Tech Tips for Catholics

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

Every Friday, I usually post the top 5 favorite blogposts that I’ve come across throughout the week, however, this week I am focusing on the top 5 cool things you should read in your Amazon Kindle User’s Guide.

1. Learn The Kindle Shortcut Keys
2. Supported File Formats on the Kindle
3. Your Kindle E-mail Address (lets others send non-copyrighted documents to your Kindle by e-mail)
4. Share Passages with Friends on Facebook & Twitter!
5. Do NOT… (Duh?)

What do you love about your Kindle? What Catholic resources do you have on your e-Reader?

Don’t have a Kindle? Visit our Kindle Store.

Have a great weekend!

Joshua

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

On the occasion of the 45th World Day of Social Communications, I would like to share some reflections that are motivated by a phenomenon characteristic of our age: the emergence of the internet as a network for communication. It is an ever more commonly held opinion that, just as the Industrial Revolution in its day brought about a profound transformation in society by the modifications it introduced into the cycles of production and the lives of workers, so today the radical changes taking place in communications are guiding significant cultural and social developments. The new technologies are not only changing the way we communicate, but communication itself, so much so that it could be said that we are living through a period of vast cultural transformation. This means of spreading information and knowledge is giving birth to a new way of learning and thinking, with unprecedented opportunities for establishing relationships and building fellowship.
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Well it has been one year today that I decided to give up the social, Facebook game, Farmville, for good. It was taking up way too much of my time.  I chose not to remove it completely ― figured I’d let my “neighbors” continue to fertilize my desolate garden.

Not long after I quit Farmville, SQPN came out with a Podcast dedicated to it. You can still listen to the archived episodes of the “Secrets of Farmville”.

Soon I began to notice articles like: “Farmville Players Beware ― Facebook Partner Will Do Anything To Get Your Money!” and “Facebook Privacy Breach: Users’ Info Leaked To Advertising, Tracking Firms”.

Social gaming was exciting to me for the short period of time that I participated, but it became highly unproductive. Of course after viewing the screenshot below, you might beg to differ! ; )

Below are some related links to this topic:

• Review: Priestville (Facebook)
• Are you giving up Social-Networking this Lent?
• Connecting with our Youth via Facebook

My wife and I teach 7th Grade CCD this year. We are finding it to be a bit of a struggle compared to the 5th Grade “angels” that we taught last year. In spite of the rules that we established on the first day of class, we are constantly seeing cell phones in use during class! Besides laying out the ground rules of the class, we had each student, ranging between the ages of 12 and 13, fill out a little survey. We asked questions like, “Do you own any of the following: iPod, Bible, Video Game System(s), Catechism, Cell Phone, Computer, Rosary, etc.? How often do you Pray? How often do you read your Bibles? How often do you attend Mass? Do you have a relationship with Jesus?” All but one child said that they have a relationship with Christ, but the majority of the kids seldom attend Mass, pray, or read their Bibles. This begs the question, What are our young people basing this relationship on? Relativism plagues the thought of many young people (as well of some parents of young people!) View the results of our survey here.

When God called us to be Catechists, we had to sign a form that listed all of the “inappropriate” things that we were not to do. I think that some of these guidelines came about no thanks to the Priest scandal. For the most part, these rules are not altogether bad, but I think that some —not all— can hinder us from reaching out to the youth. Although the topic of Facebook was not on this list of guidelines, it could very easily fall under one of the other rules against contacting an individual student directly, or sending information home without first getting it approved by the head of the program. So, here lies the dilemma, How do Catechists and Teachers enter into the world of our Catholic young people without walking a fine line? Jonathan Sullivan has some great advice in his video, “Social Networking: A Primer for Catholic Teachers and Catechists”.

Five Key Points that Jonathan shares:

• Don’t set up “dummy” accounts to gain access to your students (not only is this a bad idea, but it violates the user policies of most social networking sites)
• Don’t friend students (unless they are over 18 or a relative)
• Report inappropriate behavior
• Monitor what others are posting about you
• Assume everything is public

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We’ve been a huge fan of flockNote over the past couple years, but changes are coming (I get nervous when my favorite social networks make “improvements” — Have you seen MyChurch.org lately?).  This week, Matthew Warner sent out an e-mail to all members of the flockNote community, giving us a peek of what’s to come.  There will be a lot of new features, a sleeker look, and an easier way to organize your groups, just to name a few.

