A review of Children's Bible Apps

The purpose of this post is to look at a few new children's Bible apps but before doing so let me mention a few things about children's Bibles generally.

Children's Bibles in Traditional Book Form

There are many Children's Bibles available for use with children aged from 1 to 12 years in traditional book format. I have used many examples with my own children (a while ago now!), my grandchildren and other people's children at Sunday school. I have found many of the Lion Bibles useful, including 'My Very First Bible' (1-4 years), 'The Lion First Bible' (5-8 years) and the 'Day-By-Day Bible' (9-12 years). All are well illustrated and offer a sampling of Old and New Testament Scripture that seek to present the overall biblical story of God and his plan for the salvation of his people through Christ. They use shortened descriptions that are faithful to the texts on which they are based. I have also used The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones that offers a more literary and creative narrative approach to the Bible, but always seeking to reinforce key Scriptural themes. As well, I have also used The Beginner's Bible that is also excellent and is designed for children aged 2-3 years.  My daughter has written an excellent post on children's Bibles and resources on her blog 168 Hours (here), which offers additional information.

The way I judge the quality of any children's Bible is straightforward:

Does the selection of stories and Bible content offer a consistent and accurate narrative that teaches children about God, our relationship to him, and his plan of salvation in Christ and what this means for their lives?
Is it written in appropriate language that communicates the message of Scripture?
Does it adequately communicate the important themes of Scripture story by story, or section by section and avoid selectivity that distorts?
Is it illustrated well and in a way that is engaging and helpful for children in communicating the above?
Do they help parents to introduce the message of the Bible to their children and for older children; does it help to develop habits of daily Bible reading and study?

Some early attempts at Children's Bible apps

As yet, there have been relatively few attempts to turn children's Bible stories into apps for iPad, iPhone or Android devices. Some of the early examples are a little mixed in quality and generally leave me wondering why they would bother. I have to confess, that I struggle to see how app versions offer many more possibilities than book versions. Having said this, some adults and children will want to use them, and there certainly appears to be a market for them. App versions of children's Bibles should be able to satisfy all of the above criteria that I use to judge quality as well as two more:

Does the various app features increase engagement with the biblical story or distract from it?
Is the app easy to use for children and parents?

Pretty much all of the early attempts to turn the Bible into apps fail in one way or another. Some fail on many fronts.

'Children's Bible' by Barcelona Media presents the Bible in comic format with a new story each week. You can download a free comic and then purchase additional copies. Some children will enjoy the comic format but they offer little more than traditional story forms, and while suitable for independent reading for children aged 6-10 are bigger on style and format than attention to content.

Christful Apps has also produced a number of apps that present separate Bible stories in varied formats, including 'Baby Jesus'  'Jonah', 'Easter Story'  'The Beginning - Let There be Light' and 'Adam and Eve'. I sampled the 'Easter Story' from the Christful collection and was a little disappointed. My primary concerns were that the language of translation was at times limited and repetitive, and the translation left out elements of the Easter story and in doing so inaccurately presented it (e.g. the sequence of Jesus' appearance to his followers after his resurrection). As well, the app features some limited movement of parts of the generally static images that were basic and in places almost comical (e.g. Jesus' ascension) due to the artificial and one-dimensional nature of the movement.

Apps from Copenhagen Publishing House

The work being done by Copenhagen Publishing House is the best of what I have reviewed so far and I would encourage them to keep improving what they have achieved so far. There seems to have been progress in this publisher's work over their successive efforts and desire to present the Bible faithfully. While I don't think they have succeeded in some of the choices they have made with text, the examples I looked at had many good qualities. I will comment on two separate apps.

'My First Bible Stories' is a collection of favourite Bible stories for children aged 3 and up (probably 5 or 6 years would be the top of the range). The stories are well illustrated and have appropriate well-written texts.  You can download the first story free ('Noah and the Ark') and then you can add the other stories by simply scrolling through camera screen to the other stories. One problem with this is that it makes it much too easy for children to simply download more stories if the owner of the device is logged in to iTunes. The stories include:

Noah and the Ark (FREE DOWNLOAD)
Adam and Eve and the story of The Creation
David and Goliath
Daniel and the Lions
When Jesus Was Born
Stories Jesus Told
Miracles of Jesus
The Story of Easter

The apps have three different recording options, with a delightful 'default' voice reading. As well, the child can read and record their own voice or have their parents or others record the stories.  You can also turn the voice off allowing the stories to be read with the child. I haven't had time to read every story closely but I was a little frustrated when sampling 'Adam and Eve and the story of The Creation' to find a few examples of 'loose' translation. One example is the presentation of Eve to Adam as his 'partner' rather than the biblically more accurate translation of 'helper'. There were other examples where the text in its selectivity of biblical content (as it must be for kids) left out key elements of the story. The most dramatic example is the failure of the text to mention the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden.

