I solicited some help from the discussion group about using Radio Userland's outline editor to compose stories (here's the thread): one of the follow-on's pointed me to the "Use OPML instead of NavigatorLinks for your blogroll" feature. So now i can maintain my blogroll the same way, rather than painfully tweaking my navigation links every time i wanted to add something. This is way cool: i just wish there was a better way to find these little gems of documentation! 
6:49:35 PM #    comment []  trackback []

In their article "Are we failing to communicate God's Word?", the authors (Bell and Dillon), both from a background in youth ministry, address "changes in the ways our students receive, process, and value information" as their culture transitions from propositional/language-based teaching to more visual means. They take the woodcuts in Luther's translation as an example we might emulate for helping visually-oriented youth learn the lessons of Scripture.

While i can't argue with the cultural trends, i'm not yet convinced that adopting more visual means of communication is really the right response. We watched a movie last night that raised this issue further. Bowling for Columbine by Michael Moore won last year's Academy Award for best documentary: it's about gun ownership in America, with a clear agenda of increased gun control. Whether you agree with this as a matter of policy (i think i do, actually), Moore does relatively little to make a case for changing the policy or articulate a better one. Instead, in a decidely post-modern fashion, he simply asks a lot of questions, and shows compelling (and disturbing) images of American violence. The movie makes a strong impression whose direction is clear, but whose details are decided vague. 

3:33:24 PM #    comment []  trackback []