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Solving
the Font
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Appropriate Software
enables us to accomplish
both traditional and innovative tasks more efficaciously. At Kenrick,
Fr. John Paul Heil trains his
students on the use of a program called
BibleWorks 7.0. For his own exegetical writing, Fr. Heil uses a
program called NotaBene. The point to be made by this page is that any teaching and learning environment is formed by the use of appropriate technologies that are extensions not only of the teacher in the classroom, but also of the learners. If the learners are not intimately involved in their own learning processes, then they will not be intimately involved in their own learning. |
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| Aside from these two programs that facilitate research and composition, both Fr. John Paul Heil and Dr. Anne Marie Kitz make use of software that facilitates project development and peer review. Microsoft's FrontPage is preferable to Adobe's DreamWeaver for the simple reason that it looks and feels like Microsoft Word, the word processing program already in use by most of our students. When a faculty member or student saves his or her work in FrontPage, it is automatically uploaded to the space we have allocated for each person on the institution's web server. Using this program, almost every member of Kenrick's faculty and all members of its student body have been able to learn the grammar of web development, building academic websites to respond to the various needs of their teaching and learning environments. Take a moment and view the student websites, looking particularly for the links established for scriptural exegesis. (A description of the method can be found on the Model Sites page.) |
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In addition to building websites for their exegetical research projects, students are divided into groups or teams to lead the class in a discussion of assigned sections of scripture often accompanied by assigned critical commentary (click on image on the left). Each team or group is free to choose the software with which it will respond to the prompt. In Fr. Heil's courses in Pauline Literature, Synoptic Gospels, Book of Revelation, and Catholic Epistles, students are encouraged to use BibleWorks in front of the class. In Dr. Kitz's Prophetic Literature and Pentateuch classes, students are encouraged to use PowerPoint in front of the class. The idea behind this is to help students become more involved in the process of their own education, to be producers of learning in addition to being consumers of teaching. |
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The final piece of software both Fr. Heil and Dr. Kitz use in the construction of their classes is Blackboard, a course template that not only enables them to post materials, bibliographies, schedules, etc., but also enables their students to engage one other in dialogue over their class presentations and Fr. Heil's lectures throughout the semester. For guest access to one of Fr. Heil's courses, click the Blackboard link above and enter 'guest_tss' for the username and 'guest_tss' for the password. | |||
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