If you’ve been following along via Twitter recently (@mobileminmag), then you might have seen a few tweets in reference to articles posted at one of our favorite sites – Biblical Studies and Technological Tools (BS&TT). Certainly one of the oldest and most theologically grounded tech websites, BS&TT, there’s always the kind of content there that gets you to the point of readily applying tech in faith. Of note, a recent post took at look at a few applications relevant for the seminarian, but left also with a standing question about how other seminaries approach making the decision about which application(s) prefered for students’ learning. By the end of this piece, I questioned if its really an app (or service) that seminaries should steer towards, or should the skill of knowing how to build a Bible app be included into the curriculim.
Apps and Services for Serminaries
The BS&TT article mentions these, and we’ve added a few others from previous discussions:
These are only a few of the applications available. Check out our Bible apps page for a more exhaustive listing for several computiing devices and contexts.
Or, Should Seminaries Focus [Also] on Skills to Build the Ideal App/Service?
As mentioned earlier in this article, the BS&TT article left me with the question of “what specifically are these apps doing that is necessary to the study of, application to, and teaching of Scripture?” When I looked at it through this lens, the approach wasn’t that a specific application should be chosen, but perhaps seminaries should focus on those skills common to these applications. If this focus on those skills becomes the lesson, could it be a better lesson to teach how to build a Bible reader app suitable for use in seminary – engaging into the discussions that can better happen when you are closer to the publishing of the text, rather than the transcription of it?
Here’s my comment as posted with the BS&TT piece:
…Why aren’t you teaching folks how to build a Bible reader?
I understand that some of the issues related to Bible software has to do with not so much the content, but knowing the needed features for instruction, learning, and application. What you seem to be wanting here is some easier or more grounded means of teaching specific ways of using these software packages in studies. That doesn’t happen solely by concentrating on a specific package, but pooling their features, plus the needed skills, into something of a lesson.
If I could make the recommendation in this wise, it would be to take John Dyer and the DBS’s work with Browser Bible, and make that the introduciton to tech and Biblical studies, alongside Hebrew and Greek beginnings. To learn how to program the code that makes the letters appear, how to manage a websites oval website, and see directly the challenge of language support and user in traces, that’s what makes for the kind of core compentencies in the text that transcend just knowing an app or having a specific library.
Plus, you end up with a suite of folks who will know first hand the issues of restrictive licensing and publishing, which is every seminary’s real issue with the text as taught.
So, instead of learning the user interface as Logos/OliveTree/etc have designed it, you are learning how to build one that fits your contexts or concepts of learning. For example, with the base of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you could address the lack of non-English resources as you learn the
This is one of those discussions that ends up having two questions knit together:
- What are some of the computing apps and services found to be helpful for those of you in seminary?
- Should seminary policy focus on apps and the core skills between them, or the core features of using tech tools for Biblical studies and knowing how to build your own ideal environment?
I admit, this is a challenging topic. But, probablyh one worth having over the larger expanse of the wants and needs of techn tools for faith.