Teaching faith to the Internet generation
Here’s what you need to know and why it matters.
Photo from Photos.comToday, “change” is a hot topic. Every conference I attend claims to describe “the next new thing.” However, most confuse substance with style. Making the old ways “hip” is not change. Catechists and teachers are already learning that teaching with structures that were built for a 500-year-old print culture are not working in the digital world.
Figuring out what does work, however, is challenging. Most of us are immigrants in the digital world. We’re used to being in charge and knowing more about cultural realities than our young people. However, in the digital world, the youngsters, sometimes called Gen-Y or the Net Generation, are more proficient in navigating and communicating than many of us older folks are.
How do we deal with the declining influence of our teaching methods, especially for this next generation?
The first information revolution
Imagine you are in Wittenberg, Germany, around 1530 attending “Liturgy Fest,” a conference to re-energize local participation and appreciation for the ritual. The times, however, are complicated and restless. A priest by the name of Martin Luther has questioned the role of the church as the exclusive mediator between believers and Christ.
During one of the sessions at Liturgy Fest another priest lays a Bible on a table. This is a printed Bible, not a handwritten one. It is the first one most of the participants have seen.
The implications of this book meant that one day anyone could own a copy. If everyone owned a copy then they could read and draw their own conclusions, perhaps deviating from the teachings of the church. That was already happening with new radical sects challenging the church, causing unrest, and stirring violence.
How did the “catechists” of their day harness the power of the printed word to become a new catalyst for changing Western civilization? They produced it, distributed it, and set up schools to teach the fundamentals of reading, writing, and critical thinking.
What makes today’s reality unique
Fast forward to today. We are at a historic turning point—one bigger than the Enlightenment. The scale of this turning point is beyond comprehension.
What makes this turning point so significant is that Gen-Y is the first generation in history that understands how the new world operates better than their parents. At 52 years of age, I am a “digital immigrant,” and I have to work hard to understand the world my kids live in. Those who catechize my kids and other Gen-Ys need to work just as hard. In many education settings, we still use out-of-date textbooks, reciting dates and events as the primary measure of competency.
To contrast, for children today, the world functions in a multi-disciplinary, interactive, “ain’t nothing the way you think it is,” hands-on, multi-sensory laboratory of the mind. Schools still teach the old world content when they need to focus on the current context of learning.
Our mission as catechists and teachers
What the church of the 1500s embraced (and we have not) was a mission to train the world in the medium of that day. They made the investment in the new technology of printing and laid the foundation at the grass-roots level which ultimately shaped every Western institution that emerged from the Enlightenment.
Think back. Can you remember when you were trained how to hold a pencil and how to form a letter? That was a fundamental skill for print culture. Now we need to make sure our kids know how to produce a video, create a podcast, develop a blog, build a Web site, design a social network, etc. The reality, however, is that many of our children today already know how to do most of this. It is you and I who don’t.
We need to learn how. Otherwise, young people will take the path of least resistance, and they will use these powerful digital tools for mere amusement instead of a means of conversion and transformation for themselves and for the world.
If we do embrace the vision that our forebears had—a vision for spreading faith by education the world with new technology—then there is a bright future for this next generation.
Five ways to get started with e-learning
If you use cell phones or buy products from Amazon and eBay, you already have a start in navigating the digital culture. Here are some easy steps for immersing yourself a little further.
- Use Google Apps Education Edition to network your learners. Imagine how valuable it would be if your learning community—students, teachers, and parents—could share information and ideas more easily. Google Apps includes Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, and more. It’s free, and it’s easy. Google.com/a/edu
- Get involved in a social network. Myspace.com is the social network you’ve probably heard about most. It’s gotten some negative press that may make you wary of trying it. But before you swear it off, be aware your learners probably have a page there. There are other social networks that many parents and teachers might be more comfortable with. Check out Facebook.com, imbee.com, vox.com, and multiply.com.
- Start a class wiki. See “Can Wikis make you a better teacher?” on page 16. Also see pbwiki.com/edu.html and wikispacers.com.
- Learn Mandarin. Well, that might be a bit extreme, but do check out chinesepod.com. It’s a great example of how podcasting, RSS, and blogging can be used to teach in the digital world.
- If you don’t’ know what “podcasting,” “RSS,” and “blogging” are, get familiar with Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org). As it says on their homepage, “Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based, free content encyclopedia project. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers; the vast majority of its [approximately 7.5 million] articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet.” You can search Wikipedia for any digital culture term you are unfamiliar with.
For more on tools you can use for teaching, see “E-learning 2.0: How Web technologies are shaping education."
M. Rex Miller is a successful businessman with degrees in theology and communications theory. He has spent more than 25 years researching social change. He is the author of The Millennium Matrix: Reclaiming the Past, Reclaiming the Future of the Church (Jossey-Bass).
