Category Archives: Mobile in Discipleship/Education

ICCM USA 2013 (3x the MMM)

In the coming weeks, MMM will be heading to the ICCM USA Conference in Taylor, Indiana. And as with the last two conferences, the focus on mobile makes for a decent opportunity to share insights and forward areas of discussion. For example, a conversation at ICCM last year led to the acquisition of a Nokia N950 and a few conversations on open source technologies used on the mission field.

At this coming ICCM event, MMM will be in the mix for at least three of the mobile sessions happening, and given their topics, it should make for some interesting pathways forward.

The first talk MMM will be in on is called The Theology of Mobile Ministry. Here’s its abstract:

The speed of acquisition and use of mobile devices presents a sociological argument for understanding mobile ministry. The emphasis on services and applications presents the technological arguments we are already well familiar with. This presentation will present some of the theological points for understanding and engaging mobile ministry.

A theology-first discussion on mobile tech? Yup. And I’m hoping that it will lead towards an opening of tech and faith discussions on this wise outside of the academic community. This is a topic designed to fit alongside our goals for 2013, so this conference probably won’t be the only one that this information is shared.

After that session, MMM will be leading a panel discussion on the subject of BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices) and what that means for your ministry. This isn’t totally a new topic (think: laptops), but it has caught all kinds of positive and negative press because what it has meant towards IT teams supporting efforts, folks on the field making evangelistic efforts, and ministry leaders who want to stay on top of keeping all of this activity cohesive.

The third and final topic that MMM will be facilitating is a mobile workshop titled Sharing Content FROM Your Mobile.

The challenge for many ministries who want to go about using mobiles in ministry is that the practice of sharing info when on the field doesn’t match what’s done at home. This will be a workshop demonstrating methods of how to share content from mobile devices using several conventional and unconventional methods. Attendees will be active participants and all will be required to use some kind of mobile device during this session.

Now, this seems like it would be one of those easy topics, but the audience attending ICCM works in places where doing something like attaching a file to email, sending a Dropbox link, or even throwing up a server, just doesn’t make sense. Where the wrench happens here is for those groups who are ministering in communities which already have a significant mobile base who is sharing content, but they don’t know how or what’s going on. This workshop will have folks learning how to share content from their devices right in the session, with some notes about what’s happening in the ministry space around them.

At this point, I do have to apologize if you’ve not heard of ICCM before and this is a conference that you want to attend (were you not subscribed to the #mobmin Calendar). Registration is closed. We’ll do our best to make sure the presentation decks to hit the site right around the time the presentations happen on our end. You will want to stay tuned to the ICCM website and its social media hubs for other presenters’ decks.

About ICCM

The International Conference on Computing and Mission (ICCM) is an annual informal (NOties allowed) gathering of women and men who have
a common interest in computers and mission. We share a vision of cooperation for effective use of technology, bringing the Gospel to every nation.

This conference has been going on for almost 25 years, and from what I understand from those who have been there many times, its always a point of not just hearing something new, but being refreshed towards ministry efforts personally, in family, socially, and in organizations. Yea, there’s a helping of geeks whom are there, but its always quite friendly no matter where you are technologically.

One thing that I will note, just in case you miss this one and want to come to another. ICCM is a family-friendly conference. Meaning that there are several attendees who bring their kids along (a couple on the planning team brought their new addition to the conference last year). I’ve noticed that there are women-only sessions, there was a psychologist there last year to help with personal/internal items, and there’s always a section of the time devoted to prayer in small groups and community worship. Its indeed not a normal conference, and at the same time, its how the Body connects with itself.

For more information, including conference information about the Europe and Australia editions of ICCM, visit their website. And if you will be there in June, I look forward to connecting with you there.

Ministry in the Digital Age, IE Day Contest

Ministry in the Digital Age

Was good to see this note of Dave Bourgeois’s book Ministry in the Digital Age now being available.

…What are the best evidence-based practices to implement? How do you best truly integrate digital, rather than just bolting on a few social networking options to an unchanged structure?

For these things are no longer optional luxuries. Any ministry or non-profit without an effective digital and social media policy, owned and understood by the whole team, is doomed to near invisibility and likely failure.

