www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWLYJenIls4

Mind Map

In particular since the days of yore I have used Freemind for my mind mapping needs, it was an application I had become used to when I used work on the PC so I was understandbly pleased to discover a format for Mac. I know there are better versions available but this one is free and it does everything I need it do, which is all that I ask.

It is as I said above, a tool for mapping the mind. The number of projects and presentations that I have planned and laid out with this tool are beyond count but I know that I have used it a lot. It’s such a very fluid way of exploring the knowledge in your own mind and the links between certain information and presenting and recording it in a way that is both reusable and easily accessible for others to make sense of. It’s a very coherent way of presenting what can often be in ones own mind a muddle of information and ideas, as well as perceived connections.

It’s one I recommend everyone to try. As it’s a wonderful way of ordering ideas and thoughts into a visual diagram that can be reused and easily corrected after study and new information found can be added on simply without the labors of similar handwritten equivalents.

To equate it… what Facebook does in it’s ‘Home’ Page and what Twitter does. But RSS is for entire websites, updating you with everything that is updated on the website. While Facebook and Twitter allow you to follow individuals and sometimes websites as well, RSS is generally in place for those which do not operate on the medium that is Facebook and Twitter.

Essentially this is what this blog post will examine. Is there a place for RSS now, while I would issue a tentative yes it is very much a conditional one. As it seems to me RSS is on the way out. As most companies that operate websites also have a presence on Twitter and Facebook now, and that companies are at last getting in on the act means that it has come a long way, or rather that is how I see it. It is a free medium to advertise to. While RSS has a practical application, one which I use myself as not everyone has a presence on Twitter and Facebook.

While I am very much a fan of Twitter and Facebook because of the easy way one can stay in touch, RSS does much the same. It seems in a way that RSS has become the uncool brother of keeping up to date with the online world. I said that not everyone, and understandably so, has a presence on Facebook and Twitter. RSS is therefore still very necessary to keep abreast of what is happening on certain websites I personally follow, some in particular church related ones have not engaged yet fully with the wider digital media that is available to them. The Church of Ireland and the Church of England for example are very much in touch with Facebook and Twitter but RSS is still available. I think the difference is that Facebook and Twitter in contrast to RSS provides a face or interaction which RSS doesn’t have.

In a practical sense with RSS, it may be the uncool brother but only because in my opinion is that it is a simple functionary. It does what it is supposed to and doesn’t try to be anything else. It feeds information straight to my computer to keep me informed of the things that interests me. While there is a place for Twitter more so then Facebook for a similar role it is one that is still fully evolving as many of those who share the unnecessary too much information undermine it. But in saying that just like RSS you can choose who and what you follow. You can make Twitter your functional RSS feed or your personal RSS feed where you keep abreast of everything your friends are up to. Facebook then takes that to the next level. Which provides some very interesting alternatives to both an easy way to filter your interests/hobbies and personal life. Then of course, where does one draw the line.

I am very much an advocate of all three, and as for digital tools for this, I have mentioned before that Tweetie is my application of choice for my MacBook, and the iMail client has everything I want in an RSS application, it allows me categorise and filter as I need, I only know this from searching for bigger better things and realising I didn’t really need such bigger and better things that the iMail did everything more, it was very much a case of look at the material you have and see what it can do before looking for something to fix or replace it, our computers and software will often surprise us! and well Facebook is Facebook. It really is for an individual to explore and look into.

And what a tool! So, so very useful. For my thesis very few whole books exist that engage specifically with my area of study, namely the Magi in the Collectanea Pseudo-Bedae, so I find myself dipping in and out of many books. Often only needed a single chapter at a time. And rather then creating bulky hard copies I have been creating digital copies of them. It has become a rather large and bulky library of both discs for backup and on the hard drive itself.  It was about half way through February that this discovery was made and it has been a revelation! My printer, a Canon MP990 has an inbuilt OCR capability. Being very aware of the online resources for OCR Text Analysis I felt that was a rather cumbersome and slow way of tackling expansive text.

