[Kid Inspiration]

One of the things that fascinates me about this time is the demise of old school media. Mainly because of the fact that our kids are growing up with a radically different view of news and media than me.

It’s not (very) obvious right now (you can still buy Time Magazine at a news-stand), but like a sub-prime mortgage crisis it will hit all of a sudden when there are no advertisers left to pay for any of the printing of magazines.

• Since 1994—and the release of the commercial web browser—newspaper audience penetration has fallen a third, from 23% to 16%. In that time, circulation fell 14% (59 million to 50 million, according to the Newspaper Association of America) while population rose 20%.
• Since 1994, newspaper print advertising revenue fell on an inflation-adjusted basis by 10% (from $34,109 million in 1994 dollars to $42,209 million in 2007 dollars, says NAA).
• Since 1994, the number of newspapers in America fell from 1,548 to 1,422, according to NAA.

You can read more in one of my must read blogs Buzzmachine by Jeff Jarvis

The way our kids get their news and how they relate to media is one of the biggest cultural influences on them, so it is vital to understand HOW they see the world around them… because it is DIFFERENT to you and me.

It will be like talking about the crackle of a needle on a vinyl record during a message to kids to talk about the evening news soon (The median age of network evening news viewers is 61 in 2008, according to Magna Global USA.).

…

P.S. People will still want news in the future… its just that no one making the decisions at Fox News/NY Times/Time Warner is 9 years old. The way we get it will change and a bunch of big business will crash and burn.

P.P.S. There were A LOT of horse shoe makers in the 1920s… Did we give them big loans to continue making horseshoes while Henry Ford was cranking out some new fangled cars?

From New York Times

EVERYONE knows that babies crawl before they walk, and that tricycles come before two-wheelers. But at what age should children get their first cellphone, laptop or virtual persona?

Read On

[UPDATE] Front runners are: Karl $10 on childrensministrypodcast.com and Andy $100 on childrensministryblog.com | auction closing in one week.

[UPDATE] So no-one wants the podcast domain? You can get it for ten bucks and support a worthy cause!! Auction closing in one week and 3 days!!

[UPDATE] First Bid is in. I accidentally disabled comments for this post!! But they are reinstated now! Thanks Andy!

So I have a couple of domains for sale.

1. CHILDRENSMINISTRYBLOG.COM
2. CHILDRENSMINISTRYPODCAST.COM

I bought these a few years ago to link to my blog and podcast. After moving the blog and stopping the podcast they are just sitting there gathering dust (if that is possible online).

“Imagine being the life of the party, the envy of your friends
and enemies as you blog at these two exclusive domains”

Now domains are worth pretty much what someone will pay for them, but I did go to dnScoop to get an appraisal.

childrensministryblog.com

childrensministrypodcast.com

So I am going to run a little auction for both of them… see the top for updates!

A couple of years ago I had in mind a site that could have all the planning elements for a service in one place. I’m not exactly sure but it seems that it might just have happened!

I got this link from another CM blog in the UK, but can’t find which one… but definitely check it out, if not just to get inspired!

LightLive puts a wealth of Bible-based activities and ideas for your work with children and young people at your fingertips.

You can:

- plan and manage your group programme like never before!

- dive into the ‘virtual filing cabinet’ of activities and ideas

- enrich your programme with multi-media activities

- search, save and print resources – all from one website

- and so much more…

Check it out here! Light Live

Via Kidscreen Magazine

A new poll shows U.S. parents know how important digital media skills are for their children.

Three out of four parents surveyed agreed that knowing how to navigate various digital media outlets is as beneficial to kids as mastering traditional skills like reading, writing and math.

A full 67% of parents said they did not think the internet helped teach their kids to communicate more effectively; 87% of parents said they did not believe the internet helped their kids learn how to work with others; and 75% do not believe the web can teach kids to be responsible in their communities.

How important are these skills for children?

We are at the beginning of this revolution that has and will impact more areas in our lives with each passing year… Can we as parents really know how to direct our kids towards the more meaningful skills that will help them in the future?

This week brings around our annual Colour Conference!

Thousands of women at the Acer Arena for a few days of maximum estrogen.

I love the concept of live blogging (real time commentary), but that kinda only works if you are attending the conference, so I thought I would live blog the experience for the kids we are putting on!

