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.

I posted a list of things that I Will… do in 2010.  They are goals, not resolutions.  What about the things I’d like to do longer term?

Well, 43 Things is a pretty simple little online tool with an iPhone app that lets you write, update, track and share your goals as well as encouraging others and sharing tips on how to achieve your goals.  You can have goals for 2010 and life goals.  It’s free and simple.

I’m ‘stewcut‘ if you want to keep tabs on me and I’ve added an RSS feed to the sidebar of this blog to keep you up to date with my progress.

What are your goals beyond 2010?

Right.  I’ve decided what my Masters research will focus on.

I’m going to explore youth workers in church settings’ attitudes to social media.  I had a couple of chats over the last few days with Chris and Tim and they have helped me to focus.

So, my initial plan is:

To investigate youth workers in Scottish church based settings’ use of and attitude to social media tools.

I hope to find out

1. Who uses social media tools – demographics of use
2. What do they use and how
3. Are there policies or guidelines around use
4. what benefits do workers perceive?

How does that sound?  Your thoughts comments and insights are very welcome, as always.

I think I’ve decided to do my research for my masters on the use of social media in church-based youth work in Scotland.  I could of course change my mind again but on reflection this seems to be something that would be both interesting and worth doing.

I’d still like to have a go at ‘does youth work work?’ but think that might make a better large scale project for me and my lovely colleagues at the URC.

So, If you’re reading this and are involved in church-based youth work in Scotland let me know so I can come and interview you and your young people some time in the new year.

Anyone with any ideas and/or suggestions, please feel free to contribute said ideas anytime you like.

And I’ll try not to bore you all.  Honest.

I’m almost done with my Masters in Research.  I have two modules to complete then a dissertation.  The dissertation takes the form of a small research project.  I want to get started soon and have it completed so I can graduate next November at the latest.  If I’m super organised I could graduate in July.

Being super organised would include actually choosing a topic to research.  That’s when things get complicated.

I have three potential topics:

1: Youth work and social media – models of good practice using web2.0 tools to work with young people

2: Does youth work work? – Does employing a youth worker make a difference? Probably a case study

3: Towards an evaluation framework – how could churches/projects evaluate what they do? Working towards an evaluation framework.

This is where you come in.  Any thoughts, comments, ideas, avenues to pursue and general advice and suggestions would be very welcome.

There are lots of people I know who read this blog who never or rarely comment.  It would be great to hear from some of you about this as I’d really value as much input as possible.

Stewart

DK at Media Snackers has been on a bit of a campaign to get Youth Workers in the statutory sector to blog.  It would seem that there are very few who do (he’s found one!), which perhaps is a consequence of Local Authorities attitudes to their staff having any kind of online profile (it’s BAD).

The same is true of the church.  Rumour has it that the powers that be added Facebook to the list of blocked websites in the Church of Scotland’s offices the day before Gordon Brown (yes the Prime Minister) gave social networking a big thumbs up at the General Assembly.  Facebook was unblocked shortly after.

This seems broadly representative of local churches and even denomination’s approach to the Internet.  ‘I don’t understand it so it must be bad.’  I’ve had youth workers tell me they are not allowed to have BEBO or Facebook sites, they can’t have forums on their websites and all kinds of stuff about not being online.  The reason most given is ‘Child Protection’.  What a load of nonsense.

The online world is just as safe (or unsafe) as real life.  What we should be doing is having sensible conversations about APPROPRATE online interaction with young people.  There are lost of ways to have open and transparent contact online with young people.

It’s probably a good idea for you not to IM your youth group.  But there’s no reason you can’t have a Twitter account telling them what’s coming up this week, or reminding them what to bring.

Having a group blog also let’s young people be creative in collecting content, writing and presenting what they have been up to.  A blog would give your group a higher profile in the community.  It would allow parents and supporters to see the value of your group.  You might even get new members or more funding.

So, here’s a plea.  Just because you don’t ‘get it’ don’t think it’s bad.  There are loads of tools and opportunities around to make your youth work better.  Don’t miss out because you don’t know where to start.

If you blog about your youth work, let me know.

If you would like to know more about getting online then in the next session I’ll be doing some training to get you started.  Keep an eye out on the blog and the dates pages or get in touch from the contact page.

In the meantime check YoMo‘s guide to youth work blogging HERE.

I posted last week about wordle, the cool visualiser which takes your text and makes a nice image.  Well textorizer is a whole new level!  Add in your text, pick a picture and hey presto!

Genius!  The good news is you can download textorizer for windows, linux and mac.

H.T. Jonny