Hello fellow educators welcome to podcast number 156. Every year of the podcast we spent some time speaking with Sarah Bennett about what’s going on in homeschooling and specifically some of the programs that we run through Heritage Christian Online School. Today I will play part 1 of this year’s interview with Sarah. Before we jump into that I wanted to thank those of you who sat down last week and sent a comment. As the podcast continues to grow and expand it is always exciting to hear about the impact it is making in the lives of our own community and beyond. Here is an email that I received from Alex in Ontario:

“Thank you for the inspiring podcast that you do for us as Christian Educators. I’ve been listening for close to two years now and your work has inspired me. With God’s help I’ve organized the a pilot project for digital education in the Christian Schools in Ontario. This past week we’ve finally had our minimum number of students sign up and the program will be running in September.

You can check out what we’re trying at www.ceiada.org Thank you and keep up the good work!”

Alex van Donkersgoed, Halton Hills Christian School, Grade 7 homeroom teacher and IT coordinator.

I can’t tell you how much this inspires me Alex. I pray for wisdom for the challenges and blessings you will receive in this new venture for you and your community.

Of course almost every podcast I hear from Niki or her husband Bruce who are both educators with Heritage. Here is what Niki commented on about the last two podcasts on the concept of Technology is Space:

“Hi Greg.  When I first listened to your podcasts talking about spaces I thought it was interesting but didn't realize how that concept would stick in my mind and begin to churn.  I've come to recognize how limited my understanding of spaces was.  In a campus school, I used furniture, pathways and educational resources to create spaces that fit different educational opportunities (large group, small group, individual, cross-grade, etc).  In the online school, I've used blogging, email, Skype, websites and visits to create those spaces.  I actually thought I was doing pretty good with these 'spaces' but your podcasts have me thinking "Have I been intentional enough with creating these spaces? or have I just reacted to a need?"  As educators (parents and teachers), my growing conviction is that we should be planning and creating those spaces and leading our students/children instead of following them or marveling at how good they are with 'computer things'.  (Your comment of "We can be the Methodist preachers and families that help in taming the Wild, Wild West.")  At the same time, my heart is stirred and challenged to consider what are the best ways to blend the classroom to include virtual and concrete spaces that compliment and inspire each other and cause our children to develop into skilled, passionate 21st century leaders who will be pioneers for the next generation.

These thoughts are keeping me up at night. “

Niki Hildebrandt, HCOS Individualized Contact Teacher

Well Nik, I hate for you to lose sleep but I am thrilled that you are being inspired. Here were Pippa Davies thoughts on these same concepts:

“I think for most of us 21 century learning is exciting. We are buoyed with all the possibilities that God has invited us to participate in, in terms of fully bringing our community into this cyberspace relationship.  Do we see ourselves as leaders with accountability to God?  One of the principles I have learned from reading Relational Leadership by Walter Wright, President of Regent College, is that as teachers we are vulnerable when we take risks ,and encourage our students to make innovative decisions which require a certain level of risk, (ie Facebook, Twitter and other open social networking activities).  As leaders we have been given an audacious responsibility to influence the next generation.  We need to care and nurture His people in discretionary and loving ways.  Sometimes we look at the net and see impersonal barriers that do not convey this LOVE relationship.  How we change that space is defined by our relationship, our accountability and our service to God.  If we are walking in His strength, Love and obedience we will feel emboldened to take on risks and learn new goals and ventures because we understand the greater mission of our school, and our greater calling.   So my prayer for all of our staff and families is that we can define our 21 century learning together, create our own mandate of success in this virtual world by taking the next step in responsibility towards our children and God. Can you imagine if Jesus was around today?  He would have been on ALL the social networking tools chatting to his flock.(quoted by my husband:))  And He would have been doing it in a loving way!

That is my 2 bits Greg.  Thanks for taking us on this great journey, a cyberspace mission of LOVE.”

Blessings Pippa.

Thank you Pippa. This has been an extremely inspiring way of looking at technology and our work of discipleship and teaching. Thanks to everyone that gave me a comment on the last two weeks of podcasts.

Sarah Bennett has been with Heritage Christian School since we first began. Her advice and council was crucial to many of the directions we took as a school when we first stepped out into the world of DL. Her daughter Abbie was our very first enrolment in the school. She served as our Curriculum Consultant for the first 5 years and is coming back to help with our new Coop Initiative. I had the chance to speak with Sarah over Skype recently and I want to share this conversation with you. Here is part one of our interview.

Audio Only

Thank you Sarah. As always you bring a unique and important perspective to Heritage. Next week we will continue this interview and will be unveiling our new Coop program.

As always I must have your comments. Please take a moment and send an email or Tweet me. The email is This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or follow the podcast twitter feed at ChristnEducator. And anyone that tweets their address to me will get a free copy of my book Discipling This Generation for a Digital World. Thank you for listening and thank you for your commitment to Discipleship-based Christian education.