by Neil MacQueen
See also Neil’s other book:
Workshop Rotation Model, a new model for Sunday School
I started teaching with computers in my Sunday School back in 1990. Since then I’ve helped THOUSANDS of churches and teachers get started with computer in Christian Education, and get the most out of this wonderful teaching opportunity. Along the way, I learned the right and wrong ways of setting up a lab and teaching with software.
The insights in this book come not only from my own experience, but from literally thousands of teacher-customers I’ve worked with over the past 20 years. They have CONFIRMED, REFINED, and ADDED-TO our advice through their experience.
Originally published in 1997 as “Computers, Kids and Christian Education” by Augsburg Fortress Publishers, the 2018 “Teaching with Computers in CE” edition is available as a FREE DOWNLOAD HERE.
You can also order paper copies on Amazon or Createspace.
The current edition was REVISED IN 2016 and spans 80 pages.
The book includes:
- why computers belong in Christian Education (how to explain it to others)
- the best advice and tested advice about getting started …and what to avoid
- the keys to success
- the mistakes to avoid
- lab set-up diagrams, issues and suggestions
- hardware recommendations and technical tips
- teacher recruitment tips (what kind of person to look for)
- teacher training helps
- software recommendations
- lesson schedule examples
- lesson plan examples
- strategies for stretching your software budget
- seasonal ideas, and special room decor
- special chapters on using computers with Preschoolers and Middle Schoolers
- a theological & educational rationale for teaching with computers in C.E.
- lots of computer lab photos!
Read it, skim it, print certain pages for volunteers, but definitely print the last three pages which contain our Teacher Training Pamphlet. This great handout explains, encourages, and gives examples. It’s full of great tips and designed to be copied and handed to your teachers. 78 pages full of advice, diagrams, photos, and insights, and you’re welcome to place it on the copier to make handouts for your teachers! This teacher training handout is also available just by itself here.
One of the first chapters of the book is titled, “Almost) Everything I Needed to Know about Teaching with Software I learned in 1990.” After 25 years of teaching, I believe our initial insights about the place of the teacher in the lab were right on: you teach, you don’t just watch. “Watching kids use computers” is what they do in the public schools. “Guide by the side” is what we call it in Sunday School. I still teach that way and hope you will too.
ORDER
Teaching with Computers in Christian Education, 2016
or… order hard copies from Createspace
You may also be interested in my other book:
Workshop Rotation: A New Model for Sunday School
Click here to learn more about it.