It’s hard for me to concentrate on productive pastimes, but I’ve found some more examples of positive uses of digital media for New Testament teaching. On the audio side, Philip Harland’s podcasts on the Historical Jesus will complement the course I’ll teach at Glasgow (Home Office willing). You can listen to them from Philip’s website (new, improved link, thanks to Phil’s comment below), or download them from Archive.org. For video media, St John’s Nottingham has been producing excellent video segments on theological topics (heavily weighted toward the New Testament). I expect to point students to several of these as well.
Now, imagine that all the sorts of resource I’ve been discussing lately were produced and supported by one school (or by an organized network). The instructional and reference sites from Luther Seminary; the downoadable-PDF/print booklets from VTS; the audio from Philip Harland, the video from St John’s. Imagine that this were an integrated project, with resources designed deliberately to complement and support one another. How much better could the SBL do than that? Why reinvent such a project, when such exemplary instances stand right before us?
And, ahem, no word from the British Embassy yet.
Hey AKMA, thanks for these refs, esp the nottingham videos. great stuff. you might find this notice below interesting as well. It’s still free for a couple more days.
Mikeal
From: Richard Harley [mailto:rmharley@earthlink.net]
Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 12:53 PM
To: ‘Richard Harley’
Subject: Now Online: the Contexticon of New Testament Language
MEMORANDUM
To: Colleagues & Friends of the New Testament Language Project
From: Richard Harley, General Editor, Contexticon of New Testament Language
Re: Grand opening online
Date: 27 July 2009
We are pleased to announce the grand opening of Version 1.0 of the Contexticon of New Testament Language. You can access the site at http://www.contexticon.com.
This innovative reference – now a decade and a half in the making – is still a work in progress, since more content will be added in the years ahead. But its current database and functions serve a great many purposes. We hope you will consider testing first-hand its potentials both for individual research and for teaching Greek, exegesis, and other New Testament courses.
Discounts now available to you:
• If you register as an educator who plans to use the Contexticon in a course, you will automatically qualify to receive an academic course discount for your students. This will allow them to register at a very substantial discount, while also giving you a free personal subscription for one year. *
• We have also arranged for you to share with any colleagues a one-month free registration during the month of August. In this way, colleagues who have not yet seen the Contexticon will be able to preview it. Please instruct these associates to use the discount code DC-FXT during on-site registration.
As with all “beta release” publications, you may encounter occasional technical problems or “rough edges.” Please share with us any editorial recommendations you may have via Contact Us (on the site) or by sending an email to suggestions@contexticon.com.
Thank you once more for your interest and support.
* To access the academic course discount request form as you register, please be sure to choose “Professor” as your User Type. If you are already registered as a different User Type, you may adjust this setting on the Edit Profile screen under Your Account.
A watched embassy never calls?
Jane, you can imagine how hard it is for me to take that advice!
Mikeal, I’ve known about and been interested in the Contexticon for years, but I’m resolutely resistant to most such pay-for-subscription sites. I’ll poke around, but I don’t expect to recommend it to students.
Hello Akma,
Glad to hear you got your visa.
I’ve now created a separate blog post for each of the podcast series (which are now listed in the sidebar of my site). You may want to use the link for the Jesus one, since it not only allows playing but also gives the download link (unlike that earlier post):
http://www.philipharland.com/Blog/2009/08/31/podcast-series-5-the-historical-jesus-in-context/
Let me know how it all goes (and how much the students laugh at my accent and vocal oddities;)
Phil