Dr Bourgeois takes you through both the strategic planning and the practical steps for implementation. On his book page, he explains the background to the book, with an online preview of the introduction and appendices…

That news was found via our friends at Internet Evangelism Day, who also highlighted that post with a contest to win a copy of Ministry in the Digital Age. Here are the details:

Do any of these things before the end of May, then email me to say where I can find it along with your postal address, and the winner, chosen at random, will receive get the book:

  • Tweet about this page using this ready-made link, or include the #ieway hashtag
  • Share this review on a Facebook group or personal page
  • Link to or republish this review (an edited summary is fine) in a blog
  • Syndicate our blog posts to your Facebook personal or group page using Networked Blogs
  • Embed our daily Paper.li news roundup into the margin of any webpage or blog – just copy the code from the ‘Share > embed this newspaper’ link at top-right of Digital Evangelism Resources.

Makes for a solid investment, and once my summer swing gets done, I’m sure we’ll have a copy of this in hand to get reading on as well.

For more information about Dave Bourgeois and his work in digital ministry, check out his website and see the fruits of that work with the Biola Digital Ministry Conference.

Creating a Mobile & Online Classroom

I’m in the midst of creating an online class, and specifically doing some edits for the content that’s already been created. The instructional designer for the school I’m working with has gotten back to me with several notes, and much of it are items that probably wouldn’t have been as hard to manage if I weren’t in the position of juggling several computing platforms at once in order to produce this. Now, let me note, this isn’t a knock to that school, or online classes in general, but it is an observation of some of the hurdles that tend to happen when governance doesn’t keep pace with the instructor, or the lesson.

The context of the class is that of creating a mobile ministry. In five sessions, I go through a summary of much of the work that’s been done here at MMM for the past 8 years (yes, its really been since April 2005 that the online aspect of this magazine has been in existence). For this class, I’ve got to handle working through a learning management system (a content management applications specifically made for online education) called Moodle. I’ve also got to create content inside of the enterprise-favorite, Microsoft PowerPoint. Inside of these containers I’ve got the requirements to create engaging and interactive content – and pretty much assume that all of it will be consumed session-by-session and while folks have little to nothing else on their plate. I’m not a fan of that methodology if you couldn’t tell.

At this point, I’ve got to redo a lot of content, and all of it is happening through the use of several mobile/connected tools:

  • my Nokia N8: serves as the audio and video recorder (excellent in both of these capacities)
  • my Kindle Fire HD and 1st gen Apple iPad tablets point towards Evernote and Microsoft Office Online to create the text-based components of this class – the latter doesn’t do so well on tablets
  • Dropbox for sharing files between my devices and with the school I’m working with
  • a personal wiki (using TiddlyWiki) on my Nokia N9 (different device) where much of the content generation, resource collection, and management of all these parts has happened
  • And if that’s not fun enough, a borrowed PC to do the parts with Office Online that are just flat out unusable on these mobile devices

One could read all of that and get the impression that creating a mobile and online course is a lot of work and takes a ton. But, I don’t think so. In fact, I’ve done my best not to push back against the school that I’m working with in order to get a better idea of how to take my mobile-mainly approach and fit it within these constraints. That said, this could be done in a much easier way. For example:

  • There would be one and only one document, Fargo.io an online outlining web app that connects to Dropbox accounts -created by the inventor of RSS (and oldest blogger) Dave Winer
  • Audio and video components would be linked using the Dropbox “share link” feature but these would be created on a single mobile device
  • Group discussions occur via Twitter (only) with access to the tweet stream restricted to the in-class participants only (also helps that Twitter is accessible via SMS, web, and email digests)

That doesn’t sound like much, but once you have your outline (as a professor), then there really isn’t much more to a class other than sparking the discussion(s) that lead to knowledge development/transfer.

I’m not done the edits that I have in place here, but I’m thinking that I might be up for doing something like this for the next presentation or course that I’m asked to lead. Seems like too much of a hassle to be using this tech the way that I do, but then have to take several large steps backward in order to teach people the lessons I’ve learned – content shouldn’t be locked, should be accessible to the greatest number of people, and should be tailored to their unique experiences with its application. I don’t know that content management systems, or governance really enable that right now. But I think that we can get there if we have these kinds of examples that simplify what can be done, then get out there and do it.