So in short, I avoided it. But if I could create both digital images and text documents from one scan. Well the attraction was much improved! Which is exactly what the OCR function on the printer did. Now, I am fully aware of the cost involved in such a printer etc. but this is very much a case of the things we don’t know about the technology we already own. Which is what happened here.
It was such a fortunate discovery. It essentially meant I was able to continue to have my soft digital copies of articles, book chapters and such but have the option of moveable interactive text in a Pages (The Microsoft Word of the Apple world)  document. Meaning that I was able to make notes within a document. Making study much more effective and interactive.

One of the problems with this and any OCR tool is the margin for error. Which I must say has been so far slight with the Canon software. But more importantly while a single error is often continued through an entire document it is a very quick process to fix. Because while the margin for error exists it remains a consistent one and in a document certain letters will present a difficulty for the OCR tool to recognise, but it is very easy to isolate individual letters and and groups of letters, often names or Latin words which throw it. It is, however, easily fixed. A simple cmd+f and a search and replace of specific characters used in lieu of specific single letters it fails to identify (which is a consistent solution by the Canon OCR) and a systematic replacement has the entire document fixed in minutes. The reusable nature of the text would justify much longer time in correction but it is not a problem I have yet encountered. The process is nearly always a quick one. And seeing as I spend time studying the text anyway any future mistakes I come across will be fixed as I go. It has been of enormous benefit and extremely useful. If it’s a text you plan on doing a lot of work on I would even recommend the OCR Text Analysis tools available online.

The benefits of OCR to a student are incalculable. It is an imponderably useful tool of the digital variety. And seeing this is very much the theme of my musings on this blog it was one I felt was neccessary to pass along. But not only that, maybe have a look at your own digital resources to hand and examine them a little more closely and squeeze it for what it can do. Often computers are packed with software most of us will never get to grips with or ever find a use for. But we should not forget it is there! Have a look around the bowels of your free software library and see what you can rustle up.

The challenge facing any one using a computer or digital resource of any kind is organising it. Anyone as has become increasingly obvious in the last number of years can get access to and use a computer. What we do with it is important. As this blogs purpose was to assist and demonstrate progress through my thesis that is the theme I shall pursue although i think it has applications much broader then just academia.

SENTE: One of the biggest problems I have faced is the rapidly growing and already expansive collection of PDF’s and Digital reproductions of books that I have. I have scans from books I need, PDF’s from resources such as Jstor and entire books downloaded, gratefully, from googlebooks. I was faced with over 15gigs of files. Which most would agree is extensive at this point in a long project. I have committed anything I have hard copies of to a digital soft copy format mainly for the proverbial in case. Pages go missing, get damaged etc. This means I have a degree of control and reproduction.

The problem this created was organising such material which must be over 50 digital files. So I went in search of some tool for creating bibliographies out of these on my computer. I must be entirely honest here, I found Sente and it did EXACTLY what I wanted so really I stopped looking. It was easy to use, interacts with Microsoft Word for Mac and Pages (The MAC word processor) which was a problem with Zotero I was able to drag and drop references into Pages and Word with ease. It allowed me to tweak bibliography referencing to suit it exactly to how I needed them to appear for my work without damaging initial references. Also it was able to search the documents itself for source information and provide the bibliography references itself or once you input some helpful hints it would find the rest from the web offering a number of options for you to choose. I had a digital library. Established and running pretty fast. It was an incredibly useful tool for organising and managing the extensive PDF collection I had gathered to myself.

While no strict bibliography tool for books what I’ve started doing is taking images of books online saving them as PDF’s and attaching relevant bibliographic references to them allowing me to reference all the books I’m using, not just my PDF’s. I’ve these seperated into different libraries on the Sente interface itself, namely a PDF Library divided by material content e.g. Patristic Fathers, Apocrypha, Journal Articles and then a final library of Books. Which I’ve found to be a very quick easy process to do!

