Friday, July 29, 2011

Technology: Making online Bible study more helpful


Reading the Bible. It is a chance to learn the history of our faith, to discover the great mysteries of our Lord, and to read of the love that Christ lived for us. It is all these things, and yet it is so much more; it is a chance to commune with the Most High God.

In late June, LifeWay released the latest update to MyStudyBible.com which introduced more translations and, perhaps the key to a modern study of the Bible, more integrated content. There is an inherent problem with the way our rising generation learns and studies; we jump from link to link as we run through the Internet. As a culture we Google and train our brains to pick out what the most promising link is; we hit it, we scan the page, and decide in moments if this is the content we were looking for. Then, we hit the back button and search again.

A psychological test from 2001 is referenced by Nicholas Carr in his Internet-themed book "The Shallows," where two sets of readers were given the same story, but presented in different ways. One was presented straight forward and linearly, the other included links for more information throughout the text. The hypothesis was that the enriched text would create a better experience for the readers. But the study found something different....

To read more, click here.

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