Lorraine+DeLuca+Essay

Essay

 * Dr. Lorraine S. DeLuca, Director**
 * Office of Evangelization and Catechesis**
 * Diocese of Beaumont**

Experiencing the DDBC was a real eye opener for me as to the possibility of using technology in catechesis. Prior to beginning the course I felt that I was doing just fine in this area, because I was able to easily find my way around the internet, but I was mistaken. As a digital immigrant I was only scratching the surface of what technology can do and how it could effectively be used in catechesis.

Since in my position in a diocesan office much time is spent in administration, I chose to do a project that would enable my office to better serve catechetical ministry in parishes. To do this requires having a sense of what is being done and used in the parishes, so I decided to do a survey that would collect information which the office would be able to analyze and use for planning. The information will also be shared with our development office and be helpful when they write for grants for this office.

The two ISTE Standards involved in this project were the following: 5. Model and facilitate effective use of current emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate and use information resources to support research and learning 7. Demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations.

In the past when we tried to survey the parishes concerning their catechetical program it was done by sending out hard copies of surveys or emailing word documents that they could download and print. It was very time consuming for the participants and we did not often receive many back, even after repeated emails and phone calls. It also required a great deal of work to collate the information after the survey was returned.

The process of developing the survey included a meeting by the office staff to determine what we needed to know for each area of catechesis and what information would be confidential and what would be made available to the pastors and PCLs. We also tried not to make the survey too long so that people would be more willing to answer it. Using the variety of responses available in [|Google Forms] made the survey much simpler as well. We also broke the survey into different areas of responsibility due to the variety of ways responsibility for catechetical ministry is distributed in the parishes. In the large parishes there is often more than one person on the catechetical staff, while in the smaller parishes and missions one person has responsibility for all areas.

The response rate of 83% was very good with 43 out of 52 surveys being completed. Most of those who did not respond were the very small parishes or missions staffed with volunteers who we tried to reach by phone, but were unable to do so.

Also using Google we turned the responses into charts that would be easy for others to take in at a glance rather than presenting them with raw date. We chose the information that was not confidential, and also that which represented answers to questions we often received concerning what other parishes were doing in certain areas, such as day for classes, programs fees, etc. This information has now been posted on the [|office homepage of the diocesan website] and is available for pastors and PCLs to access.

As an office we spent some time looking at the results and from that determined areas that needed to be addressed in the upcoming year, either through continuing education with our PCLs or through discussion with specific PCLs. An example is that we learned that there are more children with special needs in the catechetical programs than we realized, and as a result we plan in the future to offer a program or workshop for PCLs and catechists on catechesis for special needs children.

Doing the survey using Google Forms was the first step in securing this information, but with the diocese moving into new parish software to which we would have access, the areas around which we asked questions are now being included.

I urge anyone who is thinking about getting into exploring the use of technology for catechesis to do so…you will never know where it will take you. It is exciting how something as simple as a survey could affect the focus and direction of your ministry in such a positive way.