podcasts – Pocket Share Jesus

NotebookLM Goes to Sunday School

Wesley Fryer and others — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 02:43:45 +0000

This morning I led our adult ACE Sunday School class at Caldwell Presbyterian Church, as our study of the Book of Acts moved into the 12th Chapter. My lesson plan was to read and discuss:

We are using two Biblical commentary books to inform our discussions about Acts and the practical lessons and applications which we can draw to our lives today. These are books recommended by Fran Hayes, who is a retired Presbyterian Pastor and one of the lay leaders of our class:

“Gonzalez and Jennings Books on Acts” (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

I have been using and “playing with” the AI tool NotebookLM by Google for a year, since January 2024, when I used it for the series of adult micro-credential courses I taught on “Teaching the Conspiracies” for the Media Education Lab. In October 2024 I facilitated a webinar for the MediaEd Club on “AI NotebookLM & Steven Johnson.” (An archived recording is available) I’m very familiar with the way NotebookLM works, and have previously been AMAZED by the quality and depth of results it can provide. These are reasons I wanted to use it to create an audio podcast summary for our Sunday School lesson today.

Unlike a basic prompt entered into an AI model like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, CoPilot or Grok, before entering a prompt into NotebookLM a user MUST upload documents into a “project library.” These documents are given preference for the prompts and tasks requested by the user. Before our Sunday School class today, on Saturday, I uploaded PDF versions of each of the Acts 12 Bible versions I wanted us to read and discuss, along with PDFs of the scanned pages in Jennings and Gonzalez’ books which address Acts 12. I used the TurboScan app on my iPhone for this.

I thought I might have to convert the image-based PDFs to text, and initially tried using both ChatGPT and Claude to do that OCR process, but neither would. So I just uploaded the PDFs into NotebookLM to see what would happen. NotebookLM was able to “read” (ingest and understand) the image PDFs fine!

This is the prompt I used with NotebookLM. Note that I specifically instructed the AI to compare and contrast both Bible chapter versions, offer insights from Jennings and Gonzalez, and share practical applications for followers of Jesus today. This is important to remember, because the high quality of the results I obtained from NotebookLM is at least partly attributable to the specificity of this prompt as well as the source materials I uploaded to the project library.

“NotebookLM Prompt for Acts 12 Deep Dive” (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

This is the 20 minute, 33 second audio podcast “deep dive conversation” which NotebookLM created based on my source documents and prompt. I emailed this to members of our Sunday School class on Saturday, along with my lesson plan ideas, in case anyone wanted to listen and read the Scriptures in advance of class. Several people did!

Duration: 20 min 33 sec

I was VERY impressed with the quality of the Biblical analysis provided by NotebookLM in this audio podcast, as well as the ways it appropriately integrated interpretations and perspectives offered by both Jennings and Gonzalez. Wow. This “AI experiment” demonstrated something I’ve heard Jason Neiffer say repeatedly and I share as well: It’s best to test and play with these AI tools using topics and themes about which we know a great deal. That way, in the parlance of Neil Postman, we can be effective “crap detectors” and identify AI hallucinations / inaccurate information, as well as judge the quality of the ideas shared by the AI model.

When we got home and after lunch, I decided to take this AI reflection about Acts 12 to another level, and create an AI-enhanced video version. I used Pictory.ai (on a free 2 week trial) to create a VIDEO version of the audio podcast. First, however, I created a free transcript of the audio recording using Descript.com. I then copied that transcript into ChatGPT and asked it to remove the speaker names, and identify (using included 30 second timestamps) approximately 15 second script sections which could be used with different images in the “Photo Story” video created by Pictory.ai. (Here’s my conversation transcript with ChatGPT.) Pictory.ai will automatically insert new, related video clips into a movie at line breaks, so I ended up creating about a 20 minute video with 50 different 15 second scenes.

I only chose to edit 1 of the auto-selected video clips in the first version of the video I created (which is available on YouTube but unlisted), but on the second version I updated and manually selected video clips for about 40 of the 50 scenes. I also removed background music and the text shared as a closed captioning block. I recorded an intro clip and outro clip for the video using Streamyard, and combined the 4 video clips using QuickTime Player.

Check out the final video, it’s 35 minutes long. I’d love to hear your feedback, either on this blog post, on the YouTube video, or via social media. There are SO many issues this AI experiment raises which would be great to discuss further.

On a final technical note, I’ll observe that this is one of the highest quality videos I’ve recorded to date at my home office desk. Two contributing factors to that quality are the fact that I’m using my iPhone 14 as my webcam thanks to MacOS 15.2 Sequoia’s “continuity camera” features, and my Stouchi Continuity Camera Mount.

