Ideas for Gospel Instruction

[aebrown]

Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find the lesson you are referring to. On the LDS.org website, Teaching, No Greater Call, Lesson 3 is
"The Teacher's Divine Commission". (http://www.lds.org/manual/teaching-no-g ... n?lang=eng).

RussellHltn provided a link to the lesson he was referring to: Teaching no greater call: Lesson 3: Teach by the Spirit; his Lesson 3 is in Part G, whereas your lesson 3 is in part A. If you look at the table of contents for Teaching, No Greater Call, you'll see that there are several lessons labeled "Lesson 3" because there are several different Parts.

[dennisn]

It is alot, but not as many as you have indicated, because the projectors can be shared by classes which meet at disjoint times. For example, Gospel Doctrine and RS have separate time slots, and so could use the same projector. Likewise with Sunday School 12-13 and Deacons, Sunday School 14-15 and Teachers, etc, Also, units which share the same building but meet at different 3-hour blocks could totally share the same projector sets, as there would be no conflicts. Think of the cost as a per classroom cost rather than a per class cost. And, each projector would last for many years. And once all media is available for viewing via a projector the need for a TV would go away.

[kisaac]

It somewhat amazes me that, with all the technological advances of the last few decades... classes are still conducted using, principally, a printed lesson manual and a chalkboard, with the occasional picture or brief video.

Sorry - you lost me at Powerpoint

I guess that is the issue, really. Dannykos, with "tongue-in-cheek," pointed out our kids are far more media savvy than us, their leaders and parents. My son, in 6th grade, gave a power-point he made of his accomplishments to me at parent-teacher conferences at school! I see a huge technology gap between our "houses," and our "meetinghouses," and between me as a parent, and my kids.

I know this is what you are addressing, and I see it changing...
I'm just not sure equipping the classroom with media capabilities and handing the teacher a laser pointer and a remote will change a technology gap between the generations. Perhaps it is THIS technology gap that is the current limiting factor to how quickly technology progresses in the church. I think that will work itself out, but it will take time, and patience.


Added later: P.S. thanks for the time and thought you put into your original post, dennisn. We DO need to have these discussions....send your suggestions to the curriculum department (look in the front of a manual for their address)

[rnolter]

I really like this thread. I currently teach Sunday School and I do it mostly with an iPad and a chalkboard. I'm going to purchase a pocket projector (about $300). That way I'll have the flexibility to show clips, pictures ect. When needed o enhance the experience. Media can enhance and in some cases be over done to the point the message is not the focus. That would not be good for what we are trying to teach.

However, the gospel library app can be expanded to give us more colors to highlight with, as well as add more ULR's to the content to allow complete note taking. Also a cloud feature synching with my study notebooks on LDS.org would be great to keep all of my devices updated as well as add the opportunity to buy new devices when they arrive and transfer my marked up documents to them. That way I'll always have them!

Sme teaching apps would be great that walk you through the curriculum development stages for your lessons. Simple templates we can drop our markups into that will help us organize our thoughts and ideas into 40 minute plans that can then be executed. The current BOM teachers guide is good but I need to be able to mark all areas up and maybe incorporate a "Bamboo Paper" like interface so I can write/draw in the margins.

The simplicity of chalk and paper is great and timeless but a few simple iPad/gospel library things can really allow me to focus on study/preparing the lesson then presenting a lesson with the spirit that will help me help folks understand the messages possibly a little better.

[sbradshaw]

Many YSA wards around BYU have this advantage – we meet in classrooms in BYU buildings on campus, and most of the rooms are equipped with in-podium computers, projectors, screens, and speakers. If the church wants to observe and test a system like this, Provo YSA wards are the perfect place to do it.
In Priesthood meeting, we usually have the hymn on the projector, and use the Interactive Church Music Player to play the music while we read the words and notes. Then the instructor usually puts the manual or talk he's teaching from on the projector. Nobody is excluded from the discussion for forgetting their manual. In Sunday School a couple of weeks ago the teacher prepared a PowerPoint presentation for her lesson. Also, we are able to watch online church video clips as a class really easily.

[dannykos]

In Sunday School a couple of weeks ago the teacher prepared a PowerPoint presentation for her lesson.

Arrghh - death by powerpoint in sunday school!?! Please no

[ggllbb]

Heh heh.... funny.... At least you can read the text, unlike some chalkboard handwriting...

I have used PowerPoint a couple of times with minimal slides for Sunday School both for youth and for adult. I used it mostly to display the pictures. I could be wrong, but I believe that the youth would be a good place to use this kind of 'technology'.

One thing that must be avoided if using something like PowerPoint is to not diminish from the very interactive nature of teaching in Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society/Young Women etc. Some teachers tend to not be as interactive as they probably should be without PowerPoint. I would hate to see that get worse.

[JamesAnderson]

I think this is why they didn't put .ppt files or similar on the Old Testament and Doctrine and Covenants resources CDs, they do however, have several hundred slides for quotes and scriptures that you can put up on the TV screen from the DVD directly.

That said, there could be an easier way to get this material, especially with tablets, and somehow they need to make those slides available online, so that you could pull the maybe half-dozen at most you might need for a class although with a typical class you may need only two to four, aside from the Gospel Art or other approved images. One good example is the one shown in some of the material about the DVD contents, the Noah's Ark comparison and the accompanying question and answer.

[johnshaw]

I am preparing our underlying infrastructure in our meetinghouses to meet the needs that I see and understand are coming from the church. The ability to incorporate media content the church has provided into teaching and training in our meetinghouses is becoming more critical, particularly for educating the rising population. There are some great things coming, and the ability to use my smartphone, or tablet, a DVD/TV to show content (using a media server on the TV) is the future. My 12 year old does PPT presentations in school nearly weekly. I'm not talking about slides, I'm talking about animations, stuff I don't even do at work, and I do a ton of PPT. We will need to stay abreast, or lesson preparation and presentation will turn off the youth before they have chance to open their hearts to the spirit of a lesson.

[dannykos]

I am preparing our underlying infrastructure in our meetinghouses to meet the needs that I see and understand are coming from the church. The ability to incorporate media content the church has provided into teaching and training in our meetinghouses is becoming more critical, particularly for educating the rising population. There are some great things coming, and the ability to use my smartphone, or tablet, a DVD/TV to show content (using a media server on the TV) is the future. My 12 year old does PPT presentations in school nearly weekly. I'm not talking about slides, I'm talking about animations, stuff I don't even do at work, and I do a ton of PPT. We will need to stay abreast, or lesson preparation and presentation will turn off the youth before they have chance to open their hearts to the spirit of a lesson.

All sounds exciting, but how are we going to be able to afford to have enough equipment so that 6 or 7 different classes can be taught concurrently - all relying on various church media resources?