Christian Education Curriculum for the Digital Generation

This book is about exploring and presenting a model of digital-based curriculum for Christian education suitable for the digital ways of learning, communicating, and thinking. Park discusses the limitations of analog-based curricula, most of current curricula, and necessities for digital-oriented ones. Then, he provides a new model of curriculum--curriculum as software. Curriculum as software is a curricular framework for embracing digital culture like open-flat network, service-centered management, interactive communication, and offline-online hybrid learning space. It consists of four spiral stages: analysis, design, simulation, and service. In the process of designing units, 4R Movement--a new learning theory--is utilized to encourage today's young people to construct their own knowledge after critically analyzing various resources of information. 4R-embeded courses are implemented in the four movements: reflection, reinterpretation, re-formation, and re-creation. ""Educating the digital generation in multicultural society is a big challenge because of their unique ways of thinking, communicating, and learning. Christian educators and parents alike struggle with the same issue in nurturing their students and children--however there are only a few books of Christian education curriculum on that issue. Thus this book deserves praise and attention. Jong Soo Park's research is like priming water to draw new insights and creativity for educating today's young people for faith."" --Doil Kim, Professor of Christian Education, Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary, Seoul, Korea ""Jong Soo writes for the church's teaching ministry in today's multicultural context. Calling for paradigm shifts in Christian education that are contextually appropriate and student centered, this book invites us, for pedagogical reasons, to take hold of the interactive and engaged digital age. An important book for the church finding its future."" --Don Saines, Farnham Maynard Senior Lecturer in Theology, Trinity College Theological School, University of Divinity, Parkville, Australia Jong Soo Park is an educator and minister working at the Uniting Church in Australia. He is also the founder/director of Australian Centre for Migrant-church Education (ACME). His primary concern is to support contemporary churches and families to lead a proper Christian education for today's young people living in a digital and multicultural society. For this, he has researched a paradigm of digital-oriented curriculum and developed Christian education resources based on his model. He holds a PhD from the University of Divinity in Melbourne, Australia.