So follow me on twitter if you have it.

http://twitter.com/kidinspiration

If you don’t have an account, click here to get one free!

Twitter is a unique approach to communication and networking based on the simple concept of status. What are you doing? What are your friends doing—right now? With Twitter, you may answer this question over SMS, IM, or the Web and the responses are shared between contacts.

I read a lot of stuff…

In fact in an effort to read more, I am currently reading a book on speed reading… its just taking a long time. (Ha!)

(I apologise… now back to your regularly scheduled program)

The music industry is something I have been studying for some time now. I am in some way a small part of it because of our Hillsong Kids Albums, and it along with the Media industries have a lot of cultural impact on our children and families.

So David Byrne’s Article for Wired Magazine is a fascinating read.

David Byrne’s Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists — and Megastars

What is called the music business today, however, is not the business of producing music. At some point it became the business of selling CDs in plastic cases, and that business will soon be over. But that’s not bad news for music, and it’s certainly not bad news for musicians. Indeed, with all the ways to reach an audience, there have never been more opportunities for artists.

Read on

There are so many implications for the kids we minister to. Here is a list of some of them… which may or may not have come from this article:

Dave’s List for a new world:

1. Unlike the consumer culture you and I grew up in , our kids are growing up in a participation/collaboration culture
2. Music is digital and free in our kids minds
3. The ‘experience’ (events, concerts, meetings etc) will only increase in importance
4. Most of the families in your church (and probably you) are breaking copyright law in some way — which suggests to me that the law needs to change.
5. We as ‘grown ups’ need to change NOW, in order to understand the natives in this new world (our kids).
6. The video screen is the 21st Centuries stained glass window
7. Media is being produced where an audience of 100 is success, not just the blockbuster million dollar movie
8. The cost of producing excellent media will only decrease (it’s practically nothing already…if I had the skill, my home studio could produce anything from a music album to a movie score
9. YOU don’t get it yet, (neither do I)
10. Sharing a song by email/or whatever comes/and will come as naturally as breathing to kids (thereby breaking current law)
11. One of the major file sharing websites in the world went down for about a 24 hour period late last year and internet traffic in Europe went down by 35% in the same period
12. Don’t EVER put a computer or a TV in your child’s bedroom, if you do so, you are inviting porn and violence into their lives — kids get lessons before they swim, they need to know HOW and what to avoid online.
13. As kids leave my ‘Children’s Ministry’ and move in ‘Youth Ministry’ I don’t just want them to know about God, and have a deep relationship with Jesus, but also HOW to filter the world around them. Recognise and understand the culture they live in. What is beneficial and what is harmful, and how to engage culture… not to picket and denounce it!!!!
14. Harry, the Compass, Da Vinci… don’t be scared by the boogie man. In fact having your child read the golden compass during their teenage years may be one of the greatest tools to help your child identify other world views and develop a healthy response to them!
15. (What ticks me off about The Golden Compass is that the books have been around for over ten years and yet it seems that cinema is still the great evil of the Christian world, as if other forms of art ie. books, don’t matter and aren’t relevant).
16. God speaks through a donkey, he CAN and WILL speak through Britney, Madonna, The black eyed Peas, Hannah Montana, U2 — any kind of Art can be transformational.
17. Please don’t let your kids treat ‘secular’ (hate that word), art as to be avoided, you just condemned them to a life of irrelevance.
18. I have connected with some kids better through Nintendo DS than any other way
19. Somehow help your parents, to understand that the eyes are the window to the soul.We must protect that window jealously, I still remember vividly remember the first ‘inappropriate’ material I saw as a very young teenager… who was in the room, where I was, who let me see it… your kids will too… especially your boys… PROTECT THEM.
20. I am out of thoughts…

You may be wondering how I got all that from 1 article, the truth is that it was a collaborative effort from the results of much reading and study… especially blogs.

I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

Mark Joyner makes some great courses and as a a marketing test (I guess), he’s decided to give this new course away for a limited time. Mark is the creator of Simpleology 101 which I highly recommend for helping you to become successful and it also happens to be free.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.

Cool Tools in a great blog that highlights awesome products… (You should read it). A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true.

They blogged about these today: Peltor Kid Earmuffs

Which made me wonder why I hadn’t blogged about them.