Another useful feature of this has been that I can add comments in and highlight sections of text and tag it for semantic markup of a sort. It has made keeping my sources in the digital format much easier. Making work with digital material much easier and to some degree more productive, or certainly more efficient.

SKIM: Similar to Sente this tool allows me to annotate  PDF files and allowing me to add in my own text and commentary to a particular PDF which is very useful indeed. This application is also free. And one worth exploring as a good resource for a PDF study tool as it can be an asset to be able to add in commentaries. Although I’ve not used it much since getting Sente it is still a very useful addition to the academic tool box, especially as its free and Sente is not. It also cuts down on complicated paper trails of hand taken notes making organising, tracing and filing your documents with notes attached much easier.

MACSWORD: This, admittedly has limited use and even more limited application but is something that has been extremely useful to me. It’s Bible software, and as I said isn’t useful to everyone. For my Thesis research on the Magi I have had to quote extensively from the Bible as it is my ultimate primary source for the particular area of research that I’m doing. And while not of use to everyone it does have a PC Version available, called ESword.

The Bible as a book is rather big as many know and can be difficult to use if not familiar with it. With MACSword I have been able to make a detailed bookmarking system where I can find all the sections I am using most with ease. I can also have several comparable translations of the text available, including Greek, Latin, English and Aramaic which is useful for comparing structures of composition and individual words and how they are translated from one back to the other etc. The good thing about this software is that it is totally free! All the modules available are all also free and include Strongs Concordance while not the most expansive is certainly one of credibility and respect. A screencast of a how to use is available also for those struggling with it. Referencing the software is easy too as each bible module that is installed is attached to an actual book with full bibliographic references, such as KJV, Clementine Vulgate, NKJV etc.. It’s a wonderful resource and has been instrumental in ease of quoting from the bible as well as management of this fundamental part of my research.

ZOTERO: Here is something I do not like. And what prompted me to search for applications such as Sente and other bibliography tools. It is limited to FireFox, something else I do not like. This may just be coming as a Mac user but it’s not as it’s a limitation for Windows users too. But for Windows users there are plugins available for Microsoft Word that is not available or what is available but is not compatible with Mac Microsoft Word, which is most frustrating.

My browser of choice up until recently has been Safari, I’ve stopped using it due to a lag and delay when opening a new tab which annoys me greatly. I’ve jumped on the Google Chrome ship for Mac and it’s a wonderful browser, fast simple and uncomplicated and customizable! Which is something of a novelty for Mac Interface. The point being everyone has a favourite browser, Firefox is not mine which means the ease of using this tool means I am using a browser I find cumbersome and not to my taste as it’s out of my comfort zone. For a PC user I understand fully the benefits such an application would give.

So had the plugin for Zotero been available it would have been a useful tool for me also, but it’s not and the creation of any such bibliography using the tool would be time wasted for me. So I’ve resorted to other tools, Sente, as already mentioned. It was a case of needs must!

Logically it is prudent to start with GTD Software as it is known, or Got to Do. Logical because this is how I have managed all research and management tasks since beginning my research. At the beginning all the way back in October of our Digital History class Mike, our lecturer, went through the finer aspects of being organised. And, being honest it struck a cord. I came home that evening and sorted through my files diligently making lists of what needed to be done etc. It got me thinking, as I often do. This thinking can sometimes lead to… what can only be described as one thought being replaced with another. In other words I am prone to be forgetful, though it pains me to admit it! I needed something to manage this forgetfulness but also take it a step ahead, and factor in planning. So as I said I began searching for GTD Software. I could talk about the several versions I found which were free etc but they really weren’t up to much. I found them for the main part, limited. I did find one known as iGTD and it was a revelation, but was out of production! And following the crumb trail I found a wondrous thing. The programmer had moved to a new company who created Things. It was the dream program. The price was a factor. It was… expensive to say the least and took a lot to bring me to commit the funds to paying for it. But it has been worth every cent!

