Church Education Network
Welcome to the Church Education Network. This is a non-formal, social network for church-related education in general. It is also a vehicle for an outcomes approach to leadership education that is facilitated by coaches and peer learners, using internet-based social networking, with portfolios being used to provide evidences of learning. The leadership education network has four primary components: participants, coaches, facilitators, and library. Following is a description of the components and their functions.
Participants:
Functions:
Develop portfolios that contain files providing evidence of competencies – unique to her or his learning goals
Interact with coaches and peers for mutual support in achieving and documenting competencies
Related communities: Collections, Homogenous Peers, Selected Coaches (primary and secondary)
Administrative level: relates to assigned coach(es), homogenous peers, and facilitators
Coaches:
Functions
Develop files of resources to assist participants in accomplishing and documenting competencies – resource files of individual coaches my be unique to each of their special interests
Interact with facilitator and other coaches as peers in the sharing of information resources and coaching processes
Related communities: Coaches, Collections, Assigned Participants
Administrative level: relates to assigned participants, other coaches, and facilitators
Facilitators:
Functions
Coordinate network content and design
Provide orientation for new members (participants and coaches)o Assist users as needed
Related communities: All
Administrative level: relates to all participants and coaches, reports to representative(s) of sponsoring group
Library:
Functions
Provide files of resources to assist coaches and participants in accomplishing their coaching and learning goals – resources that have demonstrated their effectiveness in helping coaches and participants
Accumulated key contributions from facilitators, coaches, and participants,· Related communities: All
Administrative level: relates to all participants and coaches, coordinated by facilitators with additions and modifications made by a consensus of the coaches
Community Components
Each component has her or his (or its) own web page that contains parts that are common to the others. This common distribution of components and parts provides for opportunities to share and learn from one another in community while at the same time differentiating according to one’s individual needs, interests, and goals. Each person (facilitator, coach, participant) is given a similarly constructed web space that is linked to the others and to the “collections” section. Members are individually and collectively able to have “all things (related to learning) in common” (Acts 2:44). The components that are present on each space or page include: personal profile, bookmarks, files, community connections, message center, and blog.
- Your profile: basic contact information, brief biography, interests, goals, mission statement, employment, education
- Your network: names, web addresses, and descriptions of selected web sites
- Your files: folders, sub-folders, and files arranged according to general information, competencies, selected resources, and presentations
- Your network: links to the communities of which participants, coaches, and facilitators are members
- Your blog: a place for reflecting and sharing ideas and resources in a public journal-like format that is dated, topical, and searchable
Welcome to this revolution in learning. Enjoy the relationships and resources in which you are about to participate. May you grow in Christ and community. May you be obedient to the Great Commission in making disciples. And may you respond to the Great Command in loving and serving on another as Christ loved the church.
