Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church wants to go Digital for Catechesis any thoughts?
Fri, 08/21/2009 - 2:52pm
We are hoping to create our digital catechesis site from grades k-8 including the entire families. We want it to be charismatic, creative and user friendly while sticking to standards.
We also want to include activities, games and anything that will have families paying more attention together. We are new and just need a lot of advice.
I look forward to comments.
Valerie
Mon, 08/24/2009 - 6:30am
#2
Ning recommendation
I'll second the ning recommendation. You can signup for free, though some more advanced services are for $.
Another thought I have is, if your local Diocesan website is professionally done (and maintained), you could try contacting them for suggestions as well.
You don't mention if you have a budget, but there may be a developer(s) on this site that'd be able to help.
Best wishes,
Craig
Mon, 08/24/2009 - 8:53am
#3
Be Very Careful with NING
NING will display your USERS in your private network when searched from other private networks.
This means that if your private Catholic network had a member named "Tom Jones" and . . .
that if a person was on a "Bad-Adult Oriented" Ning site and did a search for "Tom Jones" . . . .
that your parishioner could also display in those search results.
The end result is that your membership in your private network is not necessarily private adn can be accessible from the other Ning Networks.
I will look for the post on a Ning Network Creator forum that talks about this topic.
I would just be careful.
Mon, 08/24/2009 - 8:53am
#4
Sounds like a very reasonable
Sounds like a very reasonable caution; are there any other solutions out there that would be comparable/with as low a barrier to entry?
Tue, 08/25/2009 - 8:17am
#5
Start with Small Steps
After reading the initial post, I had the impression that there was going to be a lot of content created for assisting in catechesis. If this is the case, I would recommend small steps. Start with a system that will get you started quickly and is easy to use for your content creators. The sooner you get stuff out on your site, the sooner you'll learn what you really need.
I'm a fan of ccTiddly. It is straightforward to install and adding content is pretty easy. I also like it because extending its capabilities can be done through a plug-in interface, without having to mess with the installation. If you can't find a plug-in you want, anyone with a little experience creating Javascript code can create plug-ins for it.
Once your site is going and you're getting feedback from your users, you can determine a better list of requirements for your site. This firm list of requirements will help you evaluate everything that's out there and eventually pick the best tool for your site.
Tue, 08/25/2009 - 12:29pm
#6
As long as the system uses a
As long as the system uses a common database and is used fairly widely, data portability isn't a huge issue.
If you'd like to create a great community-oriented site (multiple users, many available ways to communicate), a system like Drupal would be good. If you need something a little easier to manage but less customizable, perhaps a Ning community would be even better: http://www.ning.com/
Advancing the faith.