We have a few sets of these available in our Parenting Rooms (for parents with kids under 1 years old). They can use them to protect their kids ears when they head into the main auditorium for services (our music is kinda loud).

Parents love ‘em!

So this is now this blogs official coolest kids place on earth!

Wannado City leaves behind the cotton candy, the solicitors of large stuffed animals, the mindless entertainment and trash. Instead the “city” has redefined child entertainment with aspirational activities, all of which are framed around the question: “What do you wanna do when you grow up?”

In Sawgrass Mills Mall in Southern Florida (sounds like a place you could loose your leg to a alligator just getting there) – is this most coolest of kids spaces.

America’s first indoor role-playing theme park, makes their wishes come true in a realistic and imaginative way. Aimed at the 2-14 year-old set, Wannado City™ recreates all the sites of a major city from the point of view of its kidizens™, with many real-play™ venues and hundreds of career possibilities. All venues are designed to allow kids to live out their dreams – from learning to be a firefighter to piloting an aircraft to working at a television studio. Real-play™ empowers kids to become decision-makers and learn responsibility.

There’s my idea of a children’s ministry building!!!!

Via the Cool Hunter

Look out! Kidsfest is coming… check out the promo for this years album recording and huge day of fun!

If you are in Sydney/NSW, we would love to partner with you and get as many of your kids along for this incredible day.

Godtube.com

Why?

WHY?

From MSNBC

GodTube is the best example of a new group of Web sites that aim to do the same things regular Web sites do, but with a Christian (or Christian conservative) point of view. Like the idea of MySpace, but hate the thought of your children as prey? Try Famster, a secure online community for families. Like Wikipedia, but chafe at what you see as its liberal bias? Read On.

Somewhere along the way someone has a brilliant idea. Let’s take an element of culture and prop up the word Christian in front of it. Then it is now safe for people of faith to participate in culture.

A Christian MySpace, a Christian music genre, a Christian movie, a Christian email address, a Christian bookstore.

So we separate from culture and live in a Christian gated community.

If there is one skill I REALLY want to impart to generations of children growing up right now around the world is how to engage culture… and FILTER it. What is bad, what is good? How can I tell the difference between art and obscenity?

Let’s teach kids how to make decisions on what media they consume, instead of training them to retreat from culture and build a Christian theme park.

Let’s be honest… the creation of Christian cultural ghettos are usually tied into profit.

It may be impossible for me to protect the children in our ministry from viewing pornography at a young age (average age is 11)… although I will fight to keep our kids pure.

But teaching, training and inspiring our children to make the right choice is my plan to populate the world with Godly adults who move from being just consumers of every cultural wind to creators of profound/Godly/entertaining/moving/beautiful works of art.

Slavery may still be with us (in the West) if William Wilberforce had decided to create a Christian Shipping Company instead of engaging the political arena and standing up for justice… and for Christ.

UPDATE: Here is another article on a similar theme. Link

When I was about 2 or 3 my dad made a now famous (in our family) stop-motion film (okay about 10 seconds), using his Super-8 Camera (really old school video camera).

Now you can do the same with the insanely cool iStopMotion

And it’s $40 after a free demo version.

So first check out a reiview from Wired Mag

Link

Then go to the site and at least download the thing and have a go.

Link

P.S. If you have no idea what stop motion is check out this vid:

I heard about this amazing innovation a few months ago and have been looking forward to seeing the final project… well it has been finished.

The laptops are powered with a wind-up crank, have very low power consumption and will let children interact with each other while learning. It is touted as a potent learning tool created expressly for the world’s poorest children living in its most remote environments.

Read a BBC news report here.

Nicholas Negroponte is former Director of the MIT Media Lab, and founder of the non-profit, One Laptop Per Child, dedicated to making the famed $100 laptop a reality.

In this talk, he outlines some of the challenges of getting a $100 laptop produced, and explains why he stepped down as Media Lab director to focus on it full-time, “for the rest of my life.”

I love that great minds are committing themselves to helping the plight of poor children around the world!

Hey, hey new episode available to integrate with your favourite musical making device.

Episode #5 – Curriculum Pt. 2

The podcast is available in iTunes so click on the link below to subscribe to the podcast!

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