Thanks to everyone who has sent me birthday wishes today.

The web makes these kinds of greetings much easier and I really appreciate you taking the time to write on my wall on facebook, tweet me a message or even send one of those old fashioned card things.

It made me think about how we keep in touch with people.  How nice it is to feel that someone cares.

I wonder if we do that enough in our church communities?

I hope so but today has reminded me how a short message can make such a big difference.

Thank you.

Thanks to all the people who came along to my two seminars at Deep Impact in Aviemore at the weekend.  It was good to meet some new people and some old friends.  Welcome to my blog if you’re visiting as a result of the sessions at the weekend!

Both sessions were recorded but they both were more conversational so I’m not sure how much sense the audio will make.

You can download the presentations as PDF files from my web tools page.  Let me know what you think!

I’m back on the road again this week, in two ways.

The first is in a literal sense… running.  10 years ago I ran a half marathon.  It turns out that residual fitness doesn’t last ten years!

The second road hitting is to Aviemore to lead a couple of seminars based around the Internet, both on Sunday morning.

My first seminar is about life online. (I didn’t pick the name!)

The second is

Child Protection: Young People and the Web

The internet is a new and uncharted country which, like most new places, has benefits and drawbacks. Like any other place it provides risks and opportunities for young people and adults alike. Join us to explore some of the risks and opportunities presented by the internet in safe and sensible ways.

Any thoughts on what you would want to hear about in either session?

Yesterday I spent the day with the nice people at Blue Horizon youth project in Aberdeen exploring the possibilities offered by the interweb.  I hope they had some fun along the way.

Most of the stuff we looked at is over on the web tools page.

Today I’m learning about VOLE.  Apparently that’s something to do with Virtual and Online Learning Environments…

I’ll let you know what that means as the day progresses.

This morning we have been looking at MOODLE.  We’re playing with forums, profiles, feedback, messages and stuff.  Good fun.

The afternoon was spent doing more of the same.  We each have our own little Moodle sandpit to build stuff.  It looks like an interesting tool but I’m yet to be convinced that it would be worth investing in the hosting costs for us yet.

Lunchtime was an unexpected surprise.  We went to the church next door to the London office.  Lumen URC has been completely renovated and is now a stunning space.

It has meeting rooms, a multi faith prayer space, a sanctuary, a cloistered courtyard and a soon to be open vegetarian cafe.  It is quite simply stunning.  If you are passing Tavistock Place in London then go and have a look at what a falling down 50s building can be transformed into.

Perhaps that was a bit of a metaphor for the the day?  Is VLE something that can transform learning in the church?  Will it help to engage people?  Will it bring new life to an old idea?

One of the reasons I like WordPress is the amazing range of free plugins.  These plugins let you do some very cool stuff on your site.  We’ve been playing with some for podcasting, image galleries and text formatting…

I’ve added some of my favourites on the URConnected page.

I’m at the URC’s Windermere Centre in, well, Windermere for the next couple of days to help people play around with their WordPress sites.

So, got any great tips for making the most of a WordPress site?  Share with the group… please.

I’ll blog a bit about what we’re up to and any hints and tips I come across on the URConnected page so keep checking there if you’re interested.

My MacBook is home and all fixed.  My couple of days being laptopless have been interesting.  Here’s what I learned:

Old windows laptops suck

I have a very old (8 years) laptop with a massive 500mb RAM and 20GB hard drive which lives under the bed.  It would have been as well staying under the bed!  By the time it had installed its 47 updates and then decided Service Pack 3 was in order I’d wasted a day.  Don’t bother.  A pen and paper work better!

iPhones are great… except…

iPhone

My new iPhone appeared the day after I spilled coffee on my MacBook.  Just as well. The email works great with exchange so all my work email and calender was all there when I needed it and appeared like magic when I started up my laptop.

But there is stuff missing that I had on my Palm m130 years ago that you just expect to be there on what reports to be a ‘business tool’.  

I want to be able to access documents from my server or laptop and edit them.  How hard can that be?  I can get my email from my server, why not my word docs?  I know dataviz is working on documents to go for the iphone but seriously, is there no Word app out there?  I’m sure Micro$soft know there are big buck for the winner of the iPhone mobile office race.  What’s taking so long!!!

What about presentations?  It’s great I can use my phone as a remote… but my Nokia N95 runs powerpoint with a video cable out to a projector.

Come on Apple.  The iPhone is brilliant.  The interface is amazing, the email and web apps for twitter and facebook are all good.  The games are smart and quirky.  But I want business tools too!

Being a youth worker can be a lonely job.  I know that sounds odd, especially given that the job is to spend time with young people and develop good working relationships with all kinds of people.  But the fact is that much of a youth worker’s time is spent on their own, preparing, reading, thinking…

Networks are crucial to help spark ideas, nurture new workers and sustain those of us who have been at this for some time.

The Internet provides lots of ways to keep in touch with colleagues and I’m glad to say that our new Scottish Youth Ministry online network has been a great success.  Almost 40 people have joined in a week!

It was also good to see Youthworks, a real life, in person, network launched last Friday with 50 or so people gathering in Edinburgh.

So, if you are out there and you’re a youth worker then get involved.  There is no excuse for being lonely anymore!

After discussion with Chris today we decided to create a Scottish Youth Ministry Network online at http://scottishyouthministry.ning.com.

This network is for anyone involved in or interested in work with young people in Scotland.  We hope it will be a place where we can support, encourage and resource each other.  So join up and tell your friends.