The story ends with Adam and Eve being  'happy together':

'[T]hey loved each other and did not have to worry about anything. They had plenty of food and did not have to fear bad things for there was nothing bad. And the best thing was that late in the afternoon as the day cooled God came and they walked with God in the garden. God had now finished creating everything. So, on day seven God did not create anything. Instead God rested and enjoyed everything He had created in six days. God looked at all He had made and said, "It is very good. Everything is just perfect".'

While the developers might argue that they have just presented the creation story to the point at which Eve is made, leaving out the end of the story in the garden, fails to meet my criteria for a good children's Bible. It is hardly a satisfactory end to the story; the entry of sin into the world through Adam and Eve is obviously a key plank in the Bible's story of God's rebellious people.

The app is also a little annoying in that it is hard to navigate back and forward. For example, when you reach the last page it takes you back to the beginning with no ability to move backwards once you leave the last page.

'Toddler Bible - The Carry Along Bible'

This second app from Copenhagen Publishing House has overcome all of my frustrations with navigation that I experienced with the first app. It incorporates a range of additional features, including clear buttons at the front end for the varied options of 'Read to me', 'Read My Self', 'Record' (with 3 buttons for different versions)'. There is also an up front information button, a menu, a clear 'Home' button on every page and a more sophisticated page turn (though the page turn noise annoyed me).

The app also incorporates sound effects throughout, and some level of animation on every page (mainly movement of characters etc).  The text is also a little more faithful to the Scripture but again it leaves out some key bits. For example, the Bible ends with the ascension of Jesus with no mention of his ultimate return and the judgement to come, nor a clear articulation of our responsibility to repent and believe. It is possible to present a short version of the message of the Bible with all key elements of the biblical narrative present. I'd encourage the developers to keep working at this. We need to avoid assuming that children aren't ready for the tough bits. My daughter reported a delightful example of my eldest grandson picking up an error in a children's Bible aged six (here) that shows that kids can understand all elements of the Bible's key message. If children are being well taught about the message of the Bible they will begin to see the inconsistencies for themselves, but some children won't. I'd hope that a good children's Bible would actually reinforce the key elements of God's plan of salvation for the children as well as the parents as they share it with their children.

I'd encourage all developers of children's Bible apps to spend a lot of time thinking about the way biblical content is presented accurately. It actually needs to be given at least equal priority to the useability and attractiveness of the app. While some of the earliest attempts simply present existing children's Bibles to apps, using the most accurate text is a priority.

Other Posts on Children's Bibles

'Nurturing Spirituality in Your Kids' HERE
'Resources for teaching children: Children's Bibles' HERE
Another review of iPhone apps HERE

A Phone App to Help Students & Academics

This post is for anyone who ever has to write a paper or publication that requires references, or who wants an easy way to save book bibliographic information.  A new smartphone application makes it very easy to cite books.

The app is called 'Quick Cite' and costs 99 cents. It is available for iPhones and Android-based phones. The phone needs to have an inbuilt camera. For the iPhone all you need to do is point the phone at the bar code on the back of a book and once the camera locks in on the code it takes a photo, creates the bibliographic reference and emails it to you in one of four citation styles—APA, MLA, Chicago, or IEEE. You can choose the style you want and the email address to receive the reference.

The app was developed by a team of seven Canadian students who tried to develop seven apps in seven days at the University of Waterloo. They called their project 'Seven Cubed'. Quick Cite took them eight hours to develop.

The app has a couple of minor drawbacks.  First, the use of barcodes only became standard publishing practice in the 1970s, but most of the books we usually cite will have barcodes. Second, it doesn't seem to work that well with literature and some non-fiction books, particularly if they are more than 10 years old. In the case of children's literature, the barcodes often don't lead to a citation. A third minor glitch is that sometimes the place of publication is missing. Hopefully, the developers will iron out these problems, but they may just reflect issues with barcode use, particularly for older books.

The many uses for the app should be obvious. Students and academics can quickly scan the barcode and have the full citation in seconds ready to be copied and dropped into a publication.  As well, it is a perfect way to record the details of books used in libraries, new books seen at bookshops and so on.

At 99 cents this is amazing value. I've already been putting the app to good use. Now any time I see an interesting book I can scan the citation details in an instant.

You can buy the app via iTunes HERE.
 

Christian Book Apps for Children

Some of the readers of this blog know that I also write a blog concerned with 'Literacy, Families and Learning'. In the last month I have been considering the impact that ePicture books might have on children's reading (you can read some of these reviews HERE). While communication technology isn't without potential problems (some of which I have written about in the past on both blogs), it also offers some great possibilities. I am interested in how ePicture books and even just electronic Bibles for devices like the iPad, iPod and iPhone might impact on children's growth as readers but also in terms of their knowledge and faith in God.

