What is the New “Regular?
I have been curating videos for a YouTube series. I am calling it “God at Work COVID-19 Chronicles”. I asked people everywhere to answer the following questions using their smartphone:
- What is your name, profession and where you live (City/country)
- How has COVID-19 changed your life and those around you?
- Do you see God at Work around you in spite of COVID-19?
- Do you have a personal testimony/impact story you want to share?
It has been very interesting to see the responses from England, Pakistan, India/Canada, Haiti and the USA. (If you want to participate please send me a message on the Contact Dan Henrich here).
I was particularly interested in what Liz Peters of Galilean International had to say about a New Regular after the pandemic is finished so I asked her to elaborate:
Mentally : We have gone through an unprecedented situation we’ve heard about but never thought we would experience. In a fast and faster paced world it has brought us to a grinding halt. We actually notice the seasons now. Our ‘new regular’ to slow down, pause and smell the spring flowers before the seasons race by.
Physically : We have developed new disciplines through social distancing. They say it takes about six weeks to form and firm a habit. Wearing masks is not something you will see only in Asia. Hygiene and wellness more a priority from the rich societal layers to the poorer quarters of our world
Virtually : The word ‘zooming’ is the ‘new regular’ and will find its way into the dictionary. The world wants know more and be part of the virtual. From 5yrs to 105 we cannot help but be connected – virtually
Spiritually: The best outcome versus the good, is the new regular in time and space available to know the One who is the Only stable, in a world of unstable internet, economy and polity.
Ministry–wise: In addition to continuing to partner with you and Christine for mobile media training, Galilean in partnership with Lifeway Resources recently got started to offer online training to Church Leaders covering almost every area of church ministry – Pre School Ministry to Small Group Ministry. We have already started implementing this in India.
New Free Online Courses under “construction”
With the successful roll-out of our learning site, MobileTrain.co and two Level One courses we are starting to work on the Level Two sections. As you know, we created this online training in response to the COVID-19 quarantine situation – realizing that even in a normal situation there was more demand for Christian mobile training than there were trainers to go around. Thus we decided to multiply our efforts by offering free courses.
In review, we implemented two Level One courses, Mobile Filmmaking and Mobile Journalism. These two courses cover the foundational aspects of the two topic areas through a series of self paced lessons and assignments. A student is meant to work their way through the five levels successfully prior to being awarded the Practitioner Certificate in either Mobile Journalism or Mobile Filmmaking.
As we design the structure of the Level Two courses we cover some topics in more depth and others as new topics. For example, in Mobile Journalism Level Two we build on understanding your audience and b-roll shooting and editing. We introduce best practices of audio recording, lighting for Mobile Journalism projects, reporting in video with your smartphone and how to conduct professional video interviews both using lighting and reflectors.
In Mobile Filmmaking we are building on personas, strategy, scriptwriting, and basic short film topics. We introduce audio, lighting and narrative.
If you haven’t visited the site, go to Http://MobileTrain.co and look around. Courses are free, all you have to do is register as a user and then log back in and enroll yourself in one of the courses.
Online Courses to be offered in face of COVID-19
Life, as we know, it has changed with COVID-19 quarantine. Most of us are at home in lockdown. Many people have been laid off. Churches everywhere are figuring out how to go online with Facebook Live, YouTube, etc. Education has changed to delivery online and Face to Face (F2F) education is put aside. Pundits are wondering if this temporary shift will drift into summer sessions at colleges in the USA and possibly around the world.
We were scheduled to teach five smartphone workshops in India and Africa. Many of these areas are in forced lockdown, stopping international flights and closing borders. Large Middle Eastern carriers have stopped all flights and even US carriers have cancelled large percentages of flights both international and domestic.
We are planning to shift our training to a online mentor ship focus. We are developing courses that involve vision casting, skill transfer and mentorship. We are offering two online sequences of self-paced training using a course deliver system called Moodle. Here is a description:
We have designed a special learning management system to train Christian Mobile Filmmakers and Mobile Journalists. We want many to tell the untold stories of God at Work for international broadcasting and social media distribution. The courses are adaptations of on-site workshops by Professors Dan Henrich and Christine Henrich which have been taught in Thailand, India and Ethiopia.
