This document discusses how new technologies and digital tools are shaping a "new culture of learning" characterized by limitless information, bounded learning environments, tacit and explicit knowledge, and collective inquiry. It examines both the promises and challenges this presents for biblical studies, including opportunities to engage students through problem-based and experiential learning, online debates and commentary, and gaming. Managing student attention, intellectual property, and ensuring equitable access are some challenges. The document advocates cultivating spaces for imagination, experimentation, play and questioning to foster deeper learning.

1. Technology and Pedagogy
Pitfalls and Promises
NESBL
3 May 2013

2. introductions
• my own context and background
• elements emerging of a new culture of learning
• promises and contradictions in biblical studies
• examples and ideas

3. Luther Seminary, Roman Catholic laywoman, media and education

4. what is the “new culture of learning”?
how does it intersect with higher education?
Thomas and SeelyBrown

5. limitless information
bounded environments
metaphors of an information
network, and the culture of a petri
dish (31)

6. learning-based
argue that a teaching-based
approach is sharing stable
information “about” the world,
whereas a learning-based
approach is learning through
engagement “with” the world (37)

7. personal & collective
as contrasted to the public and
the private (56)

8. blogging is one example, but
there are others as well (66)
construction of
interpretive
communities

9. in communities people learn in order to belong,
in collectives people participate in order to learn
(56)

10. stable knowledge is explicit
knowledge, constantly changing
knowledge is tacit (77)
tacit knowing

11. concerted cultivation
what does it mean to “cultivate
concertedly” for specific kinds of
growth, attention and
engagement? (71)

12. inquiry: not learning what we know, but asking
‘what are the things we don’t know, and what
questions can we ask about them?’(83)

13. “indwelling is the set of practices
we use and develop to find and
make connections among the
tacit dimensions of things” (85)
inquiry -> indwelling

14. hanging out, messing around, geeking out

15. build inquiry from
passion
“the new culture of learning is
about the kind of tension that
develops when students with an
interest or passion that they want
to explore are faced with a set of
constraints that allow them to act
only within given boundaries” (81)

16. what could all of this suggest to biblical studies
faculty?

17. is this really all that new?

18. buechner: one way to think about vocation is as
the place where your deepest passions and the
world’s deepest needs intersect

19. world’s needs? biblical studies witnesses to
communities through time, and offers entry points
to a variety of forms of meaning-making

20. questions of brokenness? of the hiddenness of
God? of faith in a world of pain? of multi-faith
encounters? of legal systems and justice?

21. • esoteric knowledge
• rahner: the recognition of our finitude points to awareness of the infinite (that
is, in recognizing our limits we point to the limitless)
• we have practice with textual attention and critical engagement
• we have practice with bounded environments that are open (scripture, sacred
text, church, mosque, synagogue, temple)
• we have practice with making explicit, knowing that comes from tacit sources
(“white fire and black fire,” spirituality, practices of faith, etc.)
strengths of biblical studies

22. “indwelling is the set of practices
we use and develop to find and
make connections among the
tacit dimensions of things”(85)
inquiry -> indwelling

23. challenges of biblical studies
• certain of our esoteric knowledge has become nearly inaccessible
• our “bounded environments” are crumbling all around us (shifts in higher
education, denominational shifts, sacred/secular, etc.)
• tacit knowing is often disavowed in certain academic contexts
• much of graduate education errs on the side of being “teaching-based” rather
than “learning-based”
• can we draw on, and offer, “concerted cultivation” of more holistic forms of
knowing?

24. what could/should we do?

25. homo sapiens, homo faber, homo ludens
knowing, making, playing
(90)

26. what could this look like with digital tools?
• problem-based approaches to learning tools (into the new testament)
• heightening engagement (“tweading”)
• online, structured debates (Pauline letters)
• using gaming practices (Detweiler at Pepperdine, and GameOn)
• using multiple genres (comics, manga, parody, provocative art, glossy magazine)
• engaging public resources (ABS, HuffingtonPost)
• online commentary (Amos, EnterTheBible)
• adapting secondary school methodologies

27. what are some of the challenges?
• managing student attention
• issues of fairness and access
• intellectual property questions (open access, fair use, cc licenses)
• context collapse
• epistemic closure
• learning to teach online

28. and what is coming...?

30. some thoughts about MOOCs...
• what matters are the learning outcomes and learning methods (Stephen
Downes, HybridPedagogy,
• dynamics of authority, authenticity and agency are still emerging (Hess)
• keep in mind characteristics of networked religion (Campbell)
• institutional dynamics are challenging, we need to emphasize learning-
centered approaches
• perhaps badges?

31. are these analogous? which are of these are actively drawn upon in
biblical studies? which do we utilize in our own learning?

32. the new culture of learning is a culture of collective
inquiry that harnesses the resources of the network
and transforms them into nutrients within the petri
dish environment, turning it into a space of play
and experimentation. (118)

33. that moment of fusion between unlimited resources
and a bounded environment creates a space that
does not simply allow for imagination, it requires it.
(118)

34. only when we care about experimentation, play,
and questions more than efficiency, outcomes and
answers do we have a space that is truly open to
the imagination. and where imaginations play,
learning happens. (118)

35. can biblical studies educators “hang out, mess
around, and geek out”?

36. these ideas are an interaction with douglas thomas and john seely brown’s book “a new
culture of learning, published in 2011 (specific connections to their book are in
parentheses on various slides)
images: kristinab, mexicanwave,worldofwarcraft, pivotpointbrazil, hendraleley, cubagallery,
chronicle of higher ed
all other images are by mary hess