On the downside, there will be a fee to create/administrate a Network, but on the flip-side, this will get rid of advertisement clutter, support the volume of all the new features, and improve the quality of flockNote.  And membership to the Network will always be free for your group members (parishioners/members/subscribers of a created group or “feed”).  Please read more about this fee here.  (Word on the street is that leaders already using flockNote may get a special discount for signing up ; )

Matthew has invested a ton of time to enhance the features of this already invaluable tool for the church. I don’t know how he finds the hours in a day to do everything that he does.  On top of programming wonderful applications like: TweetCatholic.com and QuoteCatholic.com, Matthew has his extremely enjoyable-to-read blogs, Fallible Blogma, and is a contributor for the National Catholic Register blogs.  Matthew is a very humble guy and someday I hope to meet him in person.

Here are the TOP 10 new features coming to flockNote:

1. Own Your Network. Each parish/diocese/organization can now create their own “Network.” This is similar to the current “parish page,” except that admins for the Network now have total control over all lists (previously called “feeds”) created for the page. Each Network can send as many notes as they like – and can also keep track of basic Network stats to monitor subscriber count, Network growth and more.

2. Easily Add Members. Admins will now have the ability to add, organize and remove people from their FlockNote lists. Subscribers will still be able to subsequently opt-out of a particular list, but leaders will be able to add new members without having to wait for them to subscribe themselves.

3. Gather Parishioner Contact Info. Admins for a list will now have access to each subscriber’s contact info. This allows parish leaders to use FlockNote as an “information gathering tool” for parishioners (for registration or otherwise) and gives parishioners an easy way to keep their contact info up-to-date. We will also be creating other helpful parish tools in the near future (like call sheets, attendance rosters, mailing labels, a parish directory, etc.)

4. Embed the FlockNote in Your Parish Website. Networks will now be able to embed the entire FlockNote experience into their own website. Parishioners will be able to register for FlockNote, subscribe to parish lists, login, edit subscriptions, view and respond to notes (including polls and event RSVPs), browse, etc. – all on their parish website, without ever having to visit FlockNote.com directly. This adds more value to the parish website, while also making it easier for parishioners to engage.

5. Expanded Subscription/Registration Options. Members can now easily subscribe to lists via email, txt message, Twitter DM, Facebook, RSS feed or the website. Also, our new “rapid registration tool” provides a quick and easy interface for group leaders to let members register and subscribe right there at a meeting in real-time.

6. Easier Import/Export. It will be even simpler to import existing mailing lists directly into FlockNote. Likewise, Networks and Lists will also be able to export all of their subscriber data to a .csv file that they can then import into their parish database to sync up with current records.

7. New “Note Types,” including Polls, Events and Scheduled Notes. In addition to creating normal notes, users can now send polls (with graphical voting and results) and event invitations (with RSVP counts and event information, similar to Evite). Users will also be able to schedule notes in advance. So instead of having to send notes immediately, admins can set their scheduled notes at the beginning of the week or month to go out at later specified times.

8. Easily Connect with Other Online Communication Tools. When sending a new note, users will have the option to also have that note update their Facebook fan page status, post it to their wall and/or update their Twitter status. You can also sync your FlockNote list with your RSS feed.

9. Easily access other Catholic resources. We will continue to offer other valuable Catholic resources through FlockNote, free for all users. This includes the Daily Readings, Daily Catholic quote, Catholic news, Catholic blogs, etc.

10. Facebook and mobile apps. Coming soon will be a fully functional Facebook application, an iPhone application and a mobile version of flockNote.com made to be easy to use in mobile browsers.

These top 10 features are just the beginning. Look for the new FlockNote early this summer and feel free to contact Matthew Warner personally with any questions.

Below are some related links to flockNote:

• What is flockNote Beta?
• Get Yourself some flockNote Flair!
• flockNote in the News

Last year or so, I attended the Media & Faith Conference at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.  The conference featured several well known freelance authors and journalists, a television news anchor, independent video producers, podcasters, bloggers, and students and faculty from surrounding Christian colleges.

These are the only pictures that half turned out from this fun-filled event! I had boughten a cheep B&W throw-away-camera at a gas station on the way there, because I realized that I had forgotten our digital at home : (

I really enjoyed this conference and getting to meet so many new friends. It was also really cool hangin’ out with all the SQPN people!  There were many non-SQPN speakers that were also excellent. Sherry Kennedy Brownrigg and Michael Kreidler were of my favorites.  I also got to hang out with my cousin Ross, who is a graduate of Steubie U, and spent some time in Prayer & Adoration too!

Me & Fr. Roderick Vonhögen of SQPN.com

George Leite of the Catholic Rockers Podcast, Dr. Paul Camarata of The SaintCast, Myself of The Perseverance Podcast, and Fr. Bill Kessler of TechnoPriest.

