Christian Education Computing vs. Public School Computing

by Neil MacQueen, Sunday Software

Our approach to teaching with computers in Christian education is different than how computers are set-up and used in the public school. Yet, it is often the case that churches turn to the one computer lab model they are familiar with when starting a lab: the public school computer lab model. Sometimes this happens because the volunteer asked to head up the "Bible computer lab" is a public school teacher. Most often it happens simply because most volunteers know of NO OTHER model than what they've seen at their local school.

I have been teaching with computers in Christian education since 1990. And I've also been a volunteer computer lab teacher in three different public schools where my daughters have attended. In addition, many of my customers are public school teachers and media tech directors who also volunteer in Sunday School. Our collective experience has written this article for you. 

Quick Summary:

1. Christian software is different not only in style -but in substance. We are not teaching math and reading skills. In most schools, computers are used to tutor students in math and reading skills, and for research on the internet, and wordprocessing.

2. Because our teachers and classrooms/schedules are different, so is the way we need to set-up and use our computers.

The current state of computers in public schools...
In many public school computer labs, you will typically find computers lined up in a row or shoved in the corner of a crowded classroom - headphones at the ready, and a teacher "nearby" but rarely working alongside the children. The results are open to debate. I've had many hours of first-hand volunteer experience with computers in the public school. And as recently as February 2009, I have sat down with teachers in a public school to discuss their computer use and problem. 

Surprisingly, the current problems sound like those of the past:  In general, they have new equipment, but old software and no consistent concept of integrating it into the curriculum. Or they have too many computers that don't work right.  These observations have been confirmed in countless reports and quite a few teachers who have read this article over the years.

In the past decade, quite a lot has been written about how public school are not using computer to their fullest potential. While Sunday School software and public school computer and software are different from each other, the reasons for failing with technology are not so coincidentally the same. At the end of this webpage you'll find excerpts from a short interview about this subject with an expert in the field.

I have never met a public school teacher who was satisfied with the way they use technology. In some ways, Sunday School labs have it better. We have a better teacher to student ratio. Most churches have small class sizes and the teacher is focused on ONE lesson and ONE piece of software. And the nature of Bible teaching calls for the teacher's presence AT the point of content, --the computer. We want to discuss our content with the kids, whereas in the public school, the teacher often waits for the kids to "get done" and receives a worksheet or paper from the students to be graded. See my additional comments below on this topic.

The following is a listing of the differences between computer in Christian education and public education. It is not meant to be exhaustive, but merely to help teachers (in particular those public school teachers helping the church) understand how and why their use of computers in C.E. will be different. This article is a think piece to take as you will. I do welcome your comments via email.

The Differences

Issue

 Sunday School

Public School
 1. Length of class time  35-55 minutes on average, once a week 7 hours a day, 5 days a week
 2. Training/Preparedness of Teachers  Volunteer Teachers Professional Paid Teachers and Media Specialists
 3. "Hold" over Students  Volunteer students! Grades, Detention, Class rewards, compulsory attendance, enforced homework, tests
 4. Desired Outcomes  Emotional-Life changing emphasis Knowledge acquisition & thinking process-centered 
 5. Curriculum Bible story-centered with reflection and discussion in small groups Reading, writing, grammar, math, history
 6. Teacher-Student Ratios  Approximate church average 6:1 25:1 in typical public school classroom 
7.  Technology Help Available Churches with financial resources limited to its members Government, District, and PTA grant-fueled technology initiatives
 8. Distribution of Hardware Computer arranged in one room Computers in each classroom

Consequently...

We in the Sunday School set up our computers as GROUP workstations, with room for the teacher to get in next to the students. Our computer use isn't one activity among many, it's the focus of the lesson which everyone is working on at the same time. And because we are working in groups, we can't have computers lined up, and headphones aren't preferred.

