Category: Technology

Posted on

Join the New Diigo Group for Catechists and Educators

It can be difficult keeping up with all the new catechetical resources available on the web.  If I go a day without checking my Twitter account, I might miss dozens of links to great web sites, blog articles or educational tools. That’s why I’ve created a Diigo group for Catholic educators. As I come across valuable resources for Catholic teachers and catechists, I’ll be saving them to this group.  I invite all Catholic School Chronicle readers to join so that together we can build a set of resources to help us better reach our students. The group is moderated to keep spammers out, so head over to Diigo right away and join the Catholic Education Diigo group.

If you’re not familiar with Diigo or social bookmarking, watch the following video for an explanation. I hope to see you there.

Posted on

Find Catholics on Twitter via Fr. Roderick

Fr. Roderick Vonhögen of SQPN fame has published a very comprehensive list of Catholics on Twitter. He’s divided the list into several categories:

  • Popes, bishops and dioceses
  • Priests
  • Deacons
  • Seminarians
  • Religious
  • Catholic Media Personalities
  • Podcasters
  • Catholic bands
  • Other Catholics
  • Resources
  • Organizations
  • Commercial
Fr. Roderick Vonhögen
Fr. Roderick Vonhögen

I’d love to help him add to his list by giving him links to all the Catholic teachers on Twitter. If you’re a Catholic teacher and you Tweet, leave a comment below with your Twitter name and I’ll send the list to Fr. Roderick.

You can find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nsenger. If you’re not on Twitter, and you don’t know what all the fuss is about, check out the video at the end of this article.

P.S. I was a bit chagrined to find that Fr. Roderick and I are using the same WordPress theme, but what can I say, I guess great minds think alike!

Twitter in Plain English

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

Posted on

Tech Tips from a Catholic Technology Expert

Colette Cassinelli
Colette Cassinelli

As we prepare students to be people of faith in the 21st century, we need to be more and more familiar and comfortable with new technology tools.   I’m always on the lookout for useful technology tips, and Colette Cassinelli’s edtech Vision has plenty of great suggestions and tricks for using technology in the classroom.  Colette is a Google Certified Teacher and works at a Catholic high school in Oregon.  She describes herself as a “technology evangelist,” and blogs regularly about teaching with technology.

Check out edtech VISION and learn how to subscribe to RSS feeds, why G-Mail is Colette’s choice for reading email, and how to be a highly connected person.

Colette is a member of the Catholic School Teachers Network and will be presenting “Google Tools for Catholic Schools” at this year’s NCEA convention in Anaheim, California.

Posted on

What’s the Role of Technology in Catholic Schools?

This provocative video challenges us to think seriously about the place of technology in our schools:

Do you agree with their comments? In light of the opinions expressed in the video, what can Catholic teachers do help students become responsible users of technology? And what about those who don’t have access to technology?

My Take: Students who have access to computers and cell phones are constantly consuming and creating content. If we are to help them become bearers of Christ’s light to the world, we need to help them evaluate the content they’re taking in and the content they’re creating. In some respects, this is no different than what we’ve done for decades. We try to help students think for themselves and apply the teachings of Christ to the ethical decisions they make, and we challenge students to bring the Good News to every arena of their lives. But we can’t do that unless we are familiar ourselves with the ways in which they are using technology–unless we speak their language and know how to use the tools they use.

What’s your take?