Instant, Bigger, Mobile
Does your curriculum meet the IBM challenge?
Jim Eichenberger
Surf—Once it was done on ocean waves. Now on the Web.
Rap—It used to be something one took for committing a crime, not a style of music with little
melody but a lot of rhythm.
Dial—It was something we put in the sunlight to tell time, a channel changer for the TV, or the face
of a telephone. Well, I guess it still is soap!
We can resist change. But we can’t thwart change! Is there any place technological change has not
touched? How about Sunday school curriculum? Does our curriculum ask us to use methods that
are nearly identical to those we used ten years ago? If so, something is wrong.
Technological innovation has given us new ways to be even more effective as we seek to teach eternal
truth. Take a look at the curriculum you now use. Does it meet the IBM (Instant, Bigger, Mobile) test?
I—Instant Interaction: Can you “follow” your curriculum provider on Twitter or become its “fan” on
Facebook? Do the mascots of their take-home magazines have an e-mail address or a presence
on MySpace? Do executives of your curriculum company blog regularly, lending the ear of those in
“high places?” They can. And they should.
B—Bigger Books: Just try to buy a pound of coffee or a half gallon of ice cream. Chances are you
cannot. Why? Because dealers in hard goods have two choices—either increase price or reduce
the size of the product. Today’s “pound” of coffee is about 13 ounces and the “half gallon” of ice
cream is three pints!
But a good curriculum does not have to follow the same trend. Thanks to technological changes, a
good curriculum can actually increase usable content at little or no cost to you! Online and down-
loadable supplementary resources can actually increase the value of a curriculum, adding “pages”
that do not have to be printed, inventoried, and shipped.
M—Mobile Media: A century ago, those who wanted music in their own home would have to play
an instrument or hire a musician! Those who wanted to see a play had to visit the theater. Today
MP3 players allow us to carry an entire music library in the palms of our hands. Movies can be
streamed to our laptops, music players, and even cell phones. In addition, the emerging develop-
ment of portable print readers such as Amazon’s Kindle
®
even allow us to wirelessly download
a book, newspaper, or magazine from virtually anywhere. A storehouse larger than the Library of
Congress can now be carried under our arms!
So does your curriculum provider live in this same world? How easily (and legally) can resources
they provide be placed in a PowerPoint or MediaShout presentation, e-mailed to students and
teachers, carried on an MP3 player or smart phone, or streamed from a church web site?
We may reminisce about filmstrips, picture cards, and flannelgraphs. But technology continues to
give us new and more efficient ways of delivering that same content to students. Has your curricu-
lum provider kept up with technology that allows us to be instant, bigger, and mobile? If not, look for
those who can pass the IBM test!
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