Digital Media, Education and Diversity

How can technology be used in a theological education setting?  Is it a force for good that can unite people across economic and social divisions or is just another way for a group with power to push a preset agenda and predetermined concepts to consumers? 

So I was somewhat unsure which of the four books to start reading first for this class, but then I realized that the obvious answer was that if your professor has written one of the books assigned, it’s probably a good idea to start there, and so I did.


More after the jump!

In ‘Engaging Technology in Theological Education', Prof Hess talks about how the real role of theological education is to help people understand what it means to know how to be a Christian and to know what it looks like to live out a life dedicated to Christ, not just simply learning that certain things happened or that something was said (10-11).  There is, in the end, a practical aim towards education that can result in a transformed people and a transformed world.

   

One of Professor Hess’s favourite models is that of Parker Palmer and his description of a community of knowers, where all people are recognized as having some knowledge about whatever subject is being learned, some bit of experience or perspective that they can share thay can help contribute to a greater, more multi-faceted and more in depth understanding of ‘truth’.  She again uses that model, I’m also a bit fond of it by the way, again in this book. 

What she sees, and what her examples and discussions keep pointing back to is that digital media and the internet (and all of the various websites, social media applications, etc that comprise the web) are a perfect venue for bringing together a community of knowers and providing an avenue for information sharing, collaboration and for creating an environment where people of diverse perspectives and backgrounds can come together to educate and be educated.

She contrasts this with how other emerging technologies have been used and viewed.  Most notably, she discusses television, which was often used, if it was even used it all, to continue fostering a one-wa stream of communication from the pastor/evangelist out to the ‘flock’ on the other side of the television screen.  There was no ability for response, no real communication that could occur and thus no sense of community that could form.  It essentially continued the learning model rejected by Hess and Palmer which permeates traditional learning environments.

I think that perhaps my favourite portion of the book concerned the discussion around diversity and digital media.  One of the questions that she asks is whether digital media is in fact just furthering the existing divide between the ‘have’s’ and the ‘have not’s’ (96-97).  Hess is very firm in her conviction that this does not have to be the way that technology is used, but unless those we are the ‘teachers’ are not conscious of the potential issue and work with a determined effort to bring ‘anti-racist’ views into their classroom space (physical or electronic), then the tendency will be for the technology to lend itself to further divisions rather than uniting us through our commonalities.

Her discussion of multi-culturalism versus explicit anti-racism was a new experience for me, but one in which I was not familiar with, but I appreciated her desire to move towards anti-racist language and discussion because it empowers minorities and those who are traditionally discriminated against by using language of their choice, not of the choice of the majority (multi-culturalism).  Digital media then provides an opportunity to place tools in the hands of the oppressed to allow them to use their language to convey their message and to contribute their understanding and experience of ‘truth’ to the greater society in a way that benefits everyone and can help to bring about liberation from oppression and a removal of the gap between the haves and the have-nots.  It is the ability to provide feedback and to foster discussion in a digital world that allows for these otherwise unheard voices to be given a space.  But like Professor Hess discusses, it is the job of the leader to ensure that a space is made for this to happen and to not fall back into easy solutions and ignore the voices of the oppressed.

And perhaps most importantly in that discussion is that acknowledgement that it is to provide good news for the poor and oppressed that Jesus came into this world.  Theological educators must be mindful of that fact as they design curriculum if they are to effectively help people understand how to be the body of Christ in this world. 

Professor Hess’s book was a great introduction to the material and has me very excited about the class, what is possible with technology and how we can use it to create new learning environments that invite people into discussion and create new opportunities for exploration.  

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