1. ePicture Books that teach about our relationship to God

One example of the apps emerging in this category are a series of books by Stanley and Jan Berenstain. The Berenstains are very well-known authors of a series of over 300 simple children's picture books. Many parents will be familiar with books like 'The Big Honey Hunt' and the 'Bear Detectives'. These simple books usually have no more than 300-500 words of different vocabulary. They are engaging and amusing stories about an endearing family of bears. They have many adventures and have been popular with children aged from 1-7 years for almost 50 years.

Christian publisher Zondervan and Oceanhouse Media have formed a partnership to produce a series of Berenstain Bear books that have Christian themes. The titles include 'The Berenstain Bears Say Their Prayers', 'The Berenstain Bears Go To Sunday School', 'The Berenstain Bears And The Golden Rule' and 'God Loves You'. All are available from $US3.99.

Like all the Oceanhouse ePicture books, a simple format is used that incorporates the original artwork and text from the books. They have options to hear the book, read it yourself or auto play. They feature background audio and when you tap the pictures labels appear which can be read or heard. In the read aloud format their is word-by-word highlighting of text.

I reviewed 'The Berenstain Bears and the Golden Rule'. As you'd expect the story illustrates the Jesus teaching in Matthew 7:12. As usual, the Berenstain write an engaging and enjoyable story. It adequately illustrates the verse in terms that children will understand. It would offer a good opportunity for parents to discuss situations that the child has found themselves in at school or at home where they have felt excluded as well as other applications.

These books are an example of the type of Christian writing for children that I described in a previous post as Type 4 ('Moral Tales') that are based on biblical verses or principles. How would I assess them?  In short, they are an enjoyable and engaging series of stories that offer opportunities for parents to discuss moral issues and life according to Christian principles. Parents would certainly not see books of this type as a substitute for simply reading a good children's Bible with children, but as extra reading they would be helpful if parents are prepared to discuss the books. However, I have to say that there is nothing that the Oceanhouse ePicture books offer that an ordinary book cannot do. There will be better examples of apps of this type in the future, that will offer greater interactivity and use of the technology to do more than a conventional book. At the moment, the Oceanhouse developers are simply offering the normal book plus the ability to touch pictures and read labels. Frankly, this is simply a distraction from the ultimate purpose of these books, which presumably is to teach children about God and our relationship to him.

2. Bibles and Bible resources

BCN multimedia has recently released their new Children’s Bible 3.0, which improves on their free app for iPhone and iPod to enable it to work with iPad. It is published in 7 languages. You can purchase a range of Bible comics, videos and stories in two ways. You can download your own version of the major products like the New Testament or Old Testament comic ($5.99US each), or you can download a free version of their Bible Comic that will give you a different section of the Bible each week (for $US2.99). In the second purchase format there are three sections in each of the old and New Testaments - 'The Genesis', 'The Exodus', 'Kings and Prophets' for the OT and 'Birth of Jesus', 'Parables and Miracles', 'Passion of Jesus Christ'. You can also purchase individual Bible stories. In the free format you will be will 'pushed' varied products each time you open it. I found this frustrating and would recommend simply purchasing the Old and New Testaments if you want this app. Having said this, I'm not sure I'd buy the apps for the purposes of my children's biblical education. The comic book format will be appealing for children but the apps offer no more than this. There are no additional interactive features or even sound. The comics use simple language that most 6-12 year olds will be able to read and like any comics they have frames that have no words.

The version of the Bible used isn't made clear in the apps, although they acknowledge that they revise some parts of Scripture. It seems a relatively faithful use of Scripture in a form that looks like they may have use a modern translation like Good News as the foundation of the text.

The apps that are purchased are colourful and easy to navigate (great slide control at the bottom - see image below) and are available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan. You can read the comic books on an iPhone, iPod or iPad. The new version allows a sharing feature for favourite scenes by e-mail, Twitter and Facebook.

BCN have done an impressive job with the comics. I suspect that many children will enjoy reading the Bible and its major stories in this format. The product will increase children's familiarity with the overall biblical narrative as well as the major stories that they would hear in any Sunday school. Children would also be able to use and enjoy them independently in the back of the car, in bed or wherever.  But if your children already have a good grasp of the biblical narrative and central themes of Scripture, apps of this type won't be a substitute for some of the many wonderful children's Bibles and independent study tools that are available in book format. It also won't be a substitute for parents sitting with their children to read and discuss the Bible. While you could read the comics together on the iPad, I don't see this as the way the product would be best used. As independent reading, or as an addition to good Bible study with parents, they have value.

