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21. Communicating Faith and Online Learning
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328 21 Communicating Faith and Online Learning Ros Stuart-Buttle This chapter focuses on communicating faith through online learning. It reflects my experience as both a practitioner and researcher of online adult religious education across varied programs, including undergraduate theology and religious studies, adult faith formation in the community, and initial and ongoing formation for lay, diaconal, and priestly ministries. My experience lies mainly within the Roman Catholic sector, but it is hoped that the wider Christian educative community will also find something of interest and value. The chapter hopes to add voice to an emerging discussion about online learning technologies and lifelong education in Christian faith. It is not possible here to explore the nature of contemporary digital society, the rise of learning technologies or their claims for transforming education, nor the vast arena of religion online. Nor is it possible to present an account of my own journey into web-based Christian education or my work within online learning and adult faith formation. However, this chapter does aim to say something about online communication and online learning, as well as Online Learning 329 highlight opportunities and pitfalls relating to the implications for adult education in faith. Two particular areas of focus emerge, relating to online community and online authority. Starting Points Two key presuppositions are made at the start of this chapter. The first concerns the fundamental principles that underpin a Roman Catholic understanding of religious education and faith formation. At the core is recognition of a positive anthropology of the human person created imago dei with human dignity, goodness, and freedom. There is a belief in the sacramentality of the created world and human living, graced and transformed by the presence of God at work in the ordinary and everyday. An emphasis on relationship and community shows us who we are as beings in relation to God and one another and directs us toward a common, shared Eucharistic life. The commitment to a 2,000-year-old living tradition of scripture, experience , and teaching by generations who have gone before invites us to be a pilgrim people for today, called to work for social justice, Gospel values, and the common good of God’s kingdom on earth with a spirituality of openness, hospitality, and inclusion. A holistic understanding and vision of Catholic education considers the “whole” person and aims not only to form and inform, but ultimately to transform both the individual person and human society.1 The second presupposition is that today we live and learn in an online world. Before the early 1990s the Internet was still little known, yet it is now viewed as the fastest-growing and most sophisticated communications system in human civilization; it has been described as “a resource of unparalleled possibilities.”2 Brief statistics help illustrate this point. Internet World Statistics indicates that there were 40,362,842 Internet users in the United Kingdom (representing 66.4 percent of the population) in December 2007, an increase of over 162 percent compared to the year 2000.3 The average Internet user in the UK spends around 23 hours a week online, amounting to over 50 days a year.4 Data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project 1. Thomas H. Groome, What Makes Us Catholic (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2003). 2. Alan Jolliffe, Jonathan Ritter, and David Stevens, eds., The Online Learning Handbook: Developing and Using Web-based Learning (London: Routledge, 2001), 1. 3. “Usage and Population Statistics,” Internet World Stats, http://www.internetworldstats. com/ (accessed July 2, 2008). 4. YouGov, http://www.yougov.com/uk/ (accessed July 1, 2008). [35.173.233.176] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 23:30 GMT) 330 Ros Stuart-Buttle indicates a similar increase in the U.S. Internet population and online activity . A study from 2006 shows 73 percent of respondents (about 147 million American adults) to be regular Internet users, up from 66 percent (about 133 million adults) from January 2005.5 The rise of Web 2.0 technologies for online collaboration and social networking also show rising trends, especially among younger generations. It has been estimated that more than 250 million people globally use an online networking site regularly, while MySpace, launched in 2003, has attracted more than 116 million registered members, cementing online social networks as a global cultural phenomenon.6 While statistics are open to interpretation and can only offer a snapshot at best, nevertheless it does seem safe to claim that Internet technologies are now a routine feature of...