This is a screen capture of Things write up on Culture Codes own website.

Above is the screen capture of what the interface looks like. Simple is one word for it, understated is another. I don’t think I could ever go back to using another task management tool. And I have had my fair share. On their website Things lists it’s features. Which is no small list may I add.

I have been able to manage and control and time every aspect of my college schedule within days, hours, and minutes. It has given me unprecedented control and has freed up my often worrying mind to focus on the task at hand. As I was often easily distracted when a new idea or job came to mind while studying. It allows me handle what has become a strenuous and on some level overbearing work load. I can divide my tasks by projects, my areas of responsibility and of others so I can monitor progress on co-operative projects. I have a someday list! Where I can post all those things I really just don’t have time to get done just yet! But that won’t be forgotten! This is an example of my plan for my Digital History Assignment.

Another great resource is that in each “To Do” that I create I can link it to emails detailing the task further, link the word document, powerpoint show, excel sheet, image, or Text PDF that is relevant for that particular task. An excellent time saving feature, meaning that Things has become my Go To software.

As I said the others weren’t up to mentioning but I guess for those who can’t bring themselves to spend money on this, Schoolhouse is an excellent FREE alternative. The interface is a bit more complicated and stuff in comparison to Things.

As it is well known I am a Mac-phile. I love all things Mac and this is no different. It is a Mac application. But one thing I found while searching for such software is that an extensive range of Microsoft GTD does exist and I would recommend getting to grips with a few as it is an EXCELLENT way to progress with your MA Thesis or any other Thesis or project you’re engaged with. I found Things to do exactly what I wanted it to do, but that shouldn’t discourage you from exploring other GTD applications for MAC and Windows applications. As it is definetly a way to move ahead with a project properly and in a structured time efficient manner, whatever tool you use.

Good luck with your “To Do”!

]]> http://shanemcauliffe.com/2010/03/building-blocks-to-success-things-ive-got-to-do/feed/ 0 http://shanemcauliffe.com/2010/02/wordle-randomised-structure/ http://shanemcauliffe.com/2010/02/wordle-randomised-structure/#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:16:43 +0000 admin http://shanemcauliffe.com/?p=187

On First inspection several words are made very obvious. The Magi, Christ, Gregory, Leo, Gifts, Pope, Matthew, Testament and St.

The overall wordle mesh is a good summation of the work that I have done to date on my Thesis topic which is in relation to the Adoration of the Magi in Matthews Gospel in the New Testament.

So far, much of the work I’ve done has been in relation to the Patristic interpretations of the Magi and the writings of Popes Gregory, Leo and the exegetes Augustine, Chrysostom, Leontius and others. As already said the obvious is obvious, and features on a larger scale in the wordle image.

But the merit of this tool for me is that while trying to decide what to blog about I began realising it’s use as a study tool. That in fact the bigger the word there is almost less importance attached to it as it is something you are already familiar with. As in all honesty my prior use of this tool has always been merely to create pretty pictures that add visual substance to a blog post. Little did I know the reality of the visual substance to which I was adding to a post by adding such an image.

While studying this image it is not so much the big words that jump out at me but the names of scholars I’ve used, the names of Popes and exegetes. The areas I tackled in particular in relation to the gifts of the Magi. The more one studies such an image the more jumps out at you and makes itself heard and obvious. It’s a wonderful revision tool and also most useful for the focusing in on areas, by assessing size and therefore uses of certain words one can establish where one may need to to focus more attention on and possibly expand potential understanding. Also as you expand research you can compare and contrast the time and effort of the content of your work so far to ensure you have a balanced approach to your research and work.

The potential uses of Wordle are many but more importantly they are very useful. No doubt as I begin to use it more and more this will become ever more obvious to me.