I'm looking forward to see what major publishers of children's Bibles like Lion Hudson will do in this area.

3. Christian teaching aids

While there are many Bible activity books and games available on the Web for downloading (many of which are rubbish educationally and biblically), there is little available as yet for devices like the iPad and iPhone. Frankly, I don't see this as a problem, but there will be great possibilities for Christian educators to use devices like the iPad in combination with smart boards and data projectors in time. I haven't seen anything (as yet) that I'd recommend but I'd be happy to hear from others who know of emerging products for this market.

Summing up

It's early days with the development of apps for children's books, let alone specialist products like Christian Bibles and relevant Christian literature. The early attempts are interesting and will be received well by children but at this stage they have some way to go to harness the enormous potential that there is for the presentation of narrative material on devices like the iPad. The worst products will be those that simply put paper books on the iPad. The best products will be those that do the following:

• Remain faithful to the texts that they are using (e.g. use the best available translations of the Bible and don't tamper with it, other than faithfully paraphrasing if necessary).
• Use the complete package of features that are available on a device like the iPad to present exciting versions of known and new stories using sound, colour, video, linked resources and interactivity.
• Don't trivialise stories by adding on features that have little to do with the story and the overall intent of the app. For example, why ruin a good story by making every page an opportunity to drill sight words.
• In the case of apps that present the Bible, developers need good advice from theologians and children's educators to ensure that they do more than just present traditional Bible stories. While our children still need to know and understand these stories, they will need to be read and understood by children within the overall themes of Scripture. This is a plea for some understanding of Biblical Theology when embarking on product development.

Other links

'Alice', the iPad and New Ways to Read Books (HERE)
Literacy & the iPad: A Review of Some Popular Apps (HERE)
Literature & the iPad: A Second Review of Children's Literature Apps (HERE)
Other posts I've written on children's literature on the CASE blog (HERE)

Facebook as Digital 'Crack'

Daniela Elser wrote an interesting column on Facebook a couple of weeks ago (Sydney Morning Herald 9-10 Oct). In it she seems to put her finger on a number of reasons for the popularity of Facebook around the world:

• It offers us the possibility of reinventing ourselves or presenting a specific crafted image of ourselves to our Facebook friends.
• It has changed the way we interact with others.
• It offers a sense of connection, or in Elser's words, it offers a "digital inoculation against any creeping sense of disconnection or isolation".
• It offers an opportunity to "socialise in solitude" (to quote Aaron Sorkin the writer of 'The Social Network' which is the story of Facebook's creation - see the trailer below).  
• It allows us to be hyper-focused on constructing hyper-elaborated identities.
• We live more distracted lives because of our constant checking and updating of our profiles. 

 Daniela Elser writes:

One of the most intoxicating things about Facebook is the possibility it represents for reinvention. From our words, to our image, to our friends, Facebook lets us control the public perception of ourselves with an iron fist that would surely please even Kim Jong-il.

Sadly, while recognising that Facebook is allowing us to do this to ourselves, she fell short of suggesting ways that we might use it responsibly (like any drug).  However, she does recognise that Facebook "...speaks to an underlying human need to feel like we are the centre of things".  She cites recent survey research that indicates that 48% of Facebook and Twitter users check or update their profiles from bed on a daily basis either during the night or first thing in the morning.  This comes hot on the heels of other research that shows that addiction to the Internet is a problem for 25% of young adults at University.    

I love technology, and so I know just how strong the urge is to present false images of myself, to be less than honest about my heart's desires at times, particularly the desire to be liked and respected. I think the essence of the problem is a subtle difference between the word 'need' and 'desire'.  Elser suggests that we have a 'need' to feel that we are the centre of things, worthy of attention, needing to be admired, liked etc. While I have no doubt that we have a human need to be loved, I don't accept that we have a 'need' to be at the centre of the world.  This is a 'desire', and it is one that is in opposition to God's desire for us to give him first place in our lives. This is the desire that he created us for. Our desire is to be for him not for the promotion of self.

What a different view the Bible gives in Romans 12:1-8 of what we should desire, and what true community looks like when its members centre their lives on God. Rather than spending our lives feeding a need to be recognised, to be liked and to be admired, we are called to give ourselves to a life of sacrifice - "living sacrifices". We are not to be conformed to the patterns of the world. Rather, because of God's mercy to us we are "not to think of (ourselves) more highly than (we) ought". As God's children in Christ, we have been given gifts from God due to his grace and mercy, not for ourselves, but to fulfil our part as "..one body in Christ, and individually members one of another".  Whatever good gifts God has given are to be used for the good of the Body of Christ and the glory of God.

