HAGATNA:24
January 2012 -- Given that Fr Gerard (Gigi) Ravasco
has
written from Guam ("Happy
feastday on this glorious day of St Francis
of Sales. I'm dabbling again with media files..."),
let his greeting be
for all of us, and given that this is the communicators'
feastday as
well, let's follow up what Gigi is talking about - it will be
of interest!
A website known as Radix.com has done what inevitably someone
had to do
- given the narrative ploy of the 'dreams' which Don Bosco
used so
effectively amongst his boys, it just needed someone to take
contemporary media nad revitalise them. This is what Barry
Douglas has
done. You can be your own judge of the effectiveness of his
presentation, but regardless of what you think of it, the idea
can but
spur on the enterprising to do similarly....
Which is where Fr Ravasco fits in. A long-time devotee of the
digital
and its value for effective evangelisation and education, he
is a
member of the Salesian community in Guam (Fr Duenas Memorial
School)
and also runs an online media course (University of the
Philippines,
Open University).
Last year he decided to work out how to make an app for
android
devices, so after ploughing through a few tutorials, he
eventually came
up with a 'Salesianity.apk'. I happen to have a copy -
if you'd
be interested, just ask. Mind you he may have updated it
since, but I'm
sure, reading this, he'll be in touch about that!
Now
Fr Ravasco has put his hand to another little enterprise, "since I'm
teaching a course this semester (print and radio materials
for
development communications) which has to include a bit on
online
writing and podcasts. I got hold of the radix.com website
where they
have this very interesting DVD on the Dreams of Don Bosco
part 1. But
instead of getting this, I bought the older audio file they
developed
on the Dreams of Don Bosco (there are 7 dreams). And
I'm trying
to divide it into episodes (one a day) just in time for the
feast of
Don Bosco. So it's like a dream a day to keep us
awake. Would be
a good educational tool to develop later".
Once he has worked out how best to embed audio files, our
enterprising
confrere will (almost certainly by the end of today) have the
ability
to fulfil his dream re the 'bigger' dreams, and you will have
one more
resource during the lead-up to the Feast on 31st. Enjoy. The
link to
'Journeying' is from the image at the top.
