Are you...

• CURIOUS about Bible storytelling but short on time or money to attend a workshop?
• EXCITED about Bible storying but don't have an audience?
• INTERESTED in new ways to follow Bible stories with questions?

Then join our VIRTUAL storytelling community via Skype! We meet every Wednesday afternoon for an hour at 1pm PST, 2pm MST, 3pm CST and 4pm EST. Just contact MAF-LT and send your request to "Orality Comments &  Questions."

We at Learning Technologies look at a lot of learning management systems (LMS), which is a fancy name for programs for creating and delivering digital courses. We recently ran across an easy to use system that we are experimenting with called Haiku. My colleague used the word "giddy" as he described his experience with this easy to use LMS. The first course is free, then there is a reasonable charge for additional courses.

We've used Moodle a lot and easy to use was never something we said about Moodle. Free, yes, easy, no. We recommend that you check out Haiku.

       The reality that 2/3 of the world’s adults don’t, OR WON’T LEARN FROM READING, has challenged one of MAF-LT’s clients to move their leadership training materials from 6^th grade to 2^nd grade level. A common mistake made by literates when simplifying training for these “Oral Learners” is the temptation to “dumb down” the material. After all, what can they teach if they are limited to a 2^nd grade vocabulary?

But the adults they are working with are not second graders. Many are intelligent men and women who may be perceptive believers. As Oral Learners they just don’t have the ability (or desire) to use written material. They don’t divide life into abstract categories like “love” or “forgiveness.” Neither did Jesus. He told memorable stories, like the Prodigal Son! 

Since an Oral Learner’s capacity for learning is limited largely to memory, the challenge is to make important lessons more memorable. Here are some ideas:

As with the technology tools that we at Learning Technologies develop, we are always looking for resources that are free and easy to use or access. Well, ChristianCourses.com is one of those places where you can get great theological courses for free. I just received an e-mail announcing their latest course. Check it out!

Though the Psalms were written thousands of years ago, their words still have relevance today. Discover new insight into how the Proverbs and Psalms deal with issues of everyday life in the course Proverbs – Psalms: Singing the Sounds of Real Life (OT222) taught by Professor Douglas K. Stuart from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

 We are pleased to announce the 1.04 release of the Ibidem Digital Library System. This release adds tracking of Item cloning. When an Item is cloned (duplicated), a link to its Parent Item will be shown.

This is useful for situations like the Telemensahe project. They have message scripts that get recorded and translated. Each derivative of a message will point back to the original Item.

Freetown, Sierra Leone

Arrival
Sierra Leone revealed something when our Air France flight from Paris stopped first in Conakry, Guinea.  Three-quarters of the passengers got off the plane - including the crew who would overnight there before returning to France.  A rested crew took over, flew an additional 40 minutes south to drop us off in Freetown, Sierra Leone, then headed north for home. 

 We are pleased to announce V1.03 of the Ibidem digital library system. The major new functionality is the ability to import a batch of items.

Please see the release notes for more details.