Etextbooks.02: Don’t Leave Students to their Own DevicesPosted on March 15, 2014 by Nathan LoewenAccording to some, the difference between conventional textbooks versus e-books is like comparing apples and oranges. I’m not entirely convinced.Fortress Education recently revised its Introduction to World Religions textbook for the Inkling e-book platform. I was a part of the 22-person team whose task was to enhance the conventional textbook’s content and add educational enhancements offered by Inkling. Our team’s objective was shared with Inkling: to improve students’ learning outcomes through built-in learner-based evaluations, social features such as shared notes, multimedia additions and links to web-based content beyond the e-book itself….
Etextbooks.01: Potato, Potahto, Tomato, Tomahto?Posted on March 9, 2014 by Nathan LoewenAccording to some, the difference between conventional textbooks versus e-books is like comparing apples and oranges. I’m not entirely convinced.Fortress Education recently revised its Introduction to World Religions textbook for the Inkling e-book platform. I was a part of the 22-person team whose task was to enhance the conventional textbook’s content and add educational enhancements offered by Inkling. Our team’s objective was shared with Inkling: to improve students’ learning outcomes through built-in learner-based evaluations, social features such as shared notes, multimedia additions and links to web-based content beyond the e-book itself….
Quite Possibly the Best Resource in Your LMS: ForumsPosted on November 17, 2013 by Nathan LoewenOn what side of the flipped classroom do I put my forums?Class forums are butter of how I teach “introductions to world religions”-type courses. Forums help me keep my students as far as possible away from approaching “world religions” as a mind-numbing memorization marathon of beliefs and practices that distances them from thinking critically about religion. Students can do that in an anatomy and physiology class, should they choose to study medicine. I think it’s far more interesting for me and the students to have the intro course engage in the current theoretical and methodological debates of religious studies. My goal is for students to learn how to critically think and discuss with others. . . .
Classrooms have Four Walls and Two Portals. Use Them!Posted on August 28, 2013 by Nathan LoewenI remember first being invited into my college’s boardroom for a meeting. I experienced several sentiments. “Wow! This is like being asked to the principal’s office, but in a good way!” And, “Yes! This is like being asked to sit at the cool kids’ table in the high school cafeteria!”I walked in and settled myself into one of the comfy, high-backed leather chairs. I looked around, and was stunned to see something I had always dreamed of having in my classroom: a gigantic LCD screen with a wide-angle video camera. I thought to myself, “Alright! This is like Skype on steroids! How do I get my students in here?”…
Counteracting Global Ignorance with Synchronous Online LearningPosted on July 23, 2013 by Nathan LoewenBringing web-based technology into the world religions classroom is often destructive. It’s wrong because the web technologies easily foster the worst kinds of tendencies that erode what is good about general education. The adoption of the web into religious studies teaching must adapt the technology towards properly-considered competencies for general education. I will propose and justify one means of doing just that.