The YouVersion Bible: 2 years, 10 million downloads, 0 advertising. — from thenextweb.com by Brad McCarty
It isn’t often that we’ll talk about religion, politics or things that can otherwise start arguments that don’t count as fanboyism. However, when a service gains 10 million downloads without ever advertising, that’s a pretty strong social media story in our book.
YouVersion is a simple thing – a bible. It can be downloaded to a number of different platforms, it’s available in a myriad of translations and has a community that surrounds the application and the website. Presently, the app gets downloaded at the rate of over 1 million new users every month and has kept itself in the top 5 download apps for the Reference category of the App Store.
So how does YouVersion manage things? The power of people, it seems. The company credits its success greatly to the social sharing of the YouVersion community…
Isaiah 1:18 — from Bible Gateway’s Verse of the Day
““Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
New Web Life for the Dead Sea Scrolls — from the New York Times by Isabel Kershner
JERUSALEM — The scribes who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls could not have imagined their texts’ one day being Googled.
Google to bring Dead Sea Scrolls online — from yahoo.com
Google bringing Dead Sea Scrolls online — from msnbc.om
Images, translations of 2,000-year-old text to be uploaded
Google to Bring Dead Sea Scrolls Online — from cbsnews.com
Project with Israel’s Antiquities Authority Will Grant Free Access to 2,000-Year-Old Text
On 10/09/2010,
in creativity, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, faith, multimedia, pedagogy, religion, strategy,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
The other day, I was lamenting that the love of learning gets lost waaayyy too quickly in our youth. With drop out rates in the 25-30% range nationwide, we must turn this around.
A piece of that turn-around picture involves the opportunity for students to collaboratively create things (in a cross-disciplinary sort of way). This is why I am a big fan of multimedia-based projects:
- One student can write the script.
- Another can do the filming.
- Another can take pictures for still shots.
- Another can do the film and/or image editing.
- Others the acting or singing or playing music.
- Others can create the artwork or use their knowledge to create props
- Etc.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The film below discusses the dark side of our culture as it involves schools and education. But the topic is not just related to schools, but to our society in general. That is, we’ve been sold a bill of goods. We believe that you must earn a lot of money to be successful and happy…and that whomever dies w/ the most toys wins.
This competitive streak is a worldly way of looking at things…but is a powerful current to fight. In fact, coming from a competitive background and being a Christian (in faith) myself, I’ve often asked myself whether I believe competition is a good thing or a bad thing. I don’t think I’ve arrived at the final answer to that question, as sometimes I think it can be good (as it can be helpful in developing characteristics of discipline, perseverance, character, integrity, etc.) and sometimes it can be bad. Check out the video/trainer here to see what I mean.
On 10/05/2010,
in religion,
by Daniel Christian
Isaiah 55:6 (New International Version)
“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.”
Proverbs 27:1 (New International Version) — from BibleGateway.com
“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.”
Rockbridge Seminary Offers “Test Drive” of Online Learning Courses — by Rockbridge Seminary — via Ray Schroeder
Rockbridge Seminary, a fully online seminary that allows students to learn while serving in a ministry role, today announced Seminary Test Drive, a program that targets potential students who are ready to begin their seminary education, but are hesitant about 100 percent online learning. The new program allows a student to register for any course on the schedule and pay only one-half of the regular tuition fees, as long as the student agrees to enroll for the next term, if they are satisfied with their online learning experience.
(Emphasis below from DSC:)
“More and more Christian schools I know through connections, if they’re not already doing [online education], they’re talking about it,” says Shoe, the Mid-America enrollment executive. “And the market’s demanding it.”
The combination of America’s religious character, its large and well-organized evangelical population, its sophisticated online education market, and the big-tent approach to Christian education taken by many of its faith-based universities has set the stage for rapid expansion of Christian-oriented distance learning, says Garrett, whose firm has worked with universities such as Liberty and Mid-America on their online strategies.
…
“I think that evangelicals tend, very often, to look at numbers as being important,” Campo says. Being able to increase the number of Christian-educated graduates in the world via the scale afforded by online education, he says, is cause for enthusiasm in many evangelical circles.
But to what degree can a Christian university actually foster the same religious character in its online students as it can in its residential students?
The task is not as daunting as it was even five years ago, says Kathy Player, the president of Grand Canyon University. “Nowadays, with technology, you can bring in so much of what you do [on campus],” she says. For example, Grand Canyon offers its online students Bible study sessions with a chaplain through its learning-management system.
It also streams its chapel services, as do many similar institutions. They also often pepper their learning portals with inspirational passages from scripture, and provide channels for online students to submit prayer requests from their fellow students. Institutions that require faculty to sign a statement of faith and instruct them to teach various subjects through the prism of Christianity tend to require the same of their online instructors. Regent University offers special training to its online faculty on how to replicate a Christianity-flavored course in an online environment.
On 05/21/2010,
in digital photography, digital video, economics, engagement / engaging students, interface design, journalism, religion, sociology,
by Daniel Christian
