In the past you were what you owned…. now you are what you share…

[Thanks to Jim Hancock for posting this]

Caesar sent me a link to a handy website that has all kinds of plans for reading through the Bible in a year. I obviously prefer the chronological plans. I really like the New Living Translation as I think it is an accurate translation that reads very well.

URL: http://eword.gospelcom.net/year/

Some Bibles/versions you should also check out:

The Story by Zondervan (TNIV)

Narrated Bible in Chronological Order: New International Version (NIV)

The Story of Stories by Karen Lee-Thorpe

This is a remarkable video about communication shifts taking place in our world.

These two videos from Kansas State University are very insightful. (Hit to Jay and Jim)
One of the motivators for us to use story and learner-centered dialogue is because our culture has already transitioned to post-literate forms of learning. I will post more on that soon… these videos tell this story better than I ever could…

Information R/evolution
This video explores the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information. This video was created as a conversation starter, and works especially well when brainstorming with people about the near future and the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and create information effectively.

A Vision of Students Today
A video summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University.

I have included an interesting article (below) about youth in Ireland showing signs of diminishing literacy skills… of which educational department is blaming (in part) text messaging. It is hard to deny that technology and media are influencing students to learn in different, less literate means. So I would concur that technology is playing a part in this issue… but there must be other factors… parenting has to be the greatest factor involved in this equation, don’t you think?

Post a comment and let me know what you think!

Texting Hurts Ireland’s Youths
By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer, Wednesday, April 25, 2007

(04-25) 10:39 PDT DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) –
Ireland’s youth are becoming increasingly poor spellers and writers, and their love of text messaging on cell phones is a major reason why, according to the government’s Education Department.

In a report published Wednesday, the department’s Examination Commission said cutting-edge communications technology has encouraged poor literacy and a blunt, choppy style at odds with academic rigor. “Text messaging, with its use of phonetic spelling and little or no punctuation, seems to pose a threat to traditional conventions in writing,” according to the report, based on national test results in English for about 37,000 students aged 15 and 16.

The report branded today’s teens “unduly reliant on short sentences, simple tenses and a limited
vocabulary.” Too many test-takers, it said, were “choosing to answer sparingly, even minimally, rather than seeing questions as invitations to explore the territory they had studied and to express the breadth and depth of their learning and understanding.”

Ireland is among the world leaders in cell-phone use — in part because of traditionally high costs for conventional phone lines — and surveys indicate that a majority of children have their own mobile phone by age 12, with the most enthusiastic texters sending more than 250 a week.