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Theological Education

For this area, I began to see the possibilities just before i graduated from the MARC program at United. I put together a proposal for the creation of a new position: Education Technology Director. I came to this conviction out of my experiences with learning multimedia elements, and getting familiar with what educators were doing with computer technology to make educational resources more engaging and accessible to students, not only on a campus, but to those who were not on the physical terrain of the campus. Even to those who are, there is much being done applying the technologyof the LAN (Local Area Network) in the business and government world to educational settings.

Businesses have long known the benefits of sharing a certain body of information, and doing local commuications via the LAN. Computers which share a common mail exchange (for interoffice and intraoffice memos) can also share utility programs, and edit/compare documents with each other. Education would have no fewer benefits. There are staff that need to communicate and do their work. There are teachers who could benefit greatly from increased interaction with each other, and with students. And students with one another. I can think of no setting that benefits more from these kinds of abilities than that of theological education. But as the case with so many other "new wave" movements, the church and its institutions lag behind. Money shortages are usually cited, but they would find that changeover would help alleviate the enormous drain of energy and resources that the traditional office operation represents.

One of my most common worries about all this lagging behind is that the outside world will look and say "That's so typical of those religious types. So afraid of new things." If it were money, then why is every company with any financial power at all utilizing this medium? It is because they are results oriented. Our results are measured differently, but there is no denying that anything which helps us do the tasks of communication more efficiently has to be incorporated.

I submitted a proposal to United in 1991 and called it "An Immodest Proposal", meaning that I proposed us taking a bold step in the direction of utilizing more fully the potentials of CMC. It seemed fitting that United, the first seminary to offer a masters degree in religious communication, would want to lead the way in a move of the religious community to new creative uses of new technology. Now, two years later, the proposal is no longer so bold. Indeed, it should be considered a minimal expectation on an institution which places such great emphasis on communicating a message to a public, and to educate leaders to communicate.

(More on this subject coming later tonight, including some "lights" in the theological community who have been mentors for me in this maturing vision.) How's that for a plug to "stay tuned?