Me with Jennifer & Greg Willits of the Rosary Army Podcast. If I would have known they were smiling so nicely, I wouldn’t have thrown two thumbs up (which were cropped out of the picture)! Hints why my smile is such a weird looking one : )

Some friends I met from Lancaster, PA!

I finally got around to posting some of the talks from this conference onto the world wide web.  Here is the opening talk by Fr. Roderick.  You can view this talk in its entirety here.

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There used to be some of the other talks on uStream, however they have since been taken down, which is kind of sad. I did some searching on YouTube, but the only video that I was able to find was this video by Susan Bailey.

Here is the list of talks that were taken down from uStream: The closing talk with Rosary Army and the open-forum with a pannel from SQPN. “Web 2.0: Challenges and Opportunities” presented by Eugene Gan, David Schaefer, Ruth Lang, Wally Metts. “To Liturgy…and Beyond: Boldly Bringing Catholic Music to the People” presented by Susan Bailey and George Leite. Friday Evening Opening Talk by Fr. Roderick Verhogen.

If anyone has this footage posted somewhere else online, let me know!  I’d love to link to it.

Many of you know that my son Eric is in the throes of applying to college. It’s likely during the next several months that I’ll be writing a great deal on this topic, not only for those of you with high school seniors, but also for those with younger children too. You’d be amazed how quickly this process sneaks up on you, and it seems impossible to be “overprepared” to apply to college.

So many things have changed since I applied to college, including the many technological advances that now exist. So when I ran across this USA Today article this week entitled To friend or not to friend? College admissions in the age of Facebook, it caught my eye immediately. This article deals with the ethical issues that surround college admissions officers’ use of social networking sites. Here’s an amazing statistic from the article:

While 86% of college students have a Facebook account, according to a 2008 survey by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, only 13% of the 401 admissions officials surveyed this year say their schools have a policy about interacting with students on social networking sites, Olson says. “That’s the picture of the changing landscape that we are in right now.”

I’m certain that most of you with teens who are online are carefully supervising your kids’ use of tools such as Facebook. But it’s worth having a discussion today about the types of “friends” your child should be accepting online. We had a personal experience of this during the summer, when Eric received a personal letter from the Dean of Admissions at an Ivy League school. This professional shared all of the usual information about their wonderful college and then invited Eric to be his “friend” on Facebook. Thankfully, I was standing nearby when my son zealously grabbed the letter and headed to the computer. I was able to stop him and have an immediate conversation about the propriety of this use of Facebook. While I’m certain that the college official in question is likely simply using Facebook as another marketing tool, we were able to discuss the importance of Eric’s personal profile – both his own postings there and what his friends write on his profile.

It seems that history is now being written about the role of Social Networking profiles in the college admissions process. We’ve always discussed around our home the need for Eric to have the attitude that his Facebook profile serves in a way as his “online resume”. In other words, don’t post (or allow the posting of) anything you wouldn’t want a potential college or future employer to consider.

For those of you who use Facebook or have teens who are on any social networking site, I’m curious to hear how you handle these issues around your home. How do you regularly monitor your child’s online presence? Do you feel it is ethical for colleges and universities to consider information posted online as part of the application process? Please chime in with your thoughts!

This post is courtesy of the Productivity @ Home Blog.

Over at UniversityParent.com, there is a terrific article entitled Social Media Do’s and Don’ts for College Students.  The facts and ideas presented in this column are important to review with your children of any age who may be using Social Media.  Around our house, my kids are constantly reminded that their Facebook pages are their “online resumes” — future college choices, employers, and even their own parents will be closely watching their online activities and judging their characters as a result.

The information in this article is also pertinent to adults of any age who are active online.  Think twice before you type, post a photo or video, or hit “send”.

This post is courtesy of the Productivity @ Home Blog.

The topic of giving up social networking for Lent has come up quite a bit.  I have been pondering the idea for about a week-and-a-half now.  I normally give up pop (that’s soda for you whom are living outside the Ohio limits ; )  Friends keep asking me what I am giving up for Lent and before I can reply they say, “Don’t tell me you are giving up pop again” (in that tone of voice too).  “I think you should give up Twitter,” one friend uttered.  To be honest, I didn’t like the sound of it, but upon further prayer and reflection, I have come to the conclusion that this would be the best thing for me to give up this Lent.

So for those like Lindsey Turrentine, the author of “How to give up Facebook for Lent and keep your friends” (who is not even Catholic) and myself, here are some Lenten avatars that you are welcome to use.

I will continue posting to the blog, but other than that, I’ll be focusing on Scripture study and Prayer this Lent.

Below are some related links to this topic:

• Poll Question: “Are you giving up social-networking for Lent?” [current results]
• Giving up Facebook for Lent? Read this first!
• Discerning Our Fasts