The objective being giving the class a digital perspective on presentation through Microsoft Powerpoint 2007 as I believe it to be the most widely used in class. This has also been in line with the Digital History module I was doing with Dr. Cosgrave. Evangelising the Digital History message as it were!

So here’s the show and hopefully it will be of some use to those who come across it.

“We three kings of Orient are;

Bearing gifts we traverse afar

Field and fountain, moor and mountain,

Following yonder star:”

Magi, the word itself is one that is heavily debated among theological, ecclesiastical and historical scholars of the bible.

(KJV)Matthew 2:1: Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,

(DRC)Matthew 2:1: Cum ergo natus esset Jesus in Bethlehem Juda in diebus Herodis regis, ecce magi ab oriente venerunt Jerosolymam,

The term used for these kings and wise men varies greatly. There is a vast exegetical tradition behind them with writings from Gregory the Great, St. Hilary of Poitiers, Sedatus, Bishop of Beziers, Pseudo-Bede, as well as the prophetic precursors of the Old Testament. It varies from magi, magus, wise men, astrologers, kings etc. What many scholars of this have pointed out that the term magi/magus and astrologer is one with precursors in Exodus for example when the priests of the Pharaoh are referred to as Magi, with the translations from original Hebrew and Aramaic texts tending towards calling them priests but many feeling they should be equated to magi or astrologers. The limitations of the Hebrew language to fewer words then English means that one word may have many more meanings, magi is an example of such a word with more meanings then is initially obvious.

The overriding theme running through Matthew 2 is that these men came to worship Christ, but how did they know?

(KJV )I Corinthians 14:22: Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.

Gregory the Great in one of his homilies on the nativity in Matthew argues that this was in lieu of Christ being able to actually speak and guide these wise men himself. As an infant child he was limited to signs and working through them, which as can be seen was not without precedent. This is where the argument for astrologers is strongest, why else would these wise men be staring at the stars and doing so often enough to warrant noticing a new star in the sky, those in favour argue regularly and therefore here the idea of these wise men being astrologers is strongest. As Corinthians 1 tells us this sign of the star was one kept for the gentiles, for those that do not believe and do not know.

(Irish Biblical Apocrypha) “It appears to me, son, that they practice druidic augury and divination… they seem like kings or leaders.”

In Irish apocryphal writings the theme of the Magi is a very common theme and frequently comes up. So much so that it even appears in the crosses of monasteries such as that in Monasterboice. Which is just below the centre of the cross, the first image. The theme of biblical imagery on these crosses was often important. One of the important themes that much Irish exegetical study concentrated on was that of the problems of the origin of these wise men. Which we’ll now examine.

Problems in Origin:

(Irish Biblical Apocrypha): “’From where have you yourselves come?’, asked Joseph. ‘From the east’, they said, ‘from eastern India, the lands of Arabia, the lands of the Chaldeans, and from other various lands in the eastern world”.

(KJV) Genesis 2:11-12: The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

Matthew is the only one of the Evangelists to write about the Magi, despite the length of the account relating to these magi it remains unclear whether or not their origins were known. The varying accounts above firstly from an apocrypha and then Genesis both give accounts of where these men could originate. Theories for them coming from a Zoroastrian or Mithraism cultures and backgrounds is common. Within Zoroastrian prophecy there is an account speaking about a star shining in the sky announcing a virgin birth and the coming of the Messiah. In the Book of Isiah a similar prophecy is accounted:

Isaiah 7:14: Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Some scholars view this as a potential for being an attempt by the foundling Christian faith in trying to be the answer to the questions of all faiths. In this case that of Zoroastrianism. What it emphaises is the extraordinary possibilities put forward for these men and their origin.

In the Book of Psalms the following prophecy occurs:

(KJV) Psalms 72:10-11: The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.

This Psalm speaks of coming from Arabia, specifically Sheba and Seba. More importantly