John Hilton has recently graduated from the McKay School’s Ph.D Instructional Psychology and Technology program. “I think he even set the record for fastest graduation,” recalled David Wiley, an innovator in his own right, who introduced Hilton to the audience.

Throughout the years, Hilton has produced various youth-oriented books, CDs and DVDs; held regular workshops and firesides; and worked as a seminary instructor. Currently Hilton works within the seminary and institute programs to assist in the production and management of new social media and web initiatives. Hilton divided up some recent projects he is helping with into 3 categories:

1.     “Mormon Messages” for youth

2.     Crowdsourcing scripture mastery and other learning activities

3.     Seminary and institute Facebook strategy

Most members of the Church are familiar with the LDS phenomenon “Mormon Messages.” Several times a month a new video is posted to the Church’s website and to YouTube. Consistently and almost instantaneously, thousands view and share these videos with their friends. Those who attended the McKay school seminar were thrilled when Hilton offered a pre-screening of an upcoming Mormon Message for youth of the Church. Hilton hopes that such videos will foster communication and unification throughout the Church by encouraging youth to view, comment on, and share these videos.

Hilton then discussed the seminary and institute program’s new crowdsourcing initiative. Crowdsourcing means to outsource at a very large, public scale through open calls. For example, Hilton put out a call to Church members to create online, interactive scripture mastery games for the Church’s seminary page. “Such activities are fun and take just a few minutes, yet have the potential to bless lives,” Hilton noted, as he demonstrated one such game designed to help people locate scripture mastery verses.

Lastly, Hilton discussed how seminaries and institutes are using Facebook. “Currently,” Hilton said, “we now have an official LDS seminary and institute page.  The idea here is to use Facebook to increase student enrollment.” Pages like this can also help institute members stay informed of upcoming events and provide a unique way for young adults within the institute to stay connected with each other.

Facebook can also be used to create pages for events. Users can create a page with information regarding an upcoming event and invite their friends to attend. These friends can then refer more of their own friends, creating a snowball effect. Hilton explained that recently, he used the process to increase awareness for Churchwide firesides: “I literally spent a couple of minutes, created an event, and put it out there. Within a couple of days, 10,000 people were aware of the fireside.”

Hilton concluded the seminar by encouraging all members to take part in Churchwide social media efforts by sharing Church multimedia, creating relevant events for Church activities, and becoming fans of the Church’s institute page on Facebook.

John Hilton graduated from the McKay School in 2010 with a PhD in Instructional Psychology and Technology

22 November 2010