How Do You Use Study Resources

screenshot of Olive Tree Bible Study App when using concordance resources
The other day while going through email, I noticed a newsletter from the good folks over at Olive Tree Bible Software. As I read, I saw a neat piece in there about how to use a concordance with their software. Here’s a snippet:

…As you can see, the Olive Tree Concordances are much more than a list of cross references for each word in the Bible. With dictionary information tied to the original language, these resources are valuable tools for Bible study. Each concordance comes with a copy of the Bible in the selected translation…

Read the rest of Using A Concordance in the Bible Study App at the Olive Tree Blog

That piece got me thinking back to how I used to use print resources, then print and web, and then later web and mobile resources in order to do my studies. A good deal of the work that went into feature suggestions and the design of Palm Bible+ app which accelerated my travels in this space. It was very important then to not just have access to the resource, but have it in such a way that it didn’t interrupt the reading flow, but was there when needed. Now then, we did things with the PalmOS Graffiti system, and even the keyboard on Treo devices to make that happen. These days with touch and more consistent connectivity, designing these resources into an app is a bigger challenge.

Even with that challenge, its still a suitable flow of use. So, let’s open question that titles this post (how do you use study resources) with a few qualifiers:

  • For those of you who might use commentaries, concordances, etc. in your private reading, how do you do it? What could be done better?
  • For those of you who use those resources while teaching, what kinds of challenges do you run into either from the side of teaching or the side of sharing the sources of that info with students?
  • For those wh might use these resources to teach, but don’t share them with your students/audiences, why?

There you have a few ways to frame an answer. Let’s hear what you have to say towards using study resources, especially with your mobile-enabled audiences.

How Would Jesus Use (Compter/Connected) Technology

Was browsing over at Symbiota and came across a really interesting question worth discussion on several levels: How would Jesus use technology?

…I think Jesus would have used the technology in a couple of ways. One, I think because we see Jesus working primarily with his group of 12. He talk crowds, he healed and he walked through cities and really impacted a lot of people. But he concentrated, he put a lot of his leadership training in his 12. So I think Jesus would have really used technology to train his core leaders to give them the tools. I think of the story when Jesus send 70, 2 by 2. I can imagine, you know, hypothetically if I can use my imagination them being in the field and asking Jesus the question and having Jesus on Skype or on Google Hangout and he’s saying, OK this is how I would do the situation if I were you.

So I think he would primarily use it in training his core leaders but also because he was impacting so many people, he would make sure that the gospel was broadcasted as far and as wide as possible…

Read the rest of the Interview with Pierre Quinn over at Symbiota

Personally, I don’t know that Jesus would have used tech in that manner. At least not when it came time for ministry. If we look at the text, we see very little of the carpenter in the text, but we do see the effects of his work in terms of social movements, behaviors, and responses.

Its an interesting one, and makes us really think about how we navigate and move in this space. Perhaps its less about the tech, and more about the process after the tech we should pay attention to?

Disclaimer: Symbiota is one of several partner groups to MMM. Interested in partnering with MMM?

Psst… Pass It On

Its been a bit of a slow news week, but there are always notes being passed this worth passing along to you.

  • WorldBibles is a website that has a collection of text and audio Bibles in a few thousand languages. Much of the content is sourced from other websites, but its all collected in one place with a decent search facility
  • In an article over at Fast Company, its talked about why good intentions aren’t enough to make people use your app. That’s a lesson that many in the faith space don’t want to hear (that there’s not as much demand for this content as we want folks to believe). The solution is in part better marketing, but another part building stuff that matters before building the rationale for traditional messaging
  • Also at Fast Company, a article looks at problem solving electronic toys for kids and how one solution points at ways that existing software and hardware can be better purposed for engaging brains and activities… not just entertainment or passive learning as is usually the case
  • Continuing down the kids meme, the Huffington Post looks at tech in schools when kids are able to bring their own device and how that fosters different expectations and results in terms of the tech and lessons from those kids. Lessons here for missions work as well as understanding the educational advantages and constraints of mobile (in ministry).

