Divinity United

Here is the concluding quote from a recent study by Kuznekoff and Titsworth on the use of texting and social media posts by students in the classroom: ". . . students who use their mobile phones during class lectures tend to write down less information, recall less information, and perform worse on a multiple-choice test than those students who abstain from using their mobile phones during class." Cited from,  J. H. Kuznekoff and S. Titsworth,"The Impact of Mobile Phone Usage on Student Learning." Communication Education, 62.3 (2013): 233-252 at 251. Not any surprise here. This is also why texting and driving are illegal in most places. Some further illuminating quotes from the study are as follows: "The practical implication stemming from the tests surrounding hypothesis 2 is that students who were actively texting/posting simply recalled less information than students who were not texting/posting. Specifically, students in the control group...

In the Economist's The World in 2012 edition there is an interesting piece by Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, entitled "Sharing to the power of 2012" (p. 50). She opens by talking about Mark Zuckerberg's "law of sharing." This "law" is Zuckerberg's assertion that every year the amount of information shared digitally will double. She says, "Around the globe, people will share more and more of their lives online, transforming relationships on every level--personal, commercial and institutional." In the article she talks about the positives of sharing and how organ donors have been found through sharing information on social media and how money has been raised for charity. (However, there wasn't any mention of the people who have had their homes broken into when they share the dates of their holiday.) So there are some positive aspects of social media. The Arab Spring is an excellent example. One of San...

At the bottom of the blog, you will find a link to the Book of Common Prayer daily office lectionary from the ESV's website ( multiple other reading plans are available ). I often read the daily readings on my iPod touch since I can access it wherever there is wifi. The ESV also has made available an audio version of each reading. Today, when I logged in I noticed that they have changed the mobile format. One of the great changes that was made is the ability to listen to all of the readings one after the other. Previously, it was necessary to click each reading separately (1-3 Psalms, OT, NT, & Gospel) in order to listen to them. This morning I listened to all of the readings in 11+ minutes with only one click. Great addition. Thanks, ESV.