions to our annual Lenten "Rice Bowl" project and how the project changed their view of who their neighbor is. We could present the audio at our next Ministry Fair. ||
 * Teresa Phillips || I do not ahve the book, but my look it up at the library. I tried to check out the site but was almost overwhelmed as I don't do anything in a classroom setting. However, creating podcasts of our missionaries when they return would be a very interesting addition to our website. ||
 * Patti Kamper || I just worked with my parishes' founding secretary to write a book about the history of our Church. She is an amazing storyteller. I would LOVE to work with her again to have her share her stories about the various "sites" around the Church. ||
 * Susan McGurgan || Many school groups tour the Athenaeum and a cell phone gps scavenger hunt would be both fun and informative, challenging students locate the hidden and not so hidden treasures of the Athenaeum: the art work, architectural features, chapels. Oral histories via Murmur could be used in the Church History and Discipleship courses, interviewing and recording oral histories of parishes, non-profit agencies, and the people of the Archdiocese. ||
 * Terri Moser || Toys to Tools Kindle version was really frustrating and I would encourage DDBC not to use it again because many of the free sites have been discontinued. gabcast, jott and many other of the live links were all outdated and gone. The web is so ever changing, a book on technology that doesn't allow updates dynamically is sadly outdated very quickly. I looked at the YouMail protocol and found it to be so complicated, the learning curve so steep, that I just decided it's too hard to use. Mp3 files can be uploaded to our CMS (Content Management System) website from eCatholicChurches very easily, and so those can be used as podcasts, with RSS usage encouraged to persons for whom a new podcast would be important to utilize. Tbe future of conferences like FETC and Texas' Technology in education conference (which is held the week after FETC) may be the best way to keep us with the fantastic technology best used in teaching situations. I wish I had my $10 back from Toys to Tools! Try Edchat on Twitter for daily teacher exchanges about technology. ||
 * Marty McClain || I plan to expand on our use of cell phones for our annual Youth Ministry Scavenger Hunt. This year's event is scheduled for September 29th. ||
 * > Mary Pat Austing The murmur project would give a great opportunity for our new confirmation candidates to interview last year's past class....talk about how they prepared, how they chose their sponsor, how they are living out their faith since being confirmed, who are their role models to living a Christ like life? ||

Susan Bellotti We have a beautiful new Church and many people ask for a tour with many requests to talk about the lovely mural above the sanctuary. In adapting the murmur project we could set up short podcasts about different aspects of our Church. A virtual tour so to speak done at one’s convenience with a link to the parish website for a 24/7 viewing. Another idea to use in an RCIA session would be to initiate some table conversation and invite those with smart phones to look up information to add to the conversation.

Tara Dibble - I was reviewing some of the lesson plans on the website and saw the Scavenger Hunt plan. We did a version of this for the Year of Faith. Using the framework of our diocesan brochure regarding 25 pilgrimage sites we created a list of "challenges" for our parish families to create. Some were simple (take a picture of your family at the fish and others were more difficult (travel to St. Augustine). At the end of the school year the families submitted digital photobooks of their adventures and the winner received an iPad. It was a lot of fun for the families who participated and many used their cell phones to document their challenges. Many families commented on how it brought them together, led to conversations about faith, and how they would continue to seek these adventures beyond our contest.

Barb Blanco: As our parish continues to move forward I hope to incorporate more digital educational tools. I think textClues would be a neat way to get the ball rolling. Both teachers and students would find this application fun and informative.