Showing posts with label pinterest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pinterest. Show all posts

The Smart Way to Partner with Parents

7:54 AM  Dale Hudson  

There is a smart way to partner with parents...literally.

"Smartphones."  Most of the parents in your ministry constantly have them in hand.  In 2011, 35% of American adults owned a smartphone.  Today, it's over 64%.

Here are some smart ways to connect with parents through their smartphones.

Text Messages
Did you know that 98% of text messages get read?  Send a text message to the parents in your ministry and it will get noticed.  You can read here about how to use text messages to partner with parents. 

Email
Most parents are notified when an email hits their smartphone.  Here's another opportunity to email discussion questions, upcoming events, parenting tips and more.

Facebook
Parents have Facebook on their smartphones and they check it often.  Some of the ways to use this is to start a parent page where you post follow-up discussion questions, parenting tips, upcoming events and more.

Twitter
Here's another social media platform parents use on their smartphones.  Open a twitter account for your children's ministry.

Instagram
Open an Instagram account for your children's ministry and use it to post graphics, announcements, parenting tips, etc.

Pinterest
The moms in your children's ministry spend a lot of time on Pinterest.  Post pictures of upcoming lessons, events, parenting tips, etc.

What are some other ways you use smartphones to partner with parents?  Share with us in the comment section below.
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Do You Know the 6 Ways You Can Use Technology to Connect with Parents?

6:42 AM  Dale Hudson  

If you want to connect with the parents in your ministry, then technology is your friend.

Here's 6 proven methods you can use to connect with the parents in your ministry through technology.

Twitter.  Create a Twitter account for your children's ministry.  It's a great way to convey a message or interface with parents. 

Facebook.  Start a parent facebook page.   Here's more info. on that.

Text.  Did you know that 98% of text messages get read.  We use text each week to communicate with parents about their child's lesson at church.   Here's more info. on that.

Email.  It may be old technology, but it still works.  Build a list of parent's emails and then use it to send an email with a link to registration for events, a parenting video, upcoming events, and more.

Pinterest.  Create a pinterest page for your ministry.  Post parenting ideas, Bible story reviews, and more.

Mobile app.  You can have your own custom app made for your ministry through companies like Roar.  This is a great way to stay connected with families in your ministry while providing them with a tool to disciple their child.

What other ways can we use technology to connect with parents?  Share your thoughts and ideas in the comment section below.
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20 Must-Have iPad Apps for Your Ministry

8:00 AM  Dale Hudson  

If you use an iPad for your ministry work, here's 20 apps recommended by Time Tech that can be very beneficial. Most of these are free. Links to the apps are included.

Calculator for Ipad Free
Because math is hard and the iPad doesn’t include a built-in calculator, there’s Calculator for iPad Free. Like its name suggests, the app is free and includes both a standard and a scientific calculator; a $2 upgrade gives you several color schemes to choose from.
If you find yourself in a pinch needing to work with Microsoft Office files, the free CloudOn app might be just what you’re looking for. You’ll have access to Word, Excel and PowerPoint, along with the ability to open documents straight from popular online file-storage services.
Access important files anywhere with this cloud-storage service. Save a file to the Dropbox folder on your computer and it’ll be available from the Dropbox iPad app. Automatically save photos and videos from your iPad to your Dropbox account to access them from other devices as well.

TED
Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world.

Evernote
Sometimes you find yourself collecting so much digital stuff that you need a place to keep it all. For that, there’s Evernote. This free app lets you store your notes, ideas, to-do lists and much more — all synchronized for access from other devices as well.
Khan Academy allows you to learn almost anything for free with a library of over 3,500 educational videos.

Flipboard
Flipboard bills itself as “your personal magazine.” Browse handpicked articles on various topics and pipe in updates from your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr accounts for a one-stop shop that caters to your interests.
Of all the things to shrink down so it fits inside an iPad, a world-class education might top the list. Apple’s iTunes U app features over half a million lectures, videos and books from some of the top learning institutions around the globe — all for free.

There are several worthwhile e-book reading apps to choose from, but Amazon’s Kindle platform gets the nod thanks to its availability on just about every other device on the market. If it’s connected, you can probably use it to read a Kindle book.
Murphy’s law: You’ll forget something important on your computer and won’t realize it until it’s almost too late. The free LogMeIn app lets you connect to your home computer (make sure to leave it turned on) and control it remotely as though you were sitting in front of it.

Paper is a free iPad app with a simple interface that lets you write, sketch and paint in virtual notebooks. It may not seem like rocket science, but realistically replicating the feel of various writing and art utensils on a tablet screen is a complicated feat that Paper pulls off with style.

For a free image editor, this app from Aviary features a wealth of features. Aside from being able to crop and rotate your photos, there’s red-eye reduction, blemish removal, teeth whitening and more. You can add doodles, text and stickers to liven up your images as well.

Pinnacle Studio
Believe it or not, editing videos on an iPad isn’t quite as cumbersome as you might think. Case in point: the $13 Pinnacle Studio app, which sports an easy-to-use interface and powerful editing features. After your masterpiece is complete, use the built-in uploader to share it with others.
It took Pinterest, the Web’s most popular pin board, until last August to roll out an iPad app. Better late than never, as the free app makes for a great couch companion. Pass the time browsing your friends’ pins, or pin things from around the Web that you’d like to revisit later.

Pocket lets you grab various bits from around the Web — articles, videos, images and more — and save them for later perusal. The free app takes text articles and takes out all the ads, buttons and other digital items to present a clean, easy-on-the-eyes reading experience.
The iPad’s built-in FaceTime feature makes it a snap to video-chat with other Apple owners, but — surprise! — not everyone owns Apple products. Skype makes video chatting a bit more universal, with apps for just about every platform and tons of active users.

For $10 a month, Spotify acts like a giant music store where you can listen to as much music as you want. You can create playlists of your favorite tunes and download songs for offline playback. There’s also a streaming radio option, which is free for U.S. users.

Titan Downloader
The free Titan Downloader app features a built-in Web browser that lets you save video files you find on various sites for playback at a later time. You can queue up multiple videos to play one after another and set a pass-code lock to prevent others from accessing your collection.

Think of the free TuneIn app as being able to turn your iPad into a radio capable of pulling in just about any station from just about anywhere in the world. The service boasts 70,000 live radio-station feeds and 2 million podcasts to choose from.
Previewing e-mailed PDF files is built in to the iPad’s Mail app, but Adobe’s free Reader app includes advanced functions such as annotations, text search, highlighting, online synchronization and the ability to fill out form fields. If you work with PDF files a lot, this one’s a must.

What other apps do you recommend?  Share with us in the comment section below.
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