My churchgoing experience has taught me that there are a couple of things to expect when entering a worship service. Some hold more appeal than others.

-Firstly, there’s a greeting, which means standing up and shaking hands with people who forget to ask your name.
-There are offering envelopes, which have real old pictures of church buildings on them.
-You can also bet on church bulletins, which are full of useful information and potentially humorous misspellings or gaffes.

Those bulletins also usually list “special music,” when the choir sings something a little more elaborate than a traditional hymn to the congregation. I’ve not typically been a fan of this element. The folks who sing are sweet people, and it’s good to have them share with the parishioners, but I’ve always thought the notion’s a little old fashioned. Like, 80′s old fashioned.

That changed the other week. I couldn’t tell you the name of the song, and I couldn’t whistle the melody if I tried, but the special music had an acapella break that just jumped out and grabbed me. I actively thought about how cool it sounded. Then, extrapolated– how cool would it be to have that sort of song echoing a hundred, or a thousand, fold?

Pieces began to fall into place. That… would be heaven. Truly.

I used to envision that we’d be brought into the heavenly realms just to have a giant choir practice. Special music for all eternity. Oh boy.

Instead, in a transcendent moment like that, I realized that heaven was probably going to be more like a musical play. We wouldn’t just stationed in place with elaborate robes on and bulky songbooks in our hands. I imagine it would be natural to do our business of eternal living among saints, The Lord, and friends, and just be moved enough by the wonder of it all to break into song.

Think of a show like Glee (I watch it with my wife, okay?) Or, if you prefer, a 90′s Disney film, or a rock opera. We accept, cheesy as it seems, that the characters can break into a pop song to express the truth of what they are feeling at that exact moment.

In the presence of God, with feelings alternating between gratitude, awe, and sheer exultation hitting us like surf, that’s the primary truth we’ll be experiencing. I bet we’d have the freedom to bust out in song. It won’t be choir practice. It’ll be a flash mob.

Now, this isn’t directly scriptural. I’m speaking more from my present culture than anything else. Heck, I’m sure there WILL be some old school gospel choirs forming up. And watch out for the Gregorians, cause they’ll probably still be pilling on the chants.

But I imagine that for my ADD generation at least, we won’t have to fear staying put and going through a choral marathon. It makes sense to live and move in glory as the Spirirt leads us, and when we’re moved enough…

…get ready for the spontaneous anthems.

My buddy Daniel emailed me the other day asking if I had done any theology cartoons that he might be able to use. He was giving a talk to an adult small group at his church about the usefulness of a good theology (or in vernacular: worldview of God), and he wanted to use something funny as a hook. I had a couple I’d done for a Baptist journal, so I attached them to a reply and shot em ‘off.

Then I read his notes and found a line in there that was too good to resist. So I went to work on the tablet.

Everyone has a theology- even those who don’t have any truck with God at all.

What’s yours, I wonder?

Our first grown-up Halloween. Next year, we’re buying twice the candy and giving out half as much.

This past Wednesday, October 13th 2010, the Graduate Student Association (GSA) was received by President and Mrs. Starr at their home, the Allbritton House, in the heart of the Baylor Campus. All GSA Program Representatives and Alternates were invited to this event. There were food and drinks provided, but the thing that impressed us the most was the warm welcoming reception of both of our hosts. President Starr and Mrs. Starr are known for their warmth and they couldn’t have been nicer to us. Among the guests were Dr. Lyon (Dean of the Graduate School), Dr. Jackson (VP for Student Life), Dr. Scott (associate vice president for Student Life), and Dr. Scales (Associate Dean of Graduate and Professional Studies and GSA Advisor).

How long has it been since I have posted something here? A while right? However it is not like I haven’t been thinking about bloggable subjects. Even this post has been drafted a while ago…i just have not posted it. Surprisingly, the though of blogging about a subject has been in my mind A LOT, I see/read something and the first thought is: “I should blog about that,” but I end up not doing it. It is not like I don’t have the time. Technically speaking I do have more time since I am done with my classes and now I am “only” working on my dissertation proposal, but still…blogging seems to be such a cumbersome activity…Especially since I have recently adopted twitter for how convenient it is (I tweet from my phone often and I am almost breaking the 1,000 tweet mark). However, I have been thinking a lot about the benefits of blogging. For instance, I now don’t have to write any more papers for class (for grade), I am not required to read any more books so what am I going to do with myself if not force myself to write something that is thoughtful and meaningful? I can’t tweet that! So blogging is the way! From now on (and I know this should have started a while ago) I will reflect about my dissertation readings, fun readings, and other fun mind growing activities that I partake on a regular basis. I will also be fully redoing this blog site, and by that I mean that my online identity will be completely be overhauled. I plan on combining both my portfolio website with my blog, and adding other pages, and all of those will be located at the domain that I already own: addysdesigns.com. This might be a lot of work, and maybe this will only be up by next year, but I am very excited about it.

