Preparatory Activity -- Involving your Students

It is one thing for the teacher of sacred scripture to master these technologies for him- or herself but quite another for the teacher to involve the students as co-producers in the course-building experience.  As we discussed in the online conference entitled "Exemplary Practices in Pastoral Theology: Practicing How We Preach," sponsored by the Association of Theological Schools in February of 2006, which was attended by a number of  scripture professors in addition to the pastoral theologians for whom it was designed, there are some simple ways by which to do this.  


Msgr. Bill Lyons and First-Year Theologian Ben Darnell (2001)

Fr. John Paul Heil and Dr. Anne Marie Kitz assigned students to build web-based exegetical research projects.  Because of Kenrick's strong educational technology program, the students neither had to purchase webspace on their own nor build a free website.  All they had to do is use a web-building program to post their materials as the current second year theology students at Kenrick did in the fall of 2005.  		 

Of course, if there is no institutionalized program that has already trained students on posting materials online, then the teacher may not feel prepared to jump right into web-development with his or her class.  In that case, blogging  is a simpler means by which to create not only an online presence for the posting of course materials, but also a communicative method for peer review.  (Onward to activity!)