“Technology, Pedagogy, and Transformation in Theological Education: Five Case Studies”

The exploration described is rooted in the projects of five participants in the 2004/05 Wabash Workshop for Pre-Tenure Theological Faculty (led by Toni Craven and assisted by Daisy Machado and Steve Delamarter). All the projects related technology and pedagogy. Javier Alanís (Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest) wanted to use images to help his students engage various concepts of the Trinity, being sensitive all the while to an educational context marked by all kinds of diversity. Russell Haitch (Bethany Theological Seminary) was brought into the world of online teaching and found himself trying to assess its potential from the standpoints of scripture, reason, experience, and a trinitarian theological-anthropology. Mark Vitalis Hoffman (Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg) wanted to help his students experience a fresh encounter with Jesus' parables and ended up in the esoteric field of video gaming theory (ludology) for help in conceiving an environment and process interactive enough to do justice to all of the possibilities. Arun Jones (Austin Seminary) wondered how he might use historical images of mission work in India to help his students experience some of the issues surrounding intercultural ministry. Brent A. Strawn (Candler School of Theology, Emory University) had some vexing and complex concepts relating to Old Testament introduction (the nature of the interactions between biblical narratives and ancient Near Eastern texts) that required new points of access in order to be able to capture the understanding and imagination of contemporary students in his setting. Over the course of the year together (one week in June 2004, a weekend in January 2005, and a week in June 2005), participants worked on their project as all of us in the workshop explored issues of teaching and learning.