Using Technology in Religious Ed

"You must remember to love people and use things, rather than love things and use people." ~Venerable Fulton J. Sheen

Smart phones.  Facebook.  Tablets.  Blogs.  ipods.  Pinterest.

We are surrounded by technology.  Kids are surrounded by technology.  Is it good?  Is it bad?  Does it have a place in religious education?

I would be the first to tell you that technology is not always my favorite thing.  I hate facebook, sometimes I "accidentally" leave my cell phone on silent, and I occasionally want to fix an electronic device with a hammer.  However, I also will readily admit that technology greatly impacts how I communicate, work, and learn.  And it gets me thinking about technology and faith.  Based on the Fulton Sheen quote above, I think technology is not good or bad in and of itself, but is a tool that can be used to propagate the faith.

I was asked to give a presentation on just that topic, and wanted to share a few of the resources/ideas that I gathered.

Here is a link to the Prezi I used for the presentation.  (Have you tried Prezi?  I will never make another PowerPoint again...)  The Prezi just contains the talking points for the presentation and not a lot of text, but it will at least show you what the free program is capable of.

Here is the handout with some great quotes from Evangelii Nuntiandi:

And here is a list of all of the links that I mentioned/used in my presentation.  Sorry for the unorganized manner of the list, but they are in the order that they worked into the presentation.  If you open up the document, you can click on the links to directly visit those resources, no typing required.

I would love to hear other peoples' ideas on incorporating technology in your CCD/Sunday School/Youth Group Classrooms!