Is Facebook bad? No, I don't think so. It is a social networking site that can be used to sustain relationships and maintain contact with friends around the world. But it does have the potential to become an addiction and to shift our focus too much to our own sense of self worth and the need to create an identity that is pleasing to us and others. This is not ultimately something which will be for our good.
 
Other posts and resources

Daniela Elser column 'Hooked on the digital crack of Facebook', Sydney Morning Herald (HERE)

Previous post on 'Late Night Habits and the Mental Health of Young Adults' (HERE)

'The Social Network' (HERE)

The Soul in Cyberspace: Wisdom from Groothius

Some will have read my previous posts on the Internet and its potential impact on our lives: 'Is the Internet dumbing us down? 2 Rite!' (here), 'Are bloggers robbing their employers?' (here) and 'Writing, communication and relationships' (here).

You can read an excellent interview by Tim Challies with Douglas Groothuis (Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary) who wrote The Soul in Cyberspace (published in 1997). In the interview Challies asked Groothuis to revisit the key arguments of his book. In particular he asked him to revisit his concern expressed way back in 1997, that cyberspace was taking the place of 'real', face-to-face human contact. His book was many years before Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, blogging and many other applications that keep us busy online. The following quote struck me as particularly relevant for our age:

"But overall cyberspace (and hardly anyone calls it this any more) has diminished community if one means by that embodied relationships bound by troth, friendship, citizenship, and physical proximity. People practice an “absent presence” constantly as they talk on cell phones while checking out at the supermarket or at Starbucks, as they send text messages during classes instead of attending to teachers and students, as they play video games instead of getting to know their spouses and children. One could go on."

Ouch! This goes to the very heart of the way electronic communication has changed our world. How many of us could claim that we have never found themselves being absently present due to technology? How many of us have checked emails, Facebook and other online sites while talking on the phone? How many check emails and SMS messages on their phone when they should be in a conversation with friends, family members or workmates? I've even seen people checking messages during church services. It is difficult to assess the level of impact that technology has on our lives, but it seems likely that it is having an impact on relationships within and outside families. It also seems that our level of dependence, which verges on addiction for some, can have very negative impacts. It is easy to dress up the level of our distraction due to technology and call it other things. We can even praise it as multiskilling, and we could point to other distractions in life that affect relationships. But the truth is that our growing obsession with electronic communication is a problem and that technology, particularly the Internet, is having an impact on our relationships.

What to do about it is the question? For anyone who does find that technology has an impact on their relationships there are choices that we can make that will limit the impact. Here are a few rules I apply to myself:

• I try not to read emails at weekends
• I turn my phone off, or put it on silent when in meetings, when out with my wife etc
• I have set times for blogging and try to limit the hours that it takes (choose end times)
  
• I limit the number of blog posts I write and the number of blogs I read
• I limit the use of social networking sites. I'm on Facebook but I use it for very limited purposes
• I try to avoid answering my mobile when playing with my grandchildren
• I don't email someone when a phone call or face-to-face meeting is possible and better

I don't offer these as relevant for anyone other than myself. For each of us I suspect we know which forms of technology have the greatest potential to affect our relationships. We need to be wise in how we identify our weaknesses and then act. I know how easy it is to be absently present when I have things on my mind, let alone when technology is buzzing and blinking at me all day long.

You can read the entire interview here.

Communication, Cyberspace & Community

Case #15 is out and should be in the mailboxes of subscribers this week. The theme of ‘Communication, Cyberspace and Community’ has been chosen in recognition that we live an age of unprecedented development in communication technology that is having an impact on our lives. Whilst technology has led to rapid improvement in communication throughout the last century, the changes in the last 20 years have been staggering. The impact of new media and communication has arguably changed the way people communicate, relate to one another and form communities of interest and support.

Consider the fact that in the 1st Century AD communication at a distance was achieved with letters and written messages of various kinds. This system remained largely unchanged for almost 2,000 years. While the speed with which the written word was sent increased slowly over the centuries due to technology advances in transport, the Roman system of sealed written documents delivered via a network of mail centres and ‘postmen’ has changed little even up till the present day.

The ability to share knowledge in more complex and extended forms was restricted until Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440. This eventually permitted the mass production of books and as a result opened up education to the masses. This technology was largely unchanged for over five centuries, but the printing press enabled greater access to information and knowledge.

But the last twenty years have seen changes in communication shaped by technological advances not thought possible in my childhood. The 1970s to 1980s saw the development of the personal computer. The fax machine gained widespread use in the 1980s. The Internet had its genesis in the defence industry in the 1960s and the University of California in the 1970s, but it did not become widely available until the late 1980s. Similarly, the mobile phone did not become available until the late 1980s. Associated with these developments was the growth in the power and reach of the Internet in combination with software developments such as search engines, email programs, and developments in video and audio technology. In the last few years alone we have seen MySpace and Facebook change the way a whole generation communicates, and the electronic book is now a serious competitor for the traditional book that has been largely unchanged for centuries (see a recent post of mine on the Kindle on another blog).

