Sandra Paetkau shares about creating online communities based on encouragement, collaboration, challenge, and support. Tune in for actionable principles for building connections online, as well suggested digital tools and a peek into tech of the future!

• Masters of Leadership in Global Christian Education at Prairie College, Alberta
• “Building Community: Encouragement, Challenge, Support” by Sandra Paetkau
• “When we’re talking about online community, I’m thinking of online collaborative platforms - so, any kind of a platform that allows people to come together, not just to share ideas, but to create new ideas based on what has been said or discussed or provided in those communities.”
• “Community is where people come together to exchange ideas and to build off those ideas in a tangible way.”
• Hebrews 10:24-25
• Ecclesiastes 4:9
• “My ideas in silo are just that - they’re ideas. I often need somebody else to help me figure out how to make them tangible or to make them practical in application.”
• 1 Thessalonians 5:15
• 1 Corinthians 14:26
• “[Online collaboration] plays to students’ different strengths. Those students who may not come forward immediately in a class might be expert people at finding resources or developing materials.”
• “The future of our community really is going to take us more online. I think that, as Christian educators, we have an exciting opportunity to be in there and to be creating a culture of online community that we want to see using principles that we have learned and that are grounded in our Biblical principles, in Christ, and we have this opportunity to share that and be that.”
• “How can I teach my students to be involved productively and positively in the online community?”
• “Digital naives” (term coined by Danah Boyd)
• “The challenge is to create these spaces [...] and opportunities for students to be encouraging, collaborative, challenging, and supportive.”
• Marching Off the Map by Tim Elmore
• The Tech-Wise Family by Andy Crouch
• “I believe that everybody needs to have some time off from their digital interactions.”
• Seesaw
• Book Creator
• Common Sense Media
• Episode 45: Safeguarding
• Episode 41: The Triangle: Teacher, Student, and Subject

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Son’s broken arm
• Heather: Children’s book collection
• Sandra: Learning to say no

Weekly Spotlight: International Academy of St. Petersburg

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