This is the same setup I used this weekend to participate in the 2025 MediaEd Forum hosted by the Media Education Lab. I snapped a photo of my screen setup with my iPad during the conference, and annotated the various pieces of equipment. Both my ring light and LED bulb light bar also help make my webcam image look more professional.

“My Screen Setup for Virtual Learning” (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

Welcome to the Age of AI.

For more of my AI / artificial intelligence related posts, videos and projects, visit “Learning AI with Wes Fryer.”

Podcast12: Unleash Your Digital Creativity for Jesus (May 2018)

Wesley Fryer and others — Mon, 07 May 2018 02:02:13 +0000

This is an audio recording of Wesley Fryer’s workshop at the May 5, 2018, MoRanch Men’s Conference near Hunt, Texas. The title of the session was, “Pocket Share Jesus: Be a Digital Witness for Christ.”

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The session description was:

This workshop will empower you as a Christian to share the transforming reality and love of God with others around the world through multimedia and social media. By creating and sharing Bible verse “infopics,” creating sketchnotes and narrated sketchnotes and recording “quick edit” video interviews on mission trips, we can digitally amplify and share God’s Word and work with others.

Slides for this session, which include live hyperlinks, are embedded below and also available on wfryer.me/mo2018. This presentation is also linked on the main project site for “Pocket Share: Be a Digital Witness for Jesus Christ” www.dw4jc.com. Videos shared and referenced in this presentation are also embedded below. Refer to the podcast shownotes for links to many referenced resources from this session.

Show Notes:

Presentation Slides on Google Slides
MoRanch Men’s Conference
Contact Wes Fryer
Wes Fryer’s Christian Twitter channel: @pocketshare
Wes Fryer’s professional Twitter channel: @wfryer
Wes’ Bible Verse InfoPics on iCloud: wfryer.me/bible
Photos on Instagram tagged #dw4jc
Wes’ Flickr album of Bible Verse InfoPics
YouVersion Bible App
InfoPics Chapter of Pocket Share Jesus
Recommended website source for royalty free/remixable photos: unsplash.com
Adobe Spark Post (online version)
Adobe Spark Post: Poster Maker for iOS
7 minute [VIDEO] tutorial – App Smash: Bible Verse Infopics
Sketchnotes Chapter of Pocket Share Jesus
Flick album of Sketchnotes by Wes Fryer (includes sermon sketchnotes)
63 second [VIDEO] tutorial: Tips for Sketchnoting
The Noun Project (great source for icons)
Best TEDx Talk Ever: “Drawing in Class” by Rachel Smith (@ninmah)
John 15: Bearing Fruit for Jesus (Narrated sermon sketch note)
Narrated Sketchnotes Chapter of Pocket Share Jesus

“Sketch note on John 15:1-9” (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

Podcast11: When God Calls Out of the Darkness

Wesley Fryer and others — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 04:14:54 +0000

This is an audio recording of a sermon by Wesley Fryer at First Presbyterian Church of Edmond, Oklahoma, shared on July 12, 2015. The title of the sermon was, “When God Calls Out of the Darkness.” The scripture for the sermon was 1 Samuel 3 (The Lord Calls Samuel.)

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by Yashna M

Podcast10: Inspired By Mark Veasey

Wesley Fryer and others — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 02:23:13 +0000

On December 26, 2014, Mark Veasey shared a little more about his testimony and journey of faith for our Friday Morning Men’s group at First Presbyterian Church of Edmond, Oklahoma. These are a few reflections about his presentation and message.

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Podcast9: Discussing Urban Ministry with Shelly Fryer

Wesley Fryer and others — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 19:19:48 +0000

This past week, I interviewed my wife about her work the past 3-4 years in urban ministry in Oklahoma City.

In addition to the Spreaker-hosted version of this podcast, I uploaded the mp3 audio file to Amazon S3 for backup. I don’t want to lose this recording, as I lost podcasts in 2009 which I’d recorded in our 5th grade Sunday School class!

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I also created an 8 minute screencast about how I created this, using the free app “Spreaker DJ” for iPad.

Podcast8: Exploring the Biblical World via Google Earth: All Sessions Available as Podcasts

Wesley Fryer and others — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 04:14:42 +0000

UPDATE 26 Dec 2014: This podcast is apparently no longer listed in iTunes, and the referenced Moodle server/site is offline. I updated, however, the direct MP3/audio links below to these recorded podcasts from 2008. I also updated the podcast feed.

I played podcast catch-up this evening and published the last two sessions of the five course adult class I taught this fall at our church titled, “Exploring the Biblical World via Google Earth.” These five episodes are available in a podcast feed and directly in the iTunes Store (for free, of course!)

