T10 Heaven and Cell: How to Use Smartphones to Teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ | An Interview with Brandon Comstock

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Brandon Comstock has been teaching seminary for the past fourteen years in Southern Utah, and has also taught religion courses online for BYU-Idaho and Pathways International for five years. He has a bachelors degree in Business Management from BYU-Idaho, a masters in Instructional Technology from Utah State, and a doctorate in Educational Technology from Boise State, where his research focused on using smartphones in religious classrooms. Brandon has previously served as a Sunbeam teacher, four times as a Gospel Doctrine teacher, and as Sunday School president and Young Mens president. He current serves as elders quorum president and on the Gospel Library Awareness and User Education Committee. Brandon and his wife Carly live with their five children in St. George, Utah.

Highlights

05:30 Is using a cell phone to study the scriptures too distracting? 10:15 Scientific research regarding cell phones and how they affect our relationships and study. 12:20 Putting away devices at church or banning devices isn’t going to fix the problem. There has to be a mindset shift from seeing cell phones as toys to seeing them as tools to bring us to our Savior. 14:15 Five things that have to happen to get effective smartphone use at church.

Training
Modeling
Simplification
Direction
Assistance

14:40 Training students to use phones. Most parents and teachers only focus on what NOT to do on phones but don’t train youth on how to use phones. 16:00 Digital reading vs print reading. 29:00 Examples of how to train youth to do digital scripture study. It’s not just about showing them which buttons to push but showing them why they are doing it. Give it value. Focus on where am I doing this, when am I doing this, and why am I doing this. 32:15 Modeling – show me, don’t tell me. 36:50 Simplifying – the gospel library has made it possible for members to create QR codes so that you can easily share specific parts of talks or scriptures. It simplifies the process and makes it easy for an entire class to scan the code and get to the quote quickly. 44:45 Examples of simplifying. Be very redundant in your instructions. 48:20 Brandon gives specific tips and phrases to use in your church classes as you guide your class in using the Gospel Library app. 55:20 Assist – this principle is more for youth teachers. Let students use paper or cellphones in their gospel study. Let them make the choice. You are to assist them in their learning, not exercise power over them.