Tech Tips for Catholics

On some Fridays, I post the top 5 favorite blogposts that I’ve come across throughout the week. You have all weekend now to check them out : )

1. How Churches Use Social Media
2. A Pew study finds Catholic satisfaction with their bishops jumps to 70%
3. Getting Creative with QR Codes
4. 15-Minute flockNote Training
5. Catholic Video Shelf on YouTube & Vimeo

Would you consider putting a QR Code on your Grave Marker?

*Bonus Tweet

The Mozilla Open Badge Project is in development to encourage life long learning, through the form of digital badges. Digital badges are visual representations of a real life skills or achievements. They can be used in both formal and informal learning environments. Anyone who uses foursquare or klout, is familiar with digital badges. What Open Badges does is gives you the platform to build a digital badge program in your own class room, youth-group, unconference, etc.

The nice thing about Badges is that you, as the administrator, get to set the criteria in which to earn a particular badge and award them to your students accordingly. The student then can organize their earned badges in their Open Badge Backpack.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/46490072[/vimeo]

WordPress plug-ins:

• WPBadger ― lets you “bake” badges from within the WP Admin panel
• WPBadgeDisplay ― lets you display your badges on your WordPress site as a widget

But what if I don’t have a WordPress site? Now worries; ForAllBadges.com let’s you bake badges and add students from within its cloud software.

If you need any help with implementing an Open Badges program, the Open Badges Community is more than happy to help.

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Every Friday I post the top 5 favorite blogposts that I’ve come across throughout the week. You have all weekend now to check them out : )

1. Creator of Bible-based Facebook game lauds internet evangelism
2. How Ministries Should Approach Media & Marketing
3. 25 Awesome iPhone tips and tricks
4. “Technology and the Generation Gap” (video)
5. QR Codes Everywhere Even on Grave Markers

Would you consider putting a QR Code on your Grave Marker?

Bonus Tweet:

Also, Check out these great sites for kids!

• The “Brother Francis” DVD Series
• Happy Saints
• EWTN Kids
• Vegie Tales

If you have a blogpost that you would like to share with me feel free to contact Catholic Tech Tips and I will get it.

Have a great weekend!

Joshua

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www.youtube.com/grfilmschool

Below are some related links to this topic:

• YouTube “Alternatives”
• i-Confess & WYD Video Contests
• Using formspring to Evangelize

Every Friday I post the top 5 favorite blogposts that I’ve come across throughout the week. You have all weekend now to check them out : )

1. Giving up community for Lent?
2. Avoiding Common Mistakes when Using QR Codes
3. Understanding Facebook Page Insights
4. “Do More With Your DSLR 1: Working with Available Light” (video)
5. “I Have a Say: Father John Hollowell” (video)

*Bonus Tweet

If you have a blogpost that you would like to share with me feel free to contact Catholic Tech Tips and I will get it.

Have a great weekend!

Joshua

Every Friday I post the top 5 favorite blogposts that I’ve come across throughout the week. You have all weekend now to check them out : )

1. “Read the Cat” Podcast ― The Catechism, cover to cover, in one year.
2. Preaching to the Connected
3. How to Give a Talk like Fulton Sheen
4. “Open Wide the Doors” (video)
5. Siri Says

*Bonus Tweet

If you have a blogpost that you would like to share with me feel free to contact Catholic Tech Tips and I will get it.

Have a great weekend!

Joshua

I’ve been putting off creating a formspring profile for about a year now. This week I took the plunge.  It really is a simple concept.  Your friends/followers can ask you a question, and then you answer it.  Or you can ask others questions, and they can answer.  With anything on the net, this can be a good thing or a bad thing.  Sadly, it could be used to share with the world things you wouldn’t even share with your mother, but probably should share in the Sacrament of Penance.  Or it can be used by Christians to “always be prepared to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but [to] do it with gentleness and respect…” (1 Peter 3:15-16)

Father Shane Johnson is doing just this.  So far he has been asked about the morality of artificial contraception, why does God allow suffering, accountability, faith without works, and the formspring standard questions of, What made you smile today?

