Monthly Reflection: Asma (Names) – On Technology

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The Association for Baha’i Studies for North America recently held its annual conference and has posted many of its talks and break-out sessions on YouTube. Thus far, we’ve featured Continental Counsellor Borna Noureddin’s thoughts on innovation, technology and the transformation of society.

Older curated content found on Baha’i Blog that also addresses these topics includes the BWNS podcast “Insights from the Field” episode featuring Matt Weinberg who talks about technology, values and society, and Ruha Benjamin’s TED talk about whether technology is our saviour or our slayer.

In this vein, we recently published in-house content on the subject: Shastri wrote his personal thoughts on how AI might just make us more human humans and Haonan wrote about learning to drive, AI and faith in action (I love the way she wove those three subjects together).

It will come as no surprise that we’re very interested in technology and its advancements–without it Baha’i Blog wouldn’t exist! And we routinely consult about AI and how we can, or should, use it when creating Baha’i-inspired content; how it affects what we make and how we make it. For example, when working on “Where Can Baha’i Blog Be Found Online? – A Mystery with Jordan Raj” we used AI to generate an initial script that we then dismantled and reworked. If you haven’t already seen it, I recommend giving it a watch–I never tire of the dynamics between Jordan and Raj!

Shifting gears slightly, I’d like to turn to the topic of families. The BWNS podcast “In Conversation” recently explored how neighbours and families in Australia are learning to support one another through service and consultation. Vahid Saberi, a member of the Board of Counsellors in Australasia; Hossein Jaberi Khormouji, an Auxiliary Board member in Australia; and Hari Remala and Shirrine Rohanian, both serving with Baha’i  agencies at the local level, discuss how communities across Australia are building cohesive neighbourhoods through educational programs that build capacity for service. It’s a great watch/listen!

Cherie has been thinking about families and the upcoming spring break and what that might mean for anyone organizing youth, children or family camps. She’s created cohesive customizable templates for a flyer, permission slip, programme, packing list and dorm allocation.

Camp flyer

Camp permission slip

Camp packing list

Camp programme

Camp dorm allocation

These are just a few of the many designs Cherie has created for Holy Days, community events and activities–and a whole score of other resources! We hope you find them useful!

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Sonjel Vreeland

In her innermost heart, Sonjel is a stay-at-home parent and a bookworm with a maxed out library card but professionally she is a museologist with a background in English Literature. She currently lives on Prince Edward Island, an isle in the shape of a smile on the eastern Canadian coast. Sonjel is a writer who loves to listen to jazz when she's driving at night.