Hey blog friends!

We have changed our address. Please send me a message if you would like to be added to our new blog list. We update on our life and journey on becoming parents!

http://thesmithfamilia.blogspot.com

Born Digital by John Palfrey is about my generation who was born in age of all different kinds of technologies at my fingertips. Technology develops at such a rapid pace, and if you weren’t born digital (or for those like me even if you were) it can be hard to keep up if you get behind. This book raises awareness to the fact that it is important to teach the newest generation important issues as privacy and Internet safety and how they affect young people.

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1. What is one point from the work that you would like to remember?

The chapter that stuck out most for me was over Privacy and Safety. Until recently, I admit I wasn’t even super cautious when using the internet. My face book profile was public so anyone could access my information or look at my pictures. It wasn’t until my mom and her friends got on face book that I thought, not all of pictures need to be show to the world. Privacy and Safety is a huge issue with kids today, most 12 year olds don’t know how to discern what is appropriate and not apocopate to put on the internet,. They also think they are invincible from all of the weirdoes out there…well they are not and as educators we need to inform them on privacy and safety issues.

2. What are the educational implications of the work?

Even though I was born in the digital age I feel like I am lagging behind. It is hard to keep up when a new device or gadget comes out every couple of months. As an educator this is important because technologies in the classroom are constantly upgrading as well. For example: In my new 8th grade US History classroom I have a smart board. Until recently I hadn’t heard of a smart board and I was in high school just four years ago! Luckily I’m getting proper training and I’m going to try and be on top of my educational technology game.

Also, today where information is accessible at our fingertips students need to sort and determine whether this information is useful or not. (p. 164) Those born in the digital age have grown up to create and contribute in our Web 2.0 age, but at the same time though students may be expressing themselves, students need to be taught internet etiquette and privacy and safety issues.

3. What are the personal implications of the work?

For me personally I am going to have to stay up to date with technologies for my classroom. It is important to keep up with technology so that way as a teacher I can integrate it in my classroom. Students born digital are much more dependent and engaged with technologies that ever before. I can’t be having my students know more about technologies than me!

Also, it is important to stress privacy and safety issues to not only my students, but myself as well. Whatever I put on my Facebook or on Twitter anyone of my students or student’s parents can see. I need to be smart as an educator and have a clean profile on the internet.

4. What questions does this work raise for you in your present situation?

How can I stay on top of the latest technologies? I find myself lagging at times and I would like to stay up to date if I can! Is it appropriate to be friends with students on Facebook or Twitter? I need to really think about this before the school year begins. How do I further protect my students on the internet?

5. If the author were available for dialogue what question would you ask?

What prompted Palfrey to be so interested into technology?
How can I balance my technological life with being a teacher?

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Palfrey, John G., and Urs Gasser. Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives. New York: Basic, 2008. Print.

Next to the lifelong joys of trying to be a faithful servant and getting to pursue a wife, fatherhood is probably gonna be one of the most rewarding things I get to do in life.

… but I’m glad I’m not getting rewarded anytime soon.

I mean, I say that. I think college sometimes represents a season of sanctioned irresponsibility in life, and as a grad student with a real job coming down the pipe, I think I’m savoring the last few bits of irresponsibility left to me. Being a father isn’t a reality right now (I won’t even be married for another few months) but when that starts in a couple of years, it’s going to be a major paradigm shift. I will no longer just be responsible for myself and  my (to be) wife’s self, but also the little “selfs” that we give birth to and nurture and train up for life.

And how do I do that in a world that’s so interlinked and so not private? How do I help my kids know who they are if they express themselves in digital avenues I won’t even be aware of?

That’s sort of why John Palfrey and Urs Gasser wrote Born Digital. It examines today’s children– “Digital Natives,” so to speak– and the challenges they face in an evolving web-based culture. It’s a boon to me as an educator, and it’ll probably do the same for me as a parent.

…in a few years.