I would encourage you to check it out.  And maybe you have a question for Father Shane.

Below are some related links to this topic:

• Show Us Your Catholic Bookshelf! #myCatholicBookshelf
• Fr. Barron’s comments on Being a Priest Today
• The Princess, The Priest and the War for the Perfect Wedding

If you follow us on Twitter, then you know how much we love Kickstarter.com.  Kickstarter is a fun way to fund creative projects.  So, whether you are a Christian musician trying to fund your album, an artist trying to inspire, a software developer with an idea for a game, or someone with an idea for a book and a board game, Kickstarter is a super, great way to get others involved.  What we love about Kickstarter is the community aspect of it.  I have personally created one project and have backed several other worthy projects.

Why really great projects do not succeed…

1. You have no clear vision for your project: If you don’t know exactly what you want out of your project, how do you expect others to be on board?
2. Your project lacks a personal connection: Kickstarter people are real people, doing what they love.  Show your passion. Tell your story.  If your kickstart does not feature a good pitch video, of you, then your project is destined to fail!  Just be yourself and have fun with it.
3. You spam, rather than share: Sending out unsolicited @ tweets makes the rest of the Kickstarter community look bad.  A status update, letting those in your social network(s) know about the project is fine (just don’t over do it!)  Letting your family and friends know about your exciting project is totally acceptable and encouraged.  Podcasting and blogging are other great ways to share your project with others on a personal level.  If your project is creative enough, the buzz may come naturally.
4. You have lame backer rewards: One of the cool things about Kickstarter is the ability to create fantastic rewards for different level of support.  The more special the reward, the more support you will have for your project.  Spend some time looking at what other successful projects have offered to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t.
5. Your goal is too high: Because Kickstarter uses All-or-nothing funding, it is more important to reach your goal, than it is to reach the amount you hope you can get to fully fund your project.  If you go above and beyond your goal, then great!  But, if you do not reach your goal, then you get nothing.  Some people that you see often, and who want to support your project, but do not feel comfortable using Amazon payments, will probably provide funds the old fission way.

We hope to support your Catholic Kickstarter in the near future.  If you kickstart a  project and you would like to plug it in the comments section below, please do!
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Tonight, I took my 4 year old daughter to go see Kelly Croy’s fantastic chalk drawing show!  Croy inspires people, young and old, to live richer and fuller lives, as a teacher, a writer, speaker, coach, father, husband, and in tonight’s case, an artist.  My daughter, an artist in her own right, was captivated by Croy’s performance.  But it was so much more than just a performance.  He brought a message, during this busy, over commercialized Advent season.  He challenged us to slow down, unplug, and meditate on the Nativity.

If you are looking for a great Catholic speaker/presenter at your Parish, company, retreat, or school, Kelly Croy is your guy.  And Kelly can customize his message to match your event theme, if given plenty of notice and information about your specific needs.  Something else that is cool, Kelly usually donates the drawing to the group that hosted him.

Below are some related links to this topic:

• TeacherCast Podcast 07 “The Wired Educator”
• Kelly Croy and the Nun Bun
• Eager buyers line up for iPhone

My cousin, and daughter’s godmother, is bringing a fun and informative class to couples interested in learning Natural Family Planning. Lauren and her husband, Jimmie, have been married for more than three years and have two beautiful children.

Jimmie has been a contributor for CatholicExchange. He has worked as an abstinence educator at Elizabeth’s New Life Center and was a YMCA director, where he organized day camps and after school programs for the youth.  Jimmie has a degree in education from Bowling Green State University. Lauren is a graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville, with a degree in teaching. Jimmie and Lauren are the co-founders of a non-profit organization called the Christian Center for Youth and Family Health (CCYFH).

To registration for upcoming online NFP classes: http://www.onlinenfp.com/signup

I recommended this course to a couple people and one person posted on my Facebook wall, “Hey, thank you for sending me that link about the online NFP course. We just started this past Sunday, it really was a Godsend!”