Was reading some good news the other week from our friends in Egypt who were talking about a book fair they were having, and it indeed is a good thing to have these. Besides a moment of being able to swap, share, and purchase books across authors and subjects you might have normally come across, its another aspect of sharing something that God’s given you with someone who might not have had access to the same materials.
Of course, that got me thinking on the lines of electronic books, ebooks, and how we’d probably not hear too much about book fairs where people are swaping, sharing, and purchasing these. The model for ebooks doesn’t seem to make something like this happen easily. Then again, there is the lending feature that some ebook services offer, and that does point to something that could be done here.
I thought a bit further, and my thoughts asked about my experiences and the testimonies with the Kiosk Evangelism Project, Door43, and Open Church. These are all projects which aim to make available some of the depth of locally- and globally-produced text, audio, and video material using technologies developed in and around the Internet. What if these kinds of projects could be extended to the idea of a eBook book fair? What could that look like?
First, there’d have to be some kind of library of content. If I’m thinking like the Kiosk Evangelism Project, then that should definitely be a few Seagate GoFlex Satellites configured in a room, with numbered SSIDs (for example [book fair name] a-d #1, [book fair name] e-j #2, etc.). This would enable those participating to at least be able to identify from their connected devices that content is available. I’d also have some kind of moderator there with a central laptop (?) that has all of the content on that device which would be used to transfer content to those persons who have devices which aren’t able to connect to the GoFlex units. I’d probably opt to have them organized by subject, rather than author, with that central laptop admin being the “librarian” – helping with searches, connecting to the LAN, etc.
Second, I’d have the GoFlex units labeled on a table with chairs and snacks around them. I’d probably do something fun like a scavenger hunt or something like a “speed dating” effect where people only sit in a space for a little bit of time. I’d encourage them to talk with each other about what they are downloading, what they like, and what they don’t. Probably having some kind of survey to be filled out afterwards (low tech with paper, high tech via SMS).
Lastly, I’d turn it into something of a traveling book fair and connect with the local worship centers and schools asking them to have prepared resources they’d like for people to be able to download and read. From the main laptop, I’d want to provision the libraries with that material before the book fair gets started. And (if possible) give them some kind of report (EpiSurveyor) towards what people downloaded and if there were any reported problems with that content (low tech paper, or high tech SMS again).
Thinking about this more, one could actually skip the LAN server piece, and just hand out memory cards with random selections to each table of people, do a once-over on how to share the content via Bluetooth or card swapping, and make a ebook fair happen on the level of each table. But, then ask people to remember a marker that was on their card and move to another table after a certain amount of time. At the end of the session, the memory card they have in hand is what they get to keep and they are just asked to do the same kind of sharing with friends/family/co-workers.
It feels like this would be a good way to show that our mobile/connected devices can be included within these kinds of social situations. We’d also see something of a different conversation when some people might decide to download some books but request others in print. In this way we can serve two kinds of readers, while electronically having the audio and video files that speak to those who might prefer something less textual.
What are your thoughts? Any reason why this wouldn’t be a good idea? Or, would anyone be interested in trying to make this happen (connect with us and let’s see what can happen)?
Literacy and Tech (Are We Teaching the Next Skills)
Friday, February 12th, 2010In some ways, this piece is framed as a part 2 to the post titled “Responding to the Pope’s Message.” Think of it as a call-to-action before action is needed kind of post.
In the summers of 2002, 2003, and 2004, I taught a few summer classes for the Upward Bound program at Millersville University. One class was about using PDAs as a function of time management, the other was a multimedia and web design class. In the last summer of my teaching, the PDA class was swapped out for teaching a class on developing and learning how to navigate the Internet. In this class, I walked the students how to do things such as evaluate web sources when they are doing research, how to use keywords for searching, how to setup and investigate domain names, and how to create simple web sites.
Now, I started teaching the classes because I wanted to see the potential of mobile in education. What happened though is that I began to understand what it was that students were getting in respect to the technological side of their education. And to be honest, I’m largely self-taught when it comes to tech; so knowing what they were getting would better prepare me for those whom I’d encounter in the world outside of me.
What I saw in that last summer is that students were ill-prepared to deal with the realities of a connected culture. The university library was still teaching – yes in 2004 – that you only knew a veritable web resource because it had a .org or .edu name on the URL. There was little to no understanding at all towards this sphere at all. And that was very scary.
Coming into MMM, one of the statements that gets thrown this way is the idea that learning and applying the Bible will continue in the same ways that it always has. That despite the technology, that there will be the same core skills. And to some extent that’s correct and incorrect at the same time.
In this piece at the Britannica blog the question is asked if technology is going to evolve to the point where the written language will become obsolete? And if it does render the written language as such, what are the skillsets that would have to be understood – not only in education, but all of life – towards maneuvering this ultra-connected space?
A few items from this piece jumped out, but this one really nailed things:
Framed in the spirit of this site’s mission (the intersection of faith and mobile technology), we could say (as framed in the reflective post some days ago):
I’m speaking of this connected space where the conversation is just as important as the reading itself. What are we doing to prepare religion/faith for that kind of transformation? Or rather, should be we preparing for that kind of transformation?
The Word of God – the Bible – is the probably most consistent piece of oral/written/digital communication used by Westernized nations. Its literally the thread that holds spiritual, moral, legal, and sociological bonds (am not debating whether a person is a Christian or not, only that the Christian influence has been that pervasive). When the fabric of how we transmit the message of the Gospel is purely digital (text, audio, and video) and native to the generation that is using it, does the way that we teach also get a new pair of clothes?
Let me be clear, I’m not advocating that we change the Bible, traditions of the faith, nor the tenants of local and para-churches. I’m asking – as I sat in a class with kids who are now graduates of college in many cases today – are we teaching Biblical literacy in light of the abilities of the generation, or holding fast to something older, and not so effective, because of some fear of irrelevance?
And if we are on-point in teaching Biblical points and principles correctly for this generation and the one(s) to come, should we be asking the same of the institutions and culture in which we live whom may not have adapted such?
The post quoted here is from Britannica’s Leaning & Literacy in the Digital Age blog series. There’s a lot more that can be said given the depth of materials posted in this series, but I leave it to you the reader to intersect with the entirety of this content.
Tags: Commentary, Communication, education, literacy, tech
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