{"id":4076,"date":"2007-11-28T09:04:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-28T09:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/sects-in-the-city\/"},"modified":"2007-11-28T09:04:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-28T09:04:00","slug":"sects-in-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/sects-in-the-city.html","title":{"rendered":"Sects in the City"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>A colleague of mine has been having his students develop a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.butler.edu\/cfv\/religions\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">web site<\/a>, called \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.butler.edu\/cfv\/religions\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Sects in the City<\/a>\u201c, about the various religious communities around Indianapolis. The project was undertaken with support from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.butler.edu\/cfv\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Butler University\u2019s <em>Center for Faith and Vocation<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve long tried to use computing and the internet in teaching, and in particular getting students to produce work that can be made available on the internet. The quality varies, of course, but students sometimes take their work more seriously if they think that it will be \u2018published\u2019 and potentially read by a wider audience. I started when I taught in Romania back in the late 90s, because there were so few good academic resources for Biblical studies available in Romanian. So <a href=\"http:\/\/www.geocities.com\/Athens\/Academy\/5490\/stacad.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">I got students to make some translations<\/a>. One funny story from the experience was having a student do what was otherwise an excellent translation, but she stumbled at the phrase \u201cpan-Gnostic theory\u201d, not recognizing that \u2018pan\u2019 was a Greek rather than English word. The resulting Romanian phrase was essentially \u2018the frying pan Gnostic theory\u2019 (teoria gnosticului tigaie)!<\/p>\n<p>In a class on <a href=\"http:\/\/blue.butler.edu\/~jfmcgrat\/paul\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Paul and the Early Church<\/a> (which I\u2019ll be teaching again in the Fall) I had students submit commentaries on passages, thus making a fuller web-based commentary as a collaborative effort. More recently I was able to use WikiBooks for this purpose in a class on the Gospel of John, getting students to create and edit <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikibooks.org\/wiki\/Biblical_Studies\/New_Testament_Commentaries\/The_Gospel_of_John\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">an open-source commentary on the Gospel of John<\/a>. In addition to getting feedback from one another through the editing process, this gave the students greater insight into <a href=\"http:\/\/exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\/2007\/08\/whats-wikipedia-worth.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">what a Wiki source is<\/a>, which is important in and of itself in our time, when students turn to places like Wikipedia first when in search of information for their assignments.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/catholic-resources.org\/John\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Felix Just has long had student work posted as part of his excellent web site on the Gospel of John<\/a>. More recently I also saw my friend <a href=\"http:\/\/kenschenck.blogspot.com\/2007\/11\/increasing-face-of-education.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Ken Schenck mention that he is using blogs in some of his classes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.collegehumor.com\/article:1733332\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">For an amusing illustration of the potential for a Wikipedia entry to not have a neutral point of view, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d welcome comments on the effectiveness of these tools in teaching, whether the things that are posted prove useful for subsequent generations of students, and creative ideas for use of web-based resources in education.<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-6393081894695607486?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A colleague of mine has been having his students develop a web site, called \u201cSects in the City\u201c, about the various religious communities around Indianapolis. The project was undertaken with support from the Butler University\u2019s Center for Faith and Vocation. I\u2019ve long tried to use computing and the internet in teaching, and in particular getting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sects in the City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A colleague of mine has been having his students develop a web site, called &quot;Sects in the City&quot;, about the various religious communities around\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/sects-in-the-city.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sects in the City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A colleague of mine has been having his students develop a web site, called &quot;Sects in the City&quot;, about the various religious communities around\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/sects-in-the-city.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-11-28T09:04:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-6393081894695607486?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/sects-in-the-city.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/sects-in-the-city.html\",\"name\":\"Sects in the City\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-11-28T09:04:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-11-28T09:04:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\"},\"description\":\"A colleague of mine has been having his students develop a web site, called \\\"Sects in the City\\\", about the various religious communities around\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/sects-in-the-city.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/sects-in-the-city.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/sects-in-the-city.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sects in the City\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/\",\"name\":\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\",\"description\":\"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\",\"name\":\"James F. McGrath\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James F. McGrath\"},\"description\":\"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf\",\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sects in the City","description":"A colleague of mine has been having his students develop a web site, called \"Sects in the City\", about the various religious communities around","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/sects-in-the-city.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sects in the City","og_description":"A colleague of mine has been having his students develop a web site, called \"Sects in the City\", about the various religious communities around","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/sects-in-the-city.html","og_site_name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","article_published_time":"2007-11-28T09:04:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-6393081894695607486?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com"}],"author":"James F. McGrath","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ReligionProf","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James F. McGrath","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/sects-in-the-city.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/sects-in-the-city.html","name":"Sects in the City","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-11-28T09:04:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-11-28T09:04:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf"},"description":"A colleague of mine has been having his students develop a web site, called \"Sects in the City\", about the various religious communities around","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/sects-in-the-city.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/sects-in-the-city.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/sects-in-the-city.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sects in the City"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/","name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","description":"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf","name":"James F. McGrath","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"James F. McGrath"},"description":"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.","sameAs":["https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}