A Message in a Bottle New Technologies, New Relationships for Catechetical Ministry by Caroline Cerveny, SSJ A wonderful scene from the movie “A Message in a Bottle” comes to mind as I begin this article: a divorced single mother finds a bottle on the shore while out jogging. Imagine that you are out walking a nearby beach where you discover a bottle near the shore. In it you find the recent 43rd World Communications Day message from Pope Benedict XVI and come to this passage: The new digital technologies are, indeed, bringing about fundamental shifts in patterns of communication and human relationships. These changes are particularly evident among those young people who have grown up with the new technologies and are at home in a digital world that often seems quite foreign to those of us who, as adults, have had to learn to understand and appreciate the opportunities it has to offer for communications.
the program itself will teach us to use it. Today’s older folk were “socialized” differently from their kids, and are now in the process of learning a new language. And a language learned later in life, scientists tell us, goes into a different part of the brain. (www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital %20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf) We need to remember that it is OK to be an immigrant in this digital culture. To be meaningful today in ministry we need to blend our traditional communication styles with the digital opportunities that surround us. As many of our family members who came to this country learned a new language and new skills in order to survive and contribute to the new world, in turn we have the same challenge today to learn new skills and a new language in order to be on the cutting edge and to offer meaningful messages with the digital tools that are a-plenty!
As you sit on the beach reading the document, you realize how the digital world we are currently experiencing impacts our ministries and how we communicate with one another. Perhaps this quotation rings true with you and, at the same time, there is this feeling of “how do I ever catch up with digital communication!” Perhaps “uncomfortable” is another way to identify how we may feel at this time with digital technologies. Most of us in ministry belong to the Digital Immigrant Generation. I so appreciate Marc Prensky’s description of us in his 2001 online article, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants”:
As we continue to ponder the statement by Pope Benedict, the realization hits us that this very prophetic message needs to be shared with others. As I prepared for meeting with the diocesan directors of religious education at NCCL’s annual conference, I found myself reading and rereading this document in the Benedictine style of “Lectio Divina,” a wonderful way to share insights and reflections with others (normally using Scripture).
Those of us who were not born into the digital world but have, at some later point in our lives, become fascinated by and adopted many or most aspects of the new technology are, and always will be compared to [Digital Natives], Digital Immigrants.
We need to remember that it is OK to be an immigrant in this digital culture.
The importance of the distinction is this: As Digital Immigrants learn — like all immigrants, some better than others — to adapt to their environment, they always retain, to some degree, their “accent,” that is, their foot in the past. The “digital immigrant accent” can be seen in such things as turning to the Internet for information second rather than first, or in reading the manual for a program rather than assuming that
I invite you to engage with others in reading and reflecting on this document using a process similar to “Lectio Divina” for the conversation. I hope you find the experience as fruitful as I did. To begin, choose someone to facilitate the following process, inviting between four and eight persons to be part of the conversation. Here are the suggested three steps of the process:
TRY DIGITAL LECTIO DIVINA
4 July/August 2009
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Volume 20, Number 4
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