Mobile Ministry Magazine

Here at MMM, we spend a lot of time talking about mobile technology education. And there's a good reason for that - there isn't much talk about it out here. At the same time, the idea of what makes up various learning methodologies tends to change all around us. After taking a spin through the archives here, and thinking about my own workflow methods, I started asking the question if in this more-digital time, that we are taking the time to reassess how we teach and learn various items.

One of the rabbit trails led me to looking at the group called Sugar Labs. These are the folks responsible for the operating system which is on the OLPC device. I immediately gathered from looking at their website is that effective teaching requires one to constantly reevaluate how they are learning.

For example, in a small group that I lead, we talk through the subject "how to study the Bible." However, that "how" becomes a very wide question in the context of learning styles, economics, and even attention spans. In our current study, I'm challenged with helping the team learn about different methods of utilizing cross referencing in order to understand and learn Scripture and to this I'm challenged towards really paying attention to what they are learning and then presenting the lessons in ways they can grab and excel with. To this point, I don't know yet what will be successful, but I do know that if I'm not careful to consider their eyes, then they'll miss seeing the point.

The other part of this is that I've got to look at how I'm learning. Today I'm making decisions regarding different screens that I use in my personal workflow. Those screens describe a bit of the spatial way that I learn and parse information and my environment. In this, I see that the environment isn't under my control, but I do control how I learn from it. For those things mobile, this is a key point that separates it greatly from other media.

Labels: education, OLPC