We gave four themed articles:

1. Mark Hadley and David Horne contribute “The Brave New Online World” and suggest that massive changes in communication technology present us with opportunities to develop new types of Cyber communities to share the gospel.
2. Kamal Weerakoon contributes “Gospel, Community and the Cyberchurch of God” and explores just one application of new media of the type that Hadley and Horne encourage us to embrace – the Cyber Church.
3. I contribute “Truth and the Internet” and explore more broadly the impact that the Internet might have on truth, knowledge and learning.
4. Roberta Kwan contributes “From Privacy to Community” and discusses how our desire to protect our identities is related to a biblical understanding of sin and man’s desire to hide from God as part of our rebellion against him.

Case #15 also contains book reviews, a response to Andrew Bain by Ben Myers ("Which Apologetics") and a piece on Natural Theology by Larissa Johnson. If you're not a subscriber to Case could I encourage you to consider joining. This full colour 32 page magazine comes out quarterly. You can become an Associate of CASE for $55 per year which will entitle you to receive all four issues plus other benefits. There is also a student rate of $35 (great for Bible college or university students) and an online version for overseas associates that avoids postage costs and delays. More information is available here.

Mobile phone novels: Excellent & praiseworthy?

In a post I wrote in September I spoke of the changes that technology is bringing to communication and language.

“One of the most significant changes has been the extent to which the spoken or written word has been supplemented, replaced or changed by images, video and film, and even led to new representational forms (gaming is a perfect example). This has led some to suggest that the written word is less relevant than it was once. There is little doubt that the written word is used increasingly with other forms of communication and that in our world we are surrounded by more complex ‘multiliteracies’. By this I mean new forms of communication that are multimodal and require much more interplay between words, images, sound, video, spoken language etc. However, we still have much to learn about this topic.”

Living evidence of the changes that technology is bringing is seen in the recently announced Japanese bestseller list. For the first time the list is dominated by fiction written to be delivered and read on mobile phones. Five of the most successful novels, in fact the top three (!), were all “mobile novels”. The number one seller Love Sky sold 2,000,000 copies. Richard Lloyd Parry reporting in TimesOnline points out that these mobile novels are written in short sentences, use relatively few characters, feature melodramatic plots with lots of violence, sex and tear-jerking sentiment. Love Sky, is the story of a teenage girl who is bullied, gang-raped, becomes pregnant and suffers a miscarriage. Anyone who has lived in Japan (or even visited as I have) will no doubt know that Japan has had a history of prolific reading of adult comics with similar themes. I have images in mind of the Tokyo subway where almost every male in the carriage would be reading one of these books (and some women) and most women reading women’s magazines. It seems these texts might soon be supplanted by mobile novels.

There have been critics and supporters of this new form of reading. One critic wrote: “The fact that young readers are being exposed to immature expressions and stunted vocabulary will accelerate illiteracy and damage their ability to express themselves.” Another however, argued that the new genre is doing literature a service by promoting reading among young people who would otherwise have little interest in books. You can see parallels here with debates in the past about comics, television and gaming. Previous predictions of language ruination have not proven accurate, but change does occur.

I have no doubt that this literary form won’t give us too many pieces of classic fiction and that unlike many of the classic love stories (see my post on Books that stand the test of time) mobile novels will have a short half-life. With language like the following, this is a safe prediction: “I'm short, I'm stupid, I'm not pretty, I'm rubbish, and I've got no dreams.” (Love Sky by Mika).

However, while I doubt that electronic novels will lead to a new generation of illiterates (in fact it might have some positive impacts for literacy levels), as a Christian I’m more concerned that the rise of the mobile novel will make even more accessible poor quality fiction that does little for the feeding of the human soul. I’m confident that in fifty years great works of fiction will still be read, but I’m concerned at how much more impoverished young people will be if their literary diet is limited by mobile phone novels of the quality that we’ve seen in Japan.

I keep coming back to the words of the Apostle Paul, recorded in the Bible and written to the Philippian church, to focus their hearts and minds on things that are admirable:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you” (Phil 4:8,9).

In another post during book week I quoted from one of my books on literacy extolling the virtues of quality literature. I reproduce it once again:

A piece of literature is more than just a good story. I wrote in Pathways to Literacy (1995, p.77-78) that literature can act as:

* a mirror to enable readers to reflect on life problems and circumstances
* a source of knowledge
* a source of ideological challenge
* a means to peer into the past, and the future
* a vehicle to other places
* a means to reflect on inner struggles
* an introduction to the realities of life and death
* a vehicle for the raising and discussion of social issues

As well as helping children to be comfortable using language and to become readers, literature offers all of the above opportunities, and provides parents with a rich and enjoyable means to apply the wisdom of God to the stories our children read.