And because we in the Sunday School are ALL doing the same lesson in that classroom during a short window of opportunity (the 45 minute Sunday class) Sunday School computers are often all running the exact same software at the same time. Whereas the public school students may all be working on individual projects, and each computer might be running a different program.

And finally, because we don't GRADE student work in the Sunday School, Sunday School teachers MUST go through the software with their students to be sure they understand the content, and to have an opportunity to point things out and discuss them. In the public school, the teacher can be rather remote from the computer and software because they have the leverage of grades to enforce content acquisition. And because we have volunteer students in Sunday School, our software needs to be more interesting too!

Comments:

1. Many of the ideas about computers in public education DO NOT translate 100% into the Sunday School.

2. Because the decision to use computers in Sunday School is often motivated by desire to attract students to church, in addition to teaching them the "results of using technology" can't be measured in purely educational terms.

3. Due to lack of grading leverage, students in a church setting operate under some different motivations. Learning with computers must not only be "good for them," it must "feel good" too in order for them to want to engage and come back. HOW we teach matters.

4. The reality of one hour class periods, volunteer teachers and story-centered software means CE computer use will require different teaching styles, i.e., more the "guide by the side co-explorer" model than "assignment maker and lab assistant" model in order to make the most of the software and our limited time.

5. Most Christian education computer lab projects/lesson plans must be do-able within a single class period due to typical church attendance patterns. This impacts -but doesn't necessarily eliminate- our ideas about a whole host of projects, such as, web site and multimedia presentation design.

6. Computer in Christian education can make a significant contribution in the same area computers in public education do: learning by memory work, quizzing and tutorials. These are some of the easiest lessons to teach.

7. More training events and resources are needed to help volunteer based teachers in the Sunday Schools. Because we'll always have volunteer teachers, the size, scope and variety of our computer lab projects/software may need to be more closely matched with who we have to work with in any given time frame.

8. Access to fewer computers, limited class time, and fewer financial resources in churches (compared to the public schools) will require learning and teaching styles that emphasize cooperative & equipment sharing behavior. The nature of that sharing will practically negate the use of headphones --requiring great vigilance on issues of computer lab acoustics and set-up.

9. Public schools can have the goal of "building student computer skills" to justify their existence. Sunday School has no such goal or result in mind (nor should it). Christian education computer use must not become a class in learning how to use the computer.

Looking for specifics about how to successfully use computer in Christian Education? Browse the ARTICLES page at www.sundaysoftware.com. For a complete discussion on using computers in Christian education, consult the book Computers, Kids and Christian Education. The outline of the book is at this site.

 

The following comments were excerpted from an interview in Educational Leadership Journal with Jane M. Healy, author of Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds—for Better and Worse (Simon & Schuster, 1998). You can read the entire text of the article at http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/edlead/0010/tell.html

I've written about and discussed many of these same issues in my book and seminars, but they bear repeating from another source (I know you're getting tired of hearing it from me).

Here's what Jane Healy, author of Failure to Connect has to say about computers in the Public School:

==Teachers have to be part of the educational process. Unfortunately, the political pressures to toss computers into classrooms and to get Internet connections before people even know what to do with them is an attempt to run around the teaching profession. This troubles me a great deal. To assume that adding a computer and software to a classroom will automatically make kids learn better is a perfect example of how little our culture understands the dynamic interaction between teacher and student.

==It isn't simply a question of whether the students seem "motivated," are having fun, and can repeat back what was on the software, but whether they understand what they are doing and can apply it in a broader context. The key is carefully watching the student and asking important questions about what she's really learning

==Now my feeling is that children under age 7 really do not need to be using computers.

==We're not just developing this child's left and right hemispheres. We're trying to develop the entire brain and the entire child.

==We may lose the impetus to do the wonderful kind of research that explores how technology can benefit teaching and learning. Educators have to get their wits about them and take charge of technology, take this potential back from the industry and put it firmly where it belongs—in the world of educationally, and humanly, sound practice.

Copyright Neil MacQueen, Created March 1999, Revised 2003, 2009