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{"id":31085,"date":"2015-10-11T06:21:51","date_gmt":"2015-10-11T10:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=31085"},"modified":"2015-10-11T06:21:51","modified_gmt":"2015-10-11T10:21:51","slug":"materializing-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/10\/materializing-the-bible.html","title":{"rendered":"Materializing the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I had\u00a0an online resource come to my attention recently, called Materializing the Bible<\/a>. It is a collection of those places where an attempt is made to take some element of the Bible an recreate or reenact it in the present day. Another resource that was drawn to my attention<\/a> is The Virtual World Project<\/a>, which features online recreations of archaeological sites. See also the article in the\u00a0Arkansas Times<\/em><\/a> about using virtual reality to immerse students in the past.<\/p>\n

In a sense, this is closely related to the topic of gamification that I\u2019ve been talking about a lot lately.\u00a0One possible gamified approach to learning about the Bible is of course to use a time travel scenario. That approach also embraces\u00a0the fact that students are outsiders to the cultures and historical contexts they are seeking to \u201cvisit\u201d and learn about.<\/p>\n

And of course, if the activity features a TARDIS, then one has the opportunity to make puns about\u00a0materializing<\/em>.<\/p>\n

(One could presumably\u00a0do a LARP (Live Action Role Play) and get students\u00a0to actually dress up and themselves engage in reenactments. But that isn\u2019t my cup of tea. I\u2019d much rather have students dress as themselves and travel to Israel and the West Bank with me in real life!)<\/p>\n

On the subject of gamification and its advantages, see the recent article on that topic in\u00a0Inside Higher Education<\/em><\/a>. And of related interest, see Connor Wood\u2019s blog post on simulating religion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

$\"tardis_drjew_050813_620px\"$ <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"