One major point from the book I’d like to remember is the impact that a socially-networked culture can have on a student’s identity. Here’s the authors’ take, through the lens of a typical sixteen year-old girl:

From the perspective of a Digital Native, identity is not broken up into online and offline identities, or personal and social identities. Because these forms of identity exist simultaneously and are so closely linked to one another, Digital Natives almost never distinguish themselves between the online and off-line versions of themselves. They establish and communicate their identities simultaneously in the physical and digital worlds. The sixteen year-old might be bound to being a tall Irish girl in the physical world, while in digital space she can experiment with self-representation, sometimes in modest ways and sometimes dramatically. Her multiple representations inform her overall identity. (from the e-book version, locations 323 to 338)

(Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2010). Born digital. NY, NY: Basic Books.)

That last statement, I think, is the most profound. I come from a worldview that says your identity determines your activity. In other words,  you have to know who you are so you that can know what to do.

But Digital Natives, especially teens and tweens, apparently do a lot and then know. Dangerous combination. And it’s got implications in the classroom, but I think that can be turned to the positive. I think one of my privlidges as a teacher will be to speak identity into my students. Knowing my kids’ll sometimes be multi-networked, I need to find ways to harness and affirm that multiple self-representation while still directing students to have a cohesive sense of who they are.

But there are implications for me as well. I fall into this, sometimes. Like: I’m more eloquent on a blog than in real life (but I also revise the blog as I go). I’m more terse and witty on Facebook, or on Twitter. And notice: my avatar is a hand-drawn picture of myself. Not a photo. I’m presenting you facets of myself. Be helpful for me to know who I am so that it’s all uniform.

The book raises other questions for me. Like how do I keep my students safe when they journey out into the internet? How do I protect kids from cyberbullying? Or stumbling on shocking material. How do I have a conversation with a student involved in some new software/online fad that I know nothing of?
They’re questions I need to consider. For Palfrey, I wonder how he got into this discussion. Did he have kids of his own that were natives? Or did he have some other experience to enlighten him to a generational gap?

Regardless, he’s given me a good resource. That, I can be glad for.

Neil Postman, a humanist associated with New York University, believed that technology could never replace humans. This is evidently seen in his book Technolopy that we read for class.

1. What is the one major point from this work that you would like to remember?

The major point I would take away from Technopoly is when using technology we need to always be weary of what we surround ourselves with. Postman is not the biggest fan of technology and I am sure today he would be utterly shocked to see what we surround and submerge ourselves in. This quote stuck out to me the most:

“Information has become a form of garbage, not only incapable of answering the most fundamental human questions but barely useful in providing coherent direction to the solution of even mundane problems.” (Postman, 1992. p. 69)

What I took away from Postman, that we must be cautious of technologies and realize that technologies are not a replacement of humans.

2. What are the educational implications of the work?

Personally, I don’t think Postman would like the amount of technology we are using in classrooms today. I think that he would have been a huge advocate for traditional education. As he states in his book, computers are faceless boxes without souls that we work with. Traditional education is much more that a teacher lecturing, a huge component is the social aspects students face. I think that students learn such important social skills in school that they cannot learn from a lifeless computer. As teachers we must not solely rely and overwhelm out students with technology.

3. What are the personal implications of the work?

Technolpoly made me look around at all of the technologies I rely on daily and don’t think twice about. I am very dependent on my computer, the internet, my email. I feel naked if my cell phone isn’t on me. This morning I woke up with my ipod home, brushed my teeth with my electric toothbrush as I watched TV, and replied to face book messages on my cell phone. All of these technologies are huge parts of my life and I could not imagine operating without them.

4. What questions does this work raise for you in your present situation?

My main question is how will I apply the material from this book in my classroom? Yes, it is important to use technology, but as I teacher I need to have backup plans, heave forbid my technology fails. My next question is how do I help those who are technologically behind? What if one of my students doesn’t have the access to my personal website that my school likes for all of the teachers to do? I need to think of alternative methods to reach my students.

5. If the author were available for dialogue what questions would you ask?

I would ask Postman: What do you think of the Web 2.0 era? Are you surprised by the increase of technology in peoples lives? What technologies would you depend on and what would you steer clear of?

Postman, Neil. Technopoly: the Surrender of Culture to Technology. New York: Knopf, 1992. Print.

Born Digital by John Palfrey

1. What is the one major point from this work that you would like to remember? Please identify a page reference in the text and write a brief statement about its significance.

