The Church in Mission 2.0

I made the mistake of watching pedagogical rock star Michael Wesch's video a couple weeks back. It got me thinking about transforming one of my fall classes more fully into Web 2.0. I began tinkering with my Church in Mission course (with help) -- it is a course I teach once a year to 60 MA students at Fuller Seminary. After talking with friends, I decided to create a couple of new things in the course this year, both in terms of web platform and content.

Web Platform:
Instead of a blog for the home page, students will access the class on a wetpaint wiki. This allows them to add to and change class resources easily. Students may upload course notes for each lecture up to the wiki (and therefore collaborate on the class notes). Students will also use netvibes to track their twitter feeds, wiki changes, diigo bookmarks, and youtube videos for class communication and research. Student group projects will include creating and maintaining a wiki and a youtube video.

On the content side:
I've changed the course to connect the disciplines of ecclesiology, missiology, postcolonial studies, and race/ethnic studies. In the class, student groups will reflect on the historical and contemporary church experience for particular ethnic groups in the US or overseas (along denominational or regional lines), and create group wikis and youtube videos that explore how the following postcolonial themes manifest in that particular tradition: diaspora, identity, race, cultural difference, hybridity, gender, sexuality, feminism, postmodernism, nationalism, globalization, and empire. Students will collect and analyze the stories of these communities and explore how we might be the "sent" people of God in the midst of these powers.

The class starts next week and runs for ten weeks -- I'll give an update as the quarter progresses. I made changes to my other fall class -- I'll write that up in the next few days.