Ten+Great+Ideas+What+Tools

Tell us how you would use one of these tools in your ministry. Include your name next to your example.
Expected time to complete this assignment: 30 - 60 minutes

Example: Wordle As a __#|team-building__ exercise, I would ask my youth ministers to each submit several words that they feel describe themselves. I would compile the words into a Wordle that would illustrate the combined gifts, talents and strengths of the team. (Claudia)

Delicious __#|Dropbox__ SlideShare Wordle VoiceThread Skype GoogleForms Geocaching GoogleDocs Glogster


 * PLEASE POST YOUR EXAMPLE HERE, THEN CONTINUE TO PART 2 BELOW: **

Kevin Hansut - Google Docs - One of my goals for this year is to involve our parents in every step of Faith Formation. I think the survey spreadsheet will be a fantastic way to involve them with quick easy to anwer questions as a means of follow up on our program. Then the answers can be provided to our catechists quickly and we can adjust our other means of communication appropriately. I think it will improve attendance at our various events throughout the year, as instead of guessing I can survey for best times. I have already lauched a google calendar that all can access with our meeting times.

Geocaching- I would use geocaching as a team building exercise with my confirmation students. planting clues on the grounds of our mission votive church. I would then team my confirmation students with a series of clues about confirmation sending them from point to point to discover the true meaning of collaboration. (Barbara E) Thanks Barbara. Many people are intrigued by the idea of geocaching. I hope we can all have a workshop specifically on geocaching some timee! One thing about geocaching, just to be aware: the hidden caches can't be within 500 feet of one another. If you have a large __#|campus__, it will work. In a small area, you may be limited. CM thanks for that information! You just answered my question then.... we were undecided whether to do it at our mission grounds or around downtown st. augustine! I guess downtown St. Augustine would give us more opportunities! You can do an earth cache-when you can't leave anything on the property or a virtual cache all are great optionsAB

Wordle - I can see using this when before a lesson has been learned and using this as a tool to introduce a lesson and ask questions abouth the meaning of the words, phrases and context and the significience it has to the lesson and ourselves. - Rachele D Great idea! AB

I would use all of these tools in my classroom. The only drawback is Glogster is no longer free so I am using Mural.ly which is similar. I like to have the students engaged since mine are ages 9-14. Ruth E

It is very difficult for me to select just one. I currently use Delicious and Dropbox on a regular basis. Of course in class we have used Slideshare. I've used Skype but I prefer Tango. I'll give Skype a try again. As for engaging high school students I'd have to say that Geocaching, Voice Thread, Wordle, and Glogster would fit the bill. However, I would need to practice with each a lot more to use them effectively. Kathleen Kirkpatrick

Mary Jane Spirk St William, Naples I use Skype frequently with my grandchildren living in Nebraska and love it. I found in playing around with some of these things, my current computer is very lacking. I was unable to access many of the applications that were presented. I would love to use Wordle and slide share and of course drop box. Mary Jane, do you mean your iPad or another windows computer? We're finding lots of differences with __#|iPads__, so it may be there's a whole other set of tools for you to use :) Kristi

I've been playing with Wordlr at the office (non-ministry) and would be a good tool to use in conjunction with others we've used (Animoto come to mind). It could probably be used with VoiceThread also but haven't really looked to closely at that. Wordlr could be used as part of presentations but then also inviting students (in my case RCIA inquirers) to create a wordlr as a reaction to the presentation. Dropbox would also be an asset to the RCIA ministry - there are lots of resources provided (hardcopies) that aren't use in the sessions that could be posted there for reference later (and save paper.). (So I changed my mind about VoiceThread and thought I would try Glogster. Taking a class on Mary and the Saints and usually teach the session on the Blessed Mother for RCIA. So I created a Glogster account and made a glog. see part 2) Susan Ajoc

Wordle is really cool wish I had know about it before. I currently use: Gloggster, Google Docs or Drive, Google Forms, Skype (actually used it in a life Night with a Projector Screen to talk with our missionaries we support in Haiti.) Not sure about Voice Thread but maybe we can figure something out with it. Geocaching has promise and I like the idea of photo sharing and going on a trip with out leaving New Port Richey. Amy Acker Mobleycs.