• “The most important thing that schools can do is not to use technology in the curriculum more, but to use it more effectively.  We ought to experiment with ways in which technology ought to be part of the everyday curricula in schools, but only where it belongs. The technology should only be supplied in support of pedagogy,  not for its own sake.” (Pg. 251)
• Integration, not conglomeration.
• Overhauling education as a means to appeal to digital natives is not the answer. Teachers need to engage in the Web like it is a research topic. If they can cull the best information and available resources to augment their lessons, then the Web has been successfully integrated in the classroom, opening doors to digital natives and allowing the teacher to facilitate learning on the Web.  However, if the teacher simply uses a piece of technology because it is “new” or “cool”, the point of our pedagogical goals is completely lost–we have failed to meet our objectives in favor of appearing “with it”.  There are teachers who might do best, do their best teaching work, without implementing any technology in the classroom. The teacher has to understand their own approach to teaching before throwing bells and whistles at it. With an unstable foundation, a flashy looking house is still going to crumble when a storm hits. The methods of a teacher must stand the test of time, questioning, justification, and assessment. If technology does not fit these goals, it has no place in the curriculum.

2. What are the educational implications of the work? (How will this information effect teachers/classrooms/curriculum?)

• Interacting with digital natives using technology in the classroom is not always appropriate: developing lesson plans with technology cognates needs to be just as appropriate as age, content, and other standards for lessons
• Digital natives are on the Web all the time; teachers are not always aware of how to use the Web.  An easy way to engage students in learning tasks might be to have them search the Web for information pertaining to a subject.
• The ability to react publically to information obtained on the Web is a tool teachers should harness and use.  Students, prior to this point, only had a few venues they could use to react to stories or news they encountered. The Web has opened doors of communication that enable the student to give timely feedback which can be responded to almost immediately by others who have an opinion on the topic.
• The role of the teacher (which we are always encouraged to think of  as “facilitator”) truly fits the digital age. Teachers, news carriers, blogs, wikis, family&friends, etc. are all modes of information gathering for digital natives.  If teachers understand that they are in a position to help students appropriately harness the power of the Web to socialize and connect, the Web will become a powerful tool at the hands of the people, not the other way around.

3. What are the personal implications of the work? (How will this information effect my personal life/social networking/safety?)

• Born Digital opens the question of “diminishing attention spans” and the connection to the Web.  Given the amount of ADD/ADHD cases and medicated students in the classroom now, it is safe to postulate that “information overload” from the Web might be causing some students to lose their ability to process information on their terms rather than the Web’s.
• Given all the studies that have occurred about “the brain on the Web”, do we have adequate reason to be concerned about the way our future generations’ brains are being re-wired by the Web?
• Even though information gathering has become quick and  advanced through the onset of blogging and social networking sights, research has shown that people prefer old fashioned dialogue.  This fact tells us that we are not mindless drones controlled by the Web, instead we are the mind of the Web–using the information and processing skills we possess to pass on interesting topics for discussion through a new social medium.

4. What questions does this work raise for you in your present situation? (As a grad student pursuing job opportunities, how do I apply this knowledge to my future?)

• When I search for information on the Web, be it for a project or for personal use, how do I know that I am not shafting my ability to find the most appropriate and deepest research material I can by forgoing the traditional library?
• How can I learn more about technologies without feeling like I am drowning in the bytes of information? How can I apply what I learn when I am trying to develop learning styles and teaching styles in classrooms where technology is not integrated? Do we need to rethink how we teach teachers to teach in order for them to appropriately use technology in the classroom?

5. If the author were available for dialogue, what question(s) would you ask?

Q1: Are digital natives incredibly creative because of the access they have to new media, or are they creative in their own right?

Q2: Has the Web caused a gap between clear data and jumbled media/personal/political etc. opinions, or has it simply highlighted what always existed between people–varying opinions on topics and different personality preferences coming to bare?

Q3: Are we as teachers/digital immigrants/future parents/traditionalists worried about the Web because we feel like we are standing in the middle ground of a revolution where we battle between the “wrong and right” of internet usage?

Q4: How can schools partner with companies–software producers, computer manufacturers, etc–in order to make technology an option for students and schools who cannot otherwise afford it?

Q5: How could we develop professors in every classroom of higher education that teach by example–integrating technology into pedagogical learning so that teacher candidates can see how the Web impacts their own learning?