Comments on: Education and the Digital Revolution https://headhearthand.org/blog/2013/04/18/education-and-the-digital-revolution/  Informing Minds. Moving Hearts. Directing Hands. Mon, 23 Feb 2026 18:08:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.41 By: David Murray https://headhearthand.org/blog/2013/04/18/education-and-the-digital-revolution/#comment-21971 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:56:34 +0000 http://headhearthand.org/?p=12799#comment-21971 Hi Aaron. Great to “meet” you. I read your book about six months ago and it had a significant impact upon me. I was moving my classes in that direction, but your book gave me a lot more confidence, and practical guidance to continue the process. I saw Barry York’s blog about you being hired at RPTS and must admit I was a bit jealous! I’ve passed on your details to our DL guy as well. Would you be willing to come up to Grand Rapids and lead the Faculty in a seminar on this concept? We can promise RPTS that we won’t try to pinch you.

Thanks for your kind words. Glad that God’s Technology is being used in this way.

]]> By: Aaron Sams https://headhearthand.org/blog/2013/04/18/education-and-the-digital-revolution/#comment-21638 Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:13:18 +0000 http://headhearthand.org/?p=12799#comment-21638 Hi Dr. Murray,

Thanks for bringing these powerful tools to the forefront. At the risk of shameless self-promotion, I wanted to introduce myself. I am a fellow Reformed Christian and member of the RPCNA. I am a former high school chemistry teacher and pioneer in the flipped classroom conversation in K-12 education. I recently published a book on the matter (and am working on a second one) that I would be happy to discuss with you, but will refrain from linking to or promoting on your blog.

Additionally, I have recently been hired by the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh to start a distance learning program.

I really just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate your insight and writing on technology, and I have even led a church class through you “God’s Technology” videos. I would love to continue to learn from you, and I would also be happy to share any of my own experience and expertise in digital learning if you are ever interested.

Blessings,

Aaron Sams

]]> By: Eric https://headhearthand.org/blog/2013/04/18/education-and-the-digital-revolution/#comment-21637 Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:10:05 +0000 http://headhearthand.org/?p=12799#comment-21637 Sadly, classroom time does not really provide an opportunity for up-close face-time with the professors, so discipleship doesn’t happen there at all.

That is generally done in shepherding groups (or whatever your particular brand of seminary calls them) which is outside of class as an extracurricular activity.

So, I don’t think that there would me much lost in that department if a seminary moved to a larger online curriculum.

]]> By: Eric https://headhearthand.org/blog/2013/04/18/education-and-the-digital-revolution/#comment-21636 Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:06:45 +0000 http://headhearthand.org/?p=12799#comment-21636 Unfortunately, I don’t see the cost for students going down even if an educational institution gradually migrates toward online/distance education.

I can speak from experience at SBTS that the net cost of registering for an online course is higher than traditional courses (same tuition with extra web fees and whatnot). The “modular” courses (where lectures are done online with 2 8-10 hour days of face-time with the prof) are the same cost as traditional courses.

I would love to see more of the flipped classroom in seminary, but time spent watching lectures at home would need to be part of class time (and I realize that would cause problems with accreditation). Part-time ministry with part-time side job and full-time seminary don’t leave me much time for listening to lectures in my “free time.” I LOVE the flipped classroom concept with more time spent on discussion with the professor after hearing the lectures, though.

]]> By: David Murray https://headhearthand.org/blog/2013/04/18/education-and-the-digital-revolution/#comment-21613 Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:02:19 +0000 http://headhearthand.org/?p=12799#comment-21613 Yes, student-to student learning is much easier to facilitate online.

]]> By: David Murray https://headhearthand.org/blog/2013/04/18/education-and-the-digital-revolution/#comment-21612 Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:01:35 +0000 http://headhearthand.org/?p=12799#comment-21612 Thanks Eric. I agree with you on the need for face-to-face time.

]]> By: David Murray https://headhearthand.org/blog/2013/04/18/education-and-the-digital-revolution/#comment-21611 Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:00:59 +0000 http://headhearthand.org/?p=12799#comment-21611 Very helpful, Dave. Thanks. I think the key with the flipped classroom is not to lessen contact time with the prof but to make better use of it.

]]> By: David MC https://headhearthand.org/blog/2013/04/18/education-and-the-digital-revolution/#comment-21579 Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:06:25 +0000 http://headhearthand.org/?p=12799#comment-21579 Earning all of my education exclusively at night, I am all in favor of as much online learning as possible. So many of the lower tier classes for a BA could be done this way. However, the 3-400 classes and definitely grad school should be an experience with a live professor and students. The best classes are the ones where you learn as much from the people around you as you do from the course. This is amplified at night, where many of your classmates are professionals already. I would imagine that this type of mutual learning would be even more important in seminary. Iron sharpens iron, but you need more than one piece to make that happen.

]]> By: Eric J Dolce (@AntiOrdiary74) https://headhearthand.org/blog/2013/04/18/education-and-the-digital-revolution/#comment-21573 Thu, 18 Apr 2013 20:00:55 +0000 http://headhearthand.org/?p=12799#comment-21573 As someone who would LOVE to go seminary, I would hate to see face-to-face time with faculty be minimized in any significant way. I am already blessed with resources via iTunes where great schools like RTS and Covenant have generously posted whole classes via iTunes U. I could and do go through them on a regular basis. But prep for ministry re: discipleship and I don’t think that happens effectively outside of the face-to-face component. Ideally, all seminary-level work would take place in churches rather than online.

]]> By: Dave Moser https://headhearthand.org/blog/2013/04/18/education-and-the-digital-revolution/#comment-21546 Thu, 18 Apr 2013 13:11:30 +0000 http://headhearthand.org/?p=12799#comment-21546 After taking two MDiv classes via distance education I chose to stop until I could attend class in person. (Thankfully, that’s coming this September!) The format of the courses was recorded lectures with written group interactions online along with emails with a TA.

My experience: Nothing replaces face-to-face interaction with a professor.

There are so many nonverbal signals I don’t pick up on. I can’t raise my hand and ask a question in real-time. Even when I do ask a question, feedback is delayed and impersonal. Distance learning simply doesn’t work for me. I can go to Monergism’s mp3 library, combine that with conversations with my pastor and it’s just as effective.

I find the thought of the “flipped classroom” interesting though. Even though it separates the lecture from real-time interaction it maximizes the amount of time interacting with a professor. It’s essentially an expansion of office hours.

I’m approaching this from the perspective of graduate level liberal arts so that definitely colors my view. I might have a completely different perspective on the topic with respect to grade school math.

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