December 23, 2011 – Silver Spring, Maryland, United States…Adventist Review
Remember when you used to sit in church, or at school, and the teacher pulled out a storyboard and felts to illustrate a story? The Sabbath School and Personal Ministries Department at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists offers a free storytelling app: electronic felts based on the kindergarten Bible study guide quarterlies. The app titled “GraceLink” is available for the iPad in the iTunes app store (http://bit.ly/uZ6JJB).
The GraceLink app has a default library of “felts” that can be used to tell stories from Scripture. Depending on use and demand, the plan is to release weekly graphic packs that relate to that week’s study and corresponding animation.
“Crayons” are provided so children (and the rest of us) can draw their own story, or add “color” to complement the story you tell with the “felts.” The app also has an e-mail feature so teachers can e-mail the finished storyboard to kids after the story, or kids can e-mail family or friends after they’ve created their story masterpieces.
The lessons for beginner, kindergarten, and primary Bible study guides are included in the app. Student and teacher editions are available in English, French, and Spanish. There are plans to include Arabic, Danish, Korean, Mandarin, Mongolian, Portuguese, and other languages when made available by the respective divisions.
The app was created for kids but has become a resource for teachers of Sabbath school and Christian schools, and missionaries. All the felts that used to fit in a suitcase now fit in an iPad, and they can be projected from the app onto a screen, using optional equipment to connect the device to a projector.
-Sabbath School and Personal Ministries Department