I have also updated the Moodle course for this class with embedded flash-player links to each session recording.

Session1: Ur / Iraq
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Session2: Egypt / Sinai

Session3: Judea / Israel / Palestine

Session4: Paul’s Missionary Journeys

Session5: Turkey / Anatolia

Podcast7: 10 year old reflections about Jesus on Christmas Eve

Wesley Fryer and others — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 06:48:41 +0000

Our 5th grade Sunday School class of 10 and 11 year old students recorded a seven minute podcast today, which is going to be played during our family Christmas Eve service at church this year.

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This podcast is available in several formats:

As an audio-only mp3 file
As an enhanced podcast (m4a file)
As a YouTube video (published later in 2010)
As a VoiceThread digital story

You are welcome to leave feedback for our students on the VoiceThread or here as comments. Merry Christmas!

Podcast6: Grapple Digital Curriculum and Technology Integration with 5th Grade Sunday School Students

Wesley Fryer and others — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 05:10:31 +0000

This podcast is a mid-semester review of the “Grapple” digital curriculum package from Group Publishing which we are using to co-teach 5th grade Sunday School in fall 2007 at my church in Edmond, Oklahoma. In addition to reviewing the elements of Grapple I address different ways I am integrating technology into our weekly Sunday school lessons, and discuss in detail the different elements of the online social networking and discussion board area provided by Group Publishing as part of the Grapple curriculum.

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Podcast5: Reflections on our 40 Day Evening Technology Use Fast and Digital Discipline

Wesley Fryer and others — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 23:58:06 +0000

In this podcast, Shelly and Wesley Fryer share the genesis, goals, and results of our 40 day evening technology use fast that we completed together in the closing weeks of 2006. This was a very positive experience which drew us closer together as a couple and a family, and made us more aware of our abiding need to have digital discipline as we intentionally decide how to spend our time in the evenings together.

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Podcast3: Expecting a Miracle by Miguel Guhlin

Wesley Fryer and others — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 03:11:15 +0000

Photo: Moises and Talsidia “Tanchi” Vega

Over the last few days, I had the opportunity to meet with Moises and Tanchi Vega (shown above). They are both national directors for the Mision Global: Esperando un Milagro.

While you can find out more about their mission at the link above–and, to get a better feel for their audience, I heartily recommend looking at the photos on their site–I was curious to hear how Moises came to Christ. This audiocast allows Moises to share in simple, unadorned words, the most important story he has to share–his testimony.

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One of the other interesting things I learned about was something called “The Evangicube.” This is a fascinating tool to use that relies on pictures painted on a cube to tell the story of Christ, or “a cube that tells the story of the Gospel through moveable pictures.”

Here it is being used, but you can also watch a Flash video and read the RAP song that goes with it.

While it was sad to see Moises and Tanchi leave, it’s nice to know that they’re right around the corner with Skype! I’m hoping that we might do an Eyes Right Skypecast and have a conversation about the work they’re doing in Panama, Peru, and lots of other places!

Podcast3: Step Aside Satan!

Wesley Fryer and others — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 21:49:31 +0000

This podcast is a recording of a sermon shared by Pastor Leo Wideman at First Presbyterian Church in Edmond, Oklahoma on September 17, 2006. The title of Leo’s message was “Step Aside Satan!” His text was from the sixteenth chapter of the gospel of Matthew. Leo reminds us all to make sure we are focusing on Christ, and not falling into the trap of the enemy by focusing on ourselves or on the messages the world would have us regard as most important.

Program Length: 29 min, 18 sec
File size: 6.8 MB

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Show notes for this podcast include:

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Podcast2: Reflections about 40 days by Dean Shareski

Wesley Fryer and others — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 04:31:06 +0000

I took the opportunity on my drive today to record a 5 minute podcast. It’s a short reflection on the 40 days of Community our church is beginning. Hope you enjoy it.

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Podcast1: The Age of Catholic Christianity by John Gruel

Wesley Fryer and others — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 04:25:36 +0000

This podcast is a recording of a Wednesday night adult Christian education class taught by Pastor John Gruel of First Presbyterian Church in Edmond, Oklahoma. John’s topic was “The Age of Catholic Christianity 70 – 312 AD: Persecution and Orthodoxy.” Among many reference texts for this lesson is Bruce Shelleyâ€s “Church History In Plain Language.”

Program Length: 1 hr, 6 min, 2 sec
File size: 15.9 MB

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Text notes from this lesson
Bruce Shelleyâ€s “Church History In Plain Language.”
First Presbyterian Church, Edmond, Oklahoma
“Enter the Mystery” by Michael Popenhagen on the Podsafe Music Network

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