garylm wrote:Do you bring gadgets to church, and where do you personally draw the line?
What apps do you run at church and what materials do you access at church? Scriptures? Lessons? Conference talks? Church mags? Presentations? Attendance spreadsheet? Meeting minutes? Personal journal?
Great question Gary.
I totally believe in using the tools which are available but I have a hard time seeing how many of them belong at church during lessons and especially sacrament meeting.
I personally draw the line at bringing any of them on a Sunday.
A few of those who bring their own gadgets have oftened looked at me and asked why I dont bring mine but to be honest I really love to bring my own scriptures and my lesson books and my printed out talks and lesson notes. For visuals during lessons I find the whiteboard will do.
I have yet to capture how portable electronic versions of the scriptures and lessons can enhance my usage of them during Sunday meeting. I simply fail to understand how I can effective make notes on them. I also find it hard to type on a PDA with small keyboard and stylus is even worse. It's much easier for me to use pen and paper.
I do however make plenty use of lds.org before I come to church but then bring that as additional lesson/talk material.
I think the only thing I do bring is my laptop sometimes. That is when I need to show a video clip to my Sunday School class. I will then download it from lds.org beforehand. It works well as I am in control myself and dont rely on booking TV, DVD etc. Yesterday it was the video clip "The Mediator", great clip.
garylm wrote:What apps do you run at church and what materials do you access at church? Scriptures? Lessons? Conference talks? Church mags? Presentations? Attendance spreadsheet? Meeting minutes? Personal journal?
During Sunday meetings I dont. Pen and paper is enough for me.
garylm wrote:What is the largest gadget you would feel comfortable powering up in a church meeting? Beeper? Cell phone? PDA? Tablet? Laptop?
For local unit leadership meetings I dont unless I get asked something that I need to check on my Windows Mobile calendar. When our Branch President felt we could do with more effective meeting minutes and actions assigned and for these to be distributed fairly quickly we discussed it and since we didnt have an Exec Sec he asked if I, as his counsellor, would take that onboard. My main concern was the additional time it would take so in order to save time he suggested I brought my laptop and did it during the meeting. You could hear the quiet keys slightly when nobody was talking but everyone felt the benefits of this change outweighted the downside.
After each meeting I still needed to type up a bit more and correct mistakes but the extra work was minimal.
Once as a Branch President I did bring a projector together with my laptop for a Branch Council meeting to aid me with a powerpoint presentation I gave but it was because I was using quotes mixed with pictures of new converts in order for the Aux leaders to appreciate the souls that had joined our branch that year.
I think we should use the tools available but also remember the difference between what is a tool and what is merely a gadget. Any item can be a tool to one person and just merely a shiny gadget to someone else. There are plenty places and situations when gadgets are not suitable.