My plea is for adults to feed their minds and those of their children with narrative forms of quality and which celebrate that which is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable. Of course, the Bible for the Christian is the book above all books to be read regularly (preferably daily), but there is much to commend in the richness of human narratives that have been passed to us in literature.

Those interested in more posts on literacy, families and learning might find by blog devoted to these topics useful.

Books that stand the test of time

One of the things I commented on in a recent post on writing was that not all forms of writing have the same longevity. I suggested, "Web-based communication is less permanent (links quickly disappear, websites close down, Blogs 'mutate' into new untrackable forms etc)." Implicit in this comment was my view that some texts will endure due to their quality and significance. It seems that even in the not so weighty area of romance novels that people do tend to favour novels that have been read and loved for generations. Judgments are being made about the quality of language, plot, structure and significance.

A recent survey commissioned by UKTV Drama that reached 2,000 people found that the top 20 choices for a favourite romance novel were all major works of English literature. The top 10 were:

1 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte, 1847
2 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen, 1813
3 Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare, 1597
4 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte, 1847
5 Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell, 1936
6 The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje, 1992
7 Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier, 1938
8 Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak, 1957
9 Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence, 1928
10 Far from The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy, 1874

Nevertheless, 175 million Mills and Boon romantic novels are sold each year and more than 800 new titles are released each month. However, while these books might meet a short term market, the key question is, will they have the same longevity as many of the novels that made the top 10 in the UK survey.

When it comes to books that have stood the test of time, it's hard to match the Bible. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy suggests that it is "the most widely known book in the English-speaking world . . . No one in the English-speaking world can be considered literate without a basic knowledge of the Bible". It has long been accepted that the Bible is the most printed and distributed book in the world. Its dominance is extraordinary. Wikipedia suggests that an estimated 5-6 billion Bibles have been sold. Wikipedia lists Quotations from the Chinese leader Chairman Mao in a distant second at 900 million copies.

In age of increasingly diversified modes of communication, and with demands on our time that make it increasingly difficult to read something even as long as this Blog post, it is to be hoped that significant cultural texts are still read. As a Christian I would argue that the Bible is in a category of its own. God's word is eternal (Psalm 119:89), as the Prophet Isaiah (40:6-8) made clear to the Israelites almost 700 years before Christ. While nations and people might perish, God's word endures:

All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers
of the field.
The grass withers
and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the LORD
blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers
and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God
stands forever.

Writing, communication, technology and relationships

This is my third post about writing. In this post I want to make some comments and pose some questions about the impact of new forms of information communication technology on how we communicate.


The impact of technology

I write this Blog as a 55 year old who can remember as a child our manual exchange home phone being the only one in our street (and everyone using it) and the day our first (black and white) TV arrived (I was 11). I have participated in many subsequent technology advances – colour TV (I bought one just after our kids were born and kept it till they were grown up), personal computers (I bought my first one in 1984), faxes, videos, mobile phones (my first in 1989 and I still have the original phone number), the computer mouse (a big step forward), email (1989), websites, call centres, DVDs, a Blackberry (will I ever escape email again?!), Blogs, Facebook and so on. We've come a long way since Eniac was commissioned in 1946 (photo is a US Army Picture).

With some lived experience of technology I know firsthand that it changes things. I also know that the changes are not always good. When television arrived it reduced family time together (certainly in terms of interaction), it had negative effects for children who watched too much TV, it closed lots of community cinemas etc. I could repeat this for other technology forms – there are always negative impacts, as well as the positive. So as we continue down this path of constant communication technology change it is good to pause (before the next development hits) and question just where each major new wave is taking us.

Language changes

Language is changing all the time (both spoken and written). The most obvious way this occurs is in terms of language use, particularly in relation to words, spelling and grammar. New words are added to the lexicon with each passing year. What was once seen as an established grammatical form slowly disappears (e.g. the split infinitive rule – I know some of you out there are still holding out on this one). Incorrect spellings become optional spellings and in some cases (over time) preferred spellings. Text genres also change and are adapted to changing needs and purposes. The company memorandum (on paper) has largely been replaced by emails. Personal letters have largely been replaced with SMS messages, emails, Blog posts, Facebook entries. Even literary forms such as the novel are less often straight-forward narratives to become more complex and diverse forms. This type of change has always occurred, but seems to have accelerated in the past 30 years. One of the key drivers of such change has been communication technology (and with it globalisation) which has had an impact on language use as well as the way we communicate.

The word and new media - multiliteracies

One of the most significant changes has been the extent to which the spoken or written word has been supplemented, replaced or changed by images, video and film, and even led to new representational forms (gaming is a perfect example). This has led some to suggest that the written word is less relevant than it was once. There is little doubt that the written word is used increasingly with other forms of communication and that in our world we are surrounded by more complex ‘multiliteracies’. By this I mean new forms of communication that are multimodal and require much more interplay between words, images, sound, video, spoken language etc. However, we still have much to learn about this topic. For those interested in reading a more scholarly discussion of some of this as well as a defence of the importance of narrative for children, you will find a recent paper I presented on this on my website.


Anyone who reads a Blog will know that there are communication options available today not dreamed of 20 years ago and this is changing the way (at least) some people communicate. If there are people out there (probably not readers of this Blog) who don’t think new forms of communication are emerging, they need to consider the more recent Web 2.0 developments such as MySpace and Facebook. There is little doubt that these new forms of social networking are having a big impact on the way under 30yr olds communicate. Of course, we’re not sure what impact this might have long term on the way we relate to one another, but members of Gen Y have embraced it with great enthusiasm.

Advantages and disadvantages of ICT

The advantages of modern Internet enabled communication forms are obvious:

• The Internet offers global reach at minimal cost.
• It is very easy for anyone to publish and communicate ideas (including Christian truth) in forms that are visually attractive and effective.
• It is possible to build cyber networks of relationships and to engage with others concerning just about anything, including matters of faith.
• We can have access to written texts, images, audio files, video material from our lounge rooms, including significant historical source material, newspapers, images, videos – the web is an incredible resource.
• Search engines like Google are powerful tools for learning when used well.

But there are disadvantages:

• Web-based communication is less permanent (links quickly disappear, websites close down, Blogs 'mutate' into new untrackable forms etc).
• The reliability and accuracy of any communication is largely untested and unreviewed, hence anyone can present themselves as an expert on anything.
• Individuals are also able to misrepresent themselves more easily to unsuspecting audiences.
• The ease with which anyone can self-publish may well give individuals a misplaced sense of their own expertise and knowledge.
• There is a tendency for the message to be limited in depth.
• There are moral questions for any Christian about the less than helpful content that is available at the click of a mouse for adults and children and at times the negative impacts a technology application might have on us personally. Nicole Starling (my daughter!) has an interesting post that talks about eBay and the impact it can have on us.
• The shear amount of time that the Internet can consume can be excessive – new communication forms can become addictive (Josh Harris has an interesting post on why he left FaceBook after a week).
• The fascination with new communication forms may well lead to the neglect of traditional forms. What is lost when children don’t read (or hear) as much literature? When adults don’t read novels or even their Bibles as much as they once did?
• There is a danger that for some the “medium is the message” to quote the Canadian educator, philosopher and professor of English Marshall McLuhan, who suggested that for many the generic form of media is more important than any "meaning" or "content" that the medium conveys (something I'd contest of course but he'd see new ICT forms as evidence of the validity of his statement).
  

Some random implications

Here are what I think are just some of the implications of the above:

1. When we communicate have a clear purpose and audience in mind and choose the most appropriate form for your message. A Blog is a perfect way to establish and encourage interaction and knowledge sharing amongst a network of people interested in a specific topic and who have similar life experiences. But it isn’t the best way for the Australian Tax Office to fulfil its responsibility to inform citizens of changes to tax laws and interpretations. One reader of this Blog commented in a response to one of my previous posts on writing that he isn't about propose to someone by email, but I've observed some examples that come close.

2. Make the most of new media without reducing the importance of the written word - remember the message is the key, not the medium. By all means use data projectors in churches but don’t discourage the personal use of Bibles by projecting all passages and removing Bibles from pews. Conversely, do use the data projector for showing an alternative translation of a passage or to draw in additional material that might support the teaching of God’s word. And all should know about BibleGateway.com. Some churches might even consider using Blogs, Facebook, and MySpace as part of its community building strategies (hopefully not as a replacement for other things).

3. Encourage young people to evaluate critically the impact of each new form of communication and to be aware of potential problems (e.g. web scams, net predators, the dangers of publishing personal information on the internet for the world to see; how relationships might be affected by the way we communicate etc).

4. Don’t replace personal conversations with your friends, family and neighbours with SMS messages, Facebook, emails and Blog posts. Yes, they can work well when you’re on the other side of the country or the world but there is no substitute for personal communication.

5. Do use new media to point others towards significant wisdom and knowledge. A communication diet based exclusively on YouTube, SMS or Facebook entries has some significant limitations. But all are mediums that could be useful ways to communicate significant messages such as biblical truth and to strengthen relationships and networks of people exploring life’s big topics together.

Readers interested in more posts on literacy, communication and related issues might find my blog Literacy, Families and Learning of interest.