Currently there are two streams (Mobile Journalism and Mobile Filmmaking). Each stream has five courses with eight modules in each online course. Upon successful completion of each course (Mobile Journalism Level One for example) the student receives a Certificate of Completion. When the student completes Levels Two to Five they receive a Practitioner Certification in Mobile Journalism awarded by Global News Alliance as well as Correspondent Credentials. As GNA correspondents they can submit video stories of God at Work for GNA’s international broadcasting network.
In the Mobile Filmmaking area, we follow the same format of Certificate of Completion and Practitioner Certification in Mobile Filmmaking by Communication Resources International.
Each series of courses constitutes a micro-certification in the area.
Fill out the contact form if you want more information
Virtual Interview in Belize: COVID-19 and Church Lockdowns
Dan Henrich was on-air in the country of Belize yesterday. Henrich was interviewed by owner and manager Richard Smith of My Refuge Christian Ministries 93.7 and 100.5 FM in Belmopan, Belize. Belize is a Caribbean country just south of Mexico with a population about 450,000.
“Belize is untouched by the COVID-19 as of now, but churches are meeting virtually, said Henrich. “We discussed using social media tools like Facebook Live, YouTube and the like so churches could still reach their members.” Henrich provided tips on using the smartphone, audio and framing.
Also discussed was future Mobile Journalism and Mobile Filmmaking courses soon and the possibility of a new initiative for self-paced online training in these areas. Henrich will be rolling out a prototype soon.
WHAT’S NEW IN MOBILE/Social Media
YouTube makes up 37% of all mobile Internet data usage
Beating out Facebook (10.9%), Snapchat (8.3%), Instagram (5.7%), all web browsing (4.6%), WhatsApp (3.7%), Netflix (2.4%), and the Apple (2.1%) and Google (1.9%) app stores.
WIRED / LAUREN GOODE Continue reading “WHAT’S NEW IN MOBILE/Social Media”
Workshop in Alexandria, Egypt
Partner Trainers Galilean International conducted a Smartphone Filmmaking Workshop that was part of the “Share the Story” conference organized by Campus Crusade for Christ in Alexandria, Egypt in February 2020. Trainers were David Peters, Liz Peters, with support from Aaron Peters and Jony Sureshkumar. Liz and David attended our workshop in Mumbai last summer and Dan traveled to Toronto to give a brief refresher before they left for Egypt. Continue reading “Workshop in Alexandria, Egypt”
Presentation at Global News Alliance Event
I was privileged to teach 10 tips to Smartphone Journalism at the recent NRB 2020 Christian
Media Convention in Nashville. The Global News Alliance hosted a workshop with about 40 attendees – 14 who were from non-US countries. These 40 attendees represented organizations with strong media components wanting to learn how the smartphone can be used to tell those untold stories of God at work. I am attaching a image below with the 10 Quick tips.
Continue reading “Presentation at Global News Alliance Event”
Smartphone Training Schedule 2020
Mobile Storytelling workshops during the summer of 2020.
- June 1-5, Ajmer City, Rajasthan India (Registration $45 with Lunch and tea – $110 with accommodation plus three meals)
- June 8-12, Margao Town, Goa India (Registration $30 with Lunch and tea)
- June 22-26, Chandigarh, Punjab India (Workshop is full)
- July 6-10th, Nairobi, Kenya – Music For All
- July 20-24th, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Registration $80 with Lunch and tea)
The Future of Christian Media Training
Those of you who have been connected to our ministry of training Christians to use media effectively know that we have been conducting Smartphone Filmmaking workshops in Asia and Africa (140 students in four countries since 2016). What is amazing is that with training and mentoring each trainee can produce stories of God at work in their own lives using that smartphone in their hand! Continue reading “The Future of Christian Media Training”
