1. to write
2. to teach
3. to recommend
4. to interact
5. to develop an eye for what is meaningful
6. to be known
7. to influence
8. to glorify God

Regarding reasons 7 and 8 above, the blog medium is used by all ages, but most likely to be read by the younger generation. A blog is another tool in your belt for making disciples. It is the responsibility of the older, wiser, and more mature disciples to learn how to best communicate with the younger generation.

There is plenty of content on the Internet that does not glorify God. You can contribute God-honoring content to the Internet via a blog.

Finally, blogging is a way you can contextualize Deuteronomy 6:4ff.

As for the technical side of things, I’ll be pointing our pastors to WordPress. We may host our own in the future, but really, why should we when someone else is already doing it for free? (OK, so we could customize it). Show me your desire/commitment to blog and I’ll show you the blogging management system.

Here’s a great video presentation on what a blog is (great for the non-technical types):

Challenge #0: I cannot train everybody by myself.
Solution #0: Deploy O07 in advance (two months) to two power users and recruit them for the “training team.” My team was invaluable! Thanks Lorna & Kent! We met about three times and brainstormed the solutions below.

Challenge #1: We have no computer lab in which to train this many users.
Solution #1: Train users at their desk computers.

Challenge #2: I cannot teach users dispersed throughout the building when I can only be in one place at one time.
Solution #2a: Employ users to teach other users. Divide users into groups of three for the experience portion of the training. Employ the “training team” (of power users) to be available to answer questions. Have all three users travel to each user’s desk to accomplish the training exercises. For one iteration, the user is driving at his or her computer. For two iterations, the user is observing/instructing the other users at their computers.
Solution #2b: Use a two-fold teaching method—first, exposure (classroom time); second, experience (user repeating steps seen in classroom).

Here is a rough outline of our schedule:

1. 08:30 – Classroom training on Outlook
   1. Watch “Up to speed with Outlook 2007” video
   2. Walk through the “mission” instructions
2. 09:00 – Outlook Mission (listed below)
3. 10:00 – Classroom training on PowerPoint
   1. Watch “Up to speed with PowerPoint 2007” video
   2. Walk through the “mission” instructions
4. 10:45 – PowerPoint Mission
5. 11:30 – Lunch together
6. 12:30 – Classroom training on Word, Excel, Publisher
   1. Watch “Up to speed with Word 2007” video
   2. Watch “Up to speed with Excel 2007” video
   3. Do a directory format mail merge with Publisher

Without knowing it, we utilized spaced-repetition. The Microsoft training videos are about 7 minutes and each of them touched on “The Ribbon.” By the end of the training time, everyone knew exactly how to add a button to the Quick Access Toolbar! These solutions were brilliant! It provided an opportunity for the user to 1) observe, 2) do, and then 3) instruct.

Outlook Mission
Here is the Outlook Mission. Keep in mind that before releasing users to go do this, I showed them how to do each step in the classroom setting.

You have approximately 45 minutes total for all members of your team to complete the following tasks.

Here is your mission:

1. Change the window color from blue to black (hint: you’ll need to start a new message or open another Office program to do this)
2. Add the Print button to your Quick Access Toolbar
3. Send a message to all of your teammates (yeah, this one is a “gimme”! but, did you click Paste before you clicked Send???)
4. Search for all messages with the word Bethel
5. Schedule a meeting and invite your teammates to it.
6. Have teammate #2 propose a new time for the meeting.
7. Have teammate #3 accept the newly proposed time
8. Post a message to the O07 Public Folder (hint: it’s the same folder as this message)
9. Change your Outlook Reading Pane view to “Right”
10. Add the Office Intranet to your RSS Feed (bonus points for also adding “The Sower”)
    1. Office Intranet Feed: http://office/?feed=rss
    2. The Sower Feed: http://sower.bethel-church.org/?feed=rss
    3. (hint: click on the link and look for the “Subscribe to Feed” link on that page)

At first, we figured we’d each take a single app and generate an outline for what we wanted to communicate (with directors and support staff getting tailored topics). Along the way, I discovered some nifty online training by Microsoft, but realized most of it would be useless in a classroom environment in which the students do not have access to their own PC. Absent a computer lab and realizing that hands-on training is a must we started brainstorming. Do we simply ask people to follow the tutorials online? I don’t think so. In fact, there were several challenges:

1. Do we simply train on the new interface or do we also include training on new features?
2. How do we offer “hands-on” training without a computer lab environment?
3. How do we minimize the frustration of decreased productivity while learning?
4. How do we maximize the shared learning experience (enabling users to help other users, decreasing the load on the instructor)?

So here’s our working solution. We’re calling it 007 Training. After showing the 7 minute “Ribbon” interface overview in a classroom environment (and then giving each member an official “License to Create”), we’ll divide the students into teams of 3 and give them “missions” to accomplish. For instance, the Outlook mission will have 3-4 components. One of those components will involve physically going to one of the team members’ PC, scheduling a meeting and then inviting the other team members to the meeting. Then, the team must go to the other two members’ PCs and accept the meeting.

This idea has the potential to address each of the above challenges.

1. It provides training on the new interface as well as new features (or at least features that people do not currently use, e.g., Outlook scheduling!).
2. It provides hands-on training by moving the people to the computers (instead of creating a short-term computer lab and moving all the computers).
3. It sounds fun—most staff meetings do not involve running around the office, competing with the other teams.
4. It combines knowledge of three people. If one of them isn’t familiar with scheduling a meeting and inviting attendees, one of the others can help instruct (further cementing the learning in the mind of the student-helper).

It is just a skeleton right now, but it has great potential.