There are a good deal more articles out there. Much of the week’s notes have already been passed along via Twitter (use the hastag #mobmin to see these). What news and notes have you found worth sharing?

[Video] April Mobile Minsitry Notes

As we’ve done the past months, here’s a video(cast) about those things related to mobile ministry. We talk a bit about the Mobile Ministry Forum, as well as some newly acquired tech and how that’s being used here at MMM. Take a peek and let us know what you think of these videos.

Watch previous months videocasts:

Also, you can check out other videos about mobile ministry.

MMF (@mobmin) 2012 Consultation – Executive Summary

A few days we posted on Twitter asking for prayer for a meeting going on this week:

That got us looking back and realizing that we neglected to post the Executive Summary from last December’s Mobile Ministry Forum Consultation. Let’s rectify that, first with a summary this past MMF Consultation:

119 mission strategists representing 56 organizations (including 31 remote participants) participated in the third Mobile Ministry Consultation sponsored by the Mobile Ministry Forum (MMF). This more than doubled the 2011 Consultation participation. Presentations and discussions addressed a wide variety of issues critical to the use of mobile devices in ministry (see the topic list below). Collaborative outcomes of the consultation include plans to expand the four-week course into a six-week course, develop a training manual to equip ministries and local believers to use social media, create a mobile ministry pathway for ministries considering mobile ministry, develop a centralized online hub for all resources related to mobile ministry, design a three-hour introductory online course, and create a taxonomy for discipleship criteria on the mobile platform.

This last consultation occurred at Wycliffe Headquarters (Orlando, Florida). And if you paid attention to Twitter (@mobmin and #mobmin) in December, you’d seen several comments from various participants. But, besides the comments, there were also presentations, keynotes, and strategy sessions.

Keynotes

Strategy Workshops

Tactics Workshops

Read the rest of the MMF 2012 Consultation Executive Summary

The meeting going on this week aims to take what has happened in this and previous MMF meetings and continue to push mobile ministry activities, awareness, and opportunities forward. Items such as the Mobile Ministry Training Course more video demonstrations of mobile ministry, and more case studies/resources become the output of these kinds of sessions.

Stay tuned to the MMF website and the #mobmin hastag for more information towards opportunities and events in this space. And once there’s some data about another MMF Consultation that we can share, we’ll definitely put that out there.

Multi-Lingual Digital Libraries

Responding to a friend’s email, we were asked what might be some of the best multi-lingual digital libraries? First, a small listing, then some reasoning to why this isn’t a separate page on this site (unlike the way we’ve done apps, resources, and services).

Reasons Why This Isn’t A Separate Page

When this question was asked, I remembered a conversation with the late WS Keel as to why this wasn’t out there already? Why is it that people have to search  far and hard to find a semblance of a library of digital content that works with various connected and mobile devices? My answer to him was quite simple: “a digital library is of no good use when there’s nothing to read it on.” MMM took the approach of pointing to mobile containers for this content. And left it to the greater digital-enabled Body to develop the hooks to connect content into these and former relevant media spaces.

The other reason that you don’t see this as a separate page is that there’s really not much in they way of local content except by a few providers. When you speak of audio content, much of it comes through Faith Comes By Hearing. They really are the leaders of audio biblical resources in this respect. That also means that if there’s work being done, its either under their umbrella, or overshadowed by the legal and logistical issues of being a small fish in a big pond.

Lastly, and most importantly, the legal issues. Instead of writing this again, I recommend the Copyright and the Kingdom (slideshow, PDF) from Tim Jore of Distant Shores Media.

Now, if there’s enough buzz from this post (probably from those libraries that I’ve missed), to make this a page to itself, I’ll do it. But, until the Body gets it together in several facets, we’ll continue to have a hard go of things finding not just multi-lingual Christian resources, but simply finding resources at all.

Content Submission

If you create content and would like to submit it for inclusion into any of these libraries, let me recommend that you do so to open libraries such as Open Bible Stories, Project Gutenberg, and Open Church. Its not that the others aren’t good, its just that they aren’t open to all of the world (yet).