March Forth For Children

The Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church is sponsoring a two-day training event entitled March Forth for Children, Growing Faith-Full Children. The event will take place on March 7th and 8th at Cokesbury UMC in Knoxville Tn.

Breakout sessions will be offered in the areas of Worship, Christian Education, Missions & Social Justice, Family, Fun, and Safety. I will be presenting the two session below each day.

First session - Ministry and the Cyberspace Landscape. Blogs, wikis, podcasts and social networking are all part of the cyberspace landscape. In this session we will explore these and other new technologies discovering how they can be used in ministry. Learn about the potential challenges and how to safely implement them in ministry.

Second session - Cybersafety: Tending 21st Century Sheep
Cyberspace, just like the real world, holds dangers for children and adults. In this session we will
expose the dangers and explore tools and strategies for staying safe.

After the conference I'll post the presentations on this blog.

MySpace signs safety pact with States

MySpace Inc. has signed an agreement with the Attorneys General of 49 states to add approximately 60 new safety features on its website. A key issue is age verification. Members of the task force hope MySpace is just the first social networking site to sign up and this pact will set the standard for safety on other social networking sites.
MySpace is also in the news this week because they just patched a security problem that allowed users to access private pictures on a member's site.

New research on Internet Safety

I ran across a very interesting report this week on Internet safety. The report is a transcription of Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee Forum called “Just the Facts about Online Youth Victimization.” The Congressional Internet Caucus brought together several experts on issues of Internet safety. They discuss some recent research that calls into question many of the thoughts and ideas we have been teaching for years. This quote summarizes one of the studies.

"Our research, actually looking at what puts kids at risk for receiving the most serious kinds of sexual solicitation online, suggests that it’s not giving out personal information that puts kid at risk. It’s not having a blog or a personal website that does that either. What puts kids in danger is being willing to talk about sex online with strangers or having a pattern of multiple risky activities on the web like going to sex sites and chat rooms, meeting lots of people there, kind of behaving in what we call like an internet daredevil."

This research has much to inform our discussions of Internet safety. I encourage you to read the transcript.

The Week After Christmas

I hope you are enjoying a nice holiday season. It has been good for us. We've visited with family, taken some time off work, and enjoyed the slower pace. I also received a couple of very fun, though not necessarily age appropriate, gifts. My family gave me a Nintendo DS with Brain Age and Hotel Dusk. The also gave me a very cool robot. You can see a demo of it here.

A couple of years ago I was asked to preach at our local church on the Sunday after Christmas. I wrote this poem to use in the sermon. Hope you enjoy it.

The Week after Christmas

You Version - The Web 2.0 Bible

YouVersion.com is a great new site that blends the networking and interactive features of Web 2.0 with Bible study. You can read the Bible online, using the King James, New King James, American Standard Version, and several more. You can tag verses with key words and then use the key words to find the verses later. You can even link verses to outside content. Imagine you find a YouTube video that relates to a particular scripture. You can link it in the My Version area so you can find it later. There is also a handy Journal area where you can take notes.
The home page has a very informative video to help you get started.

Acceptable (Responsible) Use Policies

At the CyberSafety conference we identified the need for churches to have Acceptable, or Responsible, Use Policies for the Internet and other electronic resources.

Most AUPs address the following: appropriate Email use, cyber-bullying prohibition, illegal use provision, no expectation of privacy, signature sheet, prohibition against unauthorized software, password policies, and copyrighted material concerns.

Some sample policies can be found at the locations below.

Wesley United Methodist Church

Safe Families

Fair Haven UMC

Diocese of Austin

What do you think? What components are important for an AUP?

Two generations experience the new Nissan GT-R

This week I had an experience that illustrates the impact technology, and particularly video games, are having on how we experience the world. I received the new Motor Trend magazine this week. It includes an article on the new Nissan GT-R which is scheduled to be released in the US next year. This car is obviously out of my price range but it is fun to read about.

My son Timothy was walking through the living room as I was reading the article and I shared it with him. I thought he would be excited to hear about it since we had discussed it previously. Instead he said, "Yeah, I know. I'm driving it upstairs." Turns out the Play Station 3 game Gran Turismo 5 includes the car as one of the choices. It was included when the came was released but it was not unlocked for play until the day the car was actually unveiled. So while I was reading a magazine and looking at pictures he was having a very different experience. He was using a steering wheel, pedals, and a big screen TV to experience the car from the driver's seat. Wow.

21st Century Sheep expect experiences that are interactive and engaging. How do we address this need in our churches?