I have started using Google Docs as a ministry and office tool. Our Eucharist to the Homebound ministry is now documented there and shared between me and the person who actually takes care of that ministry. I update a spreadsheet when someone calls for the Eucharist at home. The other person adds dates and comments about who was assigned to visit the person in need. I was making notes in a notebook before! We are also getting ready to add the Mass Schedule for the Priests on Google Docs. Our secretary is constantly changing the schedule for the priests, then printing them out and distributing them again and again. Soon they will be able to access the document through Google Docs. It's just the beginning for Google Docs for us! Ginny Nolan

Sherry Foecking I have not had the chance to use any of these tool with my Guild ladies, but I did a wiki and some of the board members are signing on and adding things. They are pleased with it. I would like to make some group Wordles at a meeting. Several of us have laptops and I think we could get enough for some small group use. We are having a retreat in early October and I think that using the concepts from the retreat to do wordles or Slideshare to show our pictures from the retreat. I use Skype myself and I know one of the Assisted Living homes have Skype facilities locally. We have from time to time, ladies from the parish who live there. How nice to be able to Skype during a meeting. Just like being there.

Adult Ed presentations have been the most well received when they address a current topic of interest, e.g. when "The Passion of Christ" movie came out or when the Terry Schiavo case was at the forefront - I think Voicethread would be a great tool for putting out a presentation to those interested (after we've invited them on Facebook) and then allowing for interaction and follow-up. People could feel connected and feel they have a voice even though we're not all in the same room. Mary Miller

Wow! I think I would like to use all of them ;) I am going to start using google forms for sure, it would save me a lot of time when trying to get input from our catechists and parents, and even more time when trying to organize that information. I will also try to use Delicious to store and organize my bookmarks, so I have access to them from any computer, simple and useful idea that I have not try before. I will encourage catechists to use Skype for videoconference with invited guests/speakers who are out of town. And I am thinking to switch from Dropbox to what is now call Google Drive. Another tool I am currently trying out to help me be more effective as a program coordinator in terms of time and project management, to help me keep track of my different projects, deadlines, etc.. is Producteev (www.producteev.com) which is not on your list but I wanted to share! - Ana L. Munoz Would you tell me more about Producteev? AB

Sue Sharlow-Oh my goodness, this is sooooo cute! I have literally done this the old fashioned way and use it every year for Reconciliation prep. I went to the office to pick up my tri-fold project board that has push-pinned to it a bunch of words that we use to catechize about the Sacrament. I leave it standing and refer to it every single class during discussion. I asked a volunteer to pull of all the words and brought them home, now I'm going to make a Wordle, yipeeee!

Lori Crawford SlideShare would be perfect for sharing my catechist workshop slides. I include both a prayer service at the beginning, some modelling and formation in the middle, then the how-to's of our program at the end. Would be a simple way to make it accessible to everyone after the workshop is over. Janet Mitchell I am using drop box to send photos to our webmaster to update or website.

Sybil Steuart Plan on creating a wiki for my bible study group during the next few weeks. Embedded a video in a power point presentation today.

Dale Brown I like Wordle and have used it before. Will also try Tagxedo. I will be experimenting with Google Forms and Docs. I'm going to look into Producteev. I used to have access to Microsoft Project, but no longer, and it is expensive. Want to also try Glogster, and an alternative if there is a cost for it.

Ann Ferguson As of right now, we are using Google Docs, I can see immediate ways to use Wordle on our monitors in the ministry center and church. I need to see if we can use the slideshare for our monitor system slides which currently is using powerpoint. I think slideshare would allow us for better collaboration between those two ministries that share the monitor, namely religious ed and youth ministry. I already made a wiki to share documents and work with our business manager and committees and as soon as he begins to feel more at ease using these tools, I can see him using wikis for all his different committees instead of emails.

Kelli Bonner I am most interested/least intimidated by Delicious, DropBox, Wordle, and Glogster. With desktop publishing in my background, Wordle and Glogster are most interesting. I can see them as conversation/faith sharing starters or as a way to express a brainstorm that will lead to further investigation or conversation.

Part 2 Time to show off something you have done! Go to the Ten Great Ideas home page of our class wiki and add your own example of a great collaborative online tool. It can be one from our list, or one you have discovered on your own. We have added a few to get you started. __You will have to use your skills at linking and/or embedding a widget in wikispaces.com to complete this assignment.__

===Return to Assignment Page to complete part 2 of this assignment. ===