Abstract
The result of a 3-year study, Digital Life Together: The Challenge of Technology for Christian Schools, offers a snapshot of the complexities of technology adoption in Christian schools in the United States. The authors refer to these schools as “Modern Christian Schools” and are very clear that they represent only a small piece of a much larger picture of the Christian educational community in the United States. Like so many other communities in the 21st century, Christian educators are negotiating the many aspects of technology both in and outside of the classroom. This study attempts to clarify the stakes of this negotiation, specifically as it regards the theological and ecclesial commitments of educators, administrators, parents, and students.
Digital Life Together is divided into five sections in addition to introductory material that includes conceptual considerations, such as “What Is Technology?” (chapter 3), and methodological explanations. These five sections reflect the five strategies “that played a pervasive role in the thinking of the various members of Modern Christian Schools” (p. 32). This taxonomy of strategies is a very helpful contribution to the discussion of technology in the context of Christian education at all levels. Interested parties at all levels, and from all constituencies, would do well to apply this framework of Smith, Sevensma, Terpstra, and McMullen to their own case studies about the adoption of technology in Christian educational settings.
Aside from this organization of the study data, of particular note is the researchers’ attention to important non-theological factors that contributed to their subjects’ thinking about technology in a Christian school. The researchers carefully avoid the false dichotomies so present in evaluations of technology, providing a clear-eyed analysis of their chosen schools’ attitudes toward technology. For example, these Modern Christian Schools represent an optimistic view of technology, but the researchers carefully examine the justifications for expenditures on technology and its use in the curriculum. While the mission of these schools does appear in these justifications, the researchers helpfully note that “a competitive emphasis of achievement, future-readiness, and getting ahead of others infiltrated the transformative Christian emphases of the mission statement” (p. 77). This example reflects an overall commitment on the part of the researchers not only to take seriously the reflections of their subjects about technology in light of theological commitments but also to highlight the ways in which other contexts—consumerism, Americanism, and so on—are influencing their messaging and thinking.
Digital Life Together offers a clear, accessible, and thoughtful introduction to one community’s (or collection of closely-related community’s) navigation of digital culture alongside their educational and theological commitments. Ultimately, the scope of this project is too narrow in terms of religious tradition, geography, race, and economics. This is not levied as a criticism per se but as an important note for applying the conclusions of this study to other communities. In the end, however, this volume offers much insight into the many questions Christian educators, and all who care about Christian education, must consider as they incorporate technology into the classroom. It is a careful, measured contribution to the field of digital theology and represents the value of qualitative research within theology more broadly.