David Black posted on December 31, 2007 10:58
I read this article this morning from the Washington Post. Video content of college courses is becoming more standard, with many institutions exploring this feature and experimenting with how it may be used. What interested me is how course lectures and notes are reaching a far wider public than simply those who pay for a course. Schools are finding that making videos and notes available is having a wide reaching affect on marketing, fundraising, and in keeping the school in front of the public eye. Here is another article that touches upon some of the same themes.
We in Lutheran education have an incredible opportunity to witness to others through some of these methods. Unfortunately, the secular world appears to be seizing these tools much more quickly. On exception is the Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. They provide a great deal of online content from their courses via iTunes -- available to anyone with an Internet connection. I've already downloaded some course modules for my own devotional growth. Another school which is more on the cutting edge in embracing this technology is Orange Lutheran High School Online. Here students may take online courses for high school credit related to theology and our Christian faith. In addition, this is a source for homeschoolers and for those who may attend high schools which don't have specific course offerings that are provided online by Orange Lutheran.
Despite these opportunities, we in Lutheran education have a long way to go in seizing these tools for the future of ministry, education, and technology. I was struck by a quote in the first article from a Yale professor who was philosophizing about death. He said:
If death is the end, is death bad?
If that sort of philosophy is readily available to entire world (not merely to enrolled college students), how much more should a true Christian method of hope for the future be boldly shared with the same world!
What sorts of ways might we be able to better seize these tools for ministry? Share your brainstorming ideas as a comment to this post.