These words came from one of my students who participated in an on-line conference hosted by the Christ in Media Institute. I have had the opportunity for the past several years to provide students in my Intercultural Communication class a chance to participate in an on-line conference. On-line conferencing is not a concept either my students or I were familiar with. I am sure when I introduce and explain the assignment students are skeptical of the benefits for such a course requirement. But the on-line conference provides them a unique opportunity to join participants from more than 100 countries — students, faculty and lay people, in Christ centered careers using media for gospel outreach — to connect with each other. By participating in these conferences my students have identified new ways to use their gifts and abilities to glorify God whatever occupations they might pursue. What blessing!
Students take ideas shared through interaction with conference presenters, move beyond the assignment, and take them to their home congregations, campus, and community. A posting from Lakeside Lutheran High School about making video to promote the school resulted in connections with other schools and churches, and prompted looking into the future at the choice of a Christian high school over a public school for their siblings and children. A conference review of Christian movies initiated a great back and forth, and sharing of titles of films to see. Conference presentations on photography, painting, cloth art, and gaming technology all had students encouraging presenters to continue their commitment to do gospel outreach using their unique gifts. Social media is often a topic covered in the conferences. Blogs, smart phones and Twitter contests provide ways to interact especially with the younger generation. But balance is the key word. These are seen as communication tools and the conference provides examples of how these media can be used to spread the gospel.
One presenter observed, “It is clear that communication is hard.” As a professor of Communication I see evidence of this every day. The challenge for me is to try to provide opportunities for students to move beyond our campus and their busy lives. The on-line conference format has provided me an opportunity to deliver to my students a whole host of diverse presenters on a variety of topics. These presenters have been willing to share their media related projects and gifts, answer questions, and respond to suggestions — from all over the world. Some of the students have even had the chance to interact in Spanish or German. The cost is nothing but time! The benefits are priceless!
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Discussion
Mrs. Uecker
I loved that you brought to light this idea of using visuals in classrooms and in ministry in general. Being in the younger generation of ministry training, it’s very helpful for me to have visual aids to learn and grow more. I believe that this is the time to start training our upcoming pastors and teachers more in the use of movies and art and technology in classrooms and in services to help others learn and understand more about our faith and God’s Word.
After reading through your article and a few of the responses, everything was very positive and encouraging in the aspect of having more visual aids and expanding on the use of technology. Do you think it’s possible to get too involved with technology and in the future have it become a bad thing? Is it possible to lose sight of teachings just because of too much technology use?
Thank you for your contribution to the conference.
Thank you so much for sharing the wonderful impact that the on-line conferences have had on students. This has made me consider reading these responses and posts on a more daily basis. It is such a blessing to be able to connect and read your thoughts through technology.
Do you look forward to spending more time teaching through technology in the future? Or do you think it will still be a balancing act?
Thank you for your words!
I have never thought about how beneficial it could be to do conferences such as these. You’ve shown some great positives that comes out of these conferences, and how they can strengthen our faith and our unity with each other, and also how we can reach out and spread the Gospel. It’s fantastic that people can share their outreach methods with others who may not be quite as creative or knowledgeable.
However I am sure that there are people who have never heard of the online conferences or maybe have heard of them but don’t have the chance to be a part of them. Surely these people want to, and should be able to benefit from them too. Is there anyway to see the results and big points/ideas that come out of the conferences without actively being in them. Are they possibly listed somewhere for someone to read through and learn from?
Thank you for sharing your knowledge about the online conferences.
I enjoyed your insights into the digital connections that online conferencing can provide to students. Words and actions can be powerful tools to spread the Gospel as well as inspire, generate, and build upon ideas. Allowing your students to reach beyond the borders of their campus through an online information highway that extends across the world can give rise to diverse cultural interactions.
Your article was thought-provoking, and so I have a question. Do you think that it would be beneficial for our area Lutheran grade schools, churches, and high schools especially to connect through online conferencing or “video challenges” such as the one Lakeside proposed for the area Lutheran high schools? Would this create a more extensive community throughout the whole of the schooling community to create even more fellowship? In what ways do you think this approach, if any, could be implemented?
Thank you for your work!
I like the idea of technology allowing you to teach a class and not even be there for it. My question is how well did it work? And do you think that it could be applicably done for pastors preaching a sermon?
Thanks.
I appreciate your enthusiasm about how words and actions that we see and hear from fellow believers are inspiring. What a blessing it is to have that desire to want to go out and spread the Word of God using the gifts and abilities that he has given to us! Communication is something that is hard to do, but when we communicate through our gifts and talents, that’s when the real magic occurs.
After reading your article, I had one simple question. How can we encourage even more students to use their gifts and talents in order to serve our Lord and Savior? While some students may be instantly inspired to do something inspiring after watching a presentation, others may not be. How can we inspire and motivate those students to go out and spread the Word of God with the same enthusiasm, all the while using their God-given abilities?
Thank you for your contribution to the conference.
Thank you for considering my ideas. I agree with what you're saying that only through the work of the Holy Spirit are we motivated to use our God-given gifts and abilities. Life is full of choices, and hopefully we make them good ones!
I loved how you brought to life the idea of on-line conferencing and how this can help you in your everyday life. Your reminders of examples of how this can help children pick a Christian school over a public school for other family members or how this can show communication and help open ideas for students. When trying to decide what school to attend, talking to someone about the school or in general and can help them make their decision.
One idea I was wondering about after reading your article was, why did you choose to look deeper into on-line conferencing? You talked about how you liked the idea of on-line conferencing and it sparked a
an interest in your mind. What aspect of the idea sparked an interest for you? I enjoyed the article and the new insight on the topic of on-line conferencing and how it can help others.
God’s Blessings as you continue your work for on-line conferencing.
The idea for online conferences came from Judy Kuster. Much of the work of these conferences is the efforts of both Tom and Judy Kuster whose passion for this work is second to none! Technology is a tool and gift of God that we need to use better. The pervasiveness of technology is astounding. The devil has is figured it out already. We must catch up!!
I really appreciated the way you involved your students with the common technology regarding the online conferences even though you and your students were not familiar with it, especially allowing them to join over 100 other countries. Another great thing about your use of online conferences is allowing your students to use their talents and abilities to glorify God as you said in whatever they pursue as a career. For Lutherans, it is getting progressively harder and harder to share the word because of the use of technology and the fact that the word is not usually shared through technology, but you involving the students like this helps solve a problem like that and spreading the word of God online.
After reading your article, I have a two-part question. How have you felt so far about your students in their ways of using their given technology, and do you think this will continue to be a great way to share the word in the future? You mention the fact that they have the opportunity to get involved with 100 or more countries. I would like to know if you have found anything shocking about getting the good news to countries over the internet, and what extreme differences there are in the ways of sharing the word like this?
Thank you for your contribution to the conference. (P.S I was also a student of your husband's at St. Johns in Wauwatosa for two years, my two first years hearing about the word outside of church!)
I appreciated your passion for using technology to connect the world. I believe that schools should have a higher emphasis on getting to know more about other cultures and people from different backgrounds. Technology offers us that bridge to connect with other people and share with one another our God-given abilities. Your article reinforced me not only to use technology as a tool to share with others my skills, but also to share with them our Savior, Jesus Christ.
You mentioned you enjoy traveling to different European countries. Did you find it hard at times to connect with these people due to the language barrier? And, do you think that technology has made it easier for people from other countries to learn about the WELS?
Thank you for your contributions to the conference.
things. In a moment I can use my phone while on a trip to look something up, find directions, translate. The barrier though will always be the person using the tech. Or to assume that everyone has the same access as I do. On either side of the bridge is a person with whom I perhaps more similar than different. I have been impressed at the end of each conference how many flags run across the landing page of the conference. Though they may not be actively participating, they are reading our ‘stuff’. What a thought to ponder!
Thank you for sharing such encouraging and inspiring thoughts. I have never really heard of online conferencing until now and I think it's an amazing tool that can be easily used. It sounds like it had quite the impact on you and the students and that just warms my heart knowing how involved we can get in spreading the gospel.
Would you personally suggest that more highschools would get involved with and participate in these online conferences? I want to tell my old highschool more about them.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and God's blessings.
I love this!
I really like when you mentioned how students can use social media to spread the word of God instead of portraying negative things on the internet. I feel like this presentation is well worded because this is something that today’s generation need to hear and really understand.
While reading your presentation I couldn't help but to stop and ask, do you really think that the majority of the students would happily volunteer to participate in the online conference without being forced? I really think that students these days don’t really make the time and effort to be involved in these things because their so caught up in other things that are going on in their young lives.
Thank you very much for your resourceful presentation.
I had never heard of an online conference before my Intercultural Communications class. I think it is a great way to hear from other people from many different places and many different experiences. I am glad that this was given to us as an opportunity because I have learned so much and I didn't even have to leave my room like you said "the cost is nothing but time" and I have benefited a lot from reading from the different presenters. Because the online conference is a beneficial way of meeting many people do you think that this has the potential to grow? Also, would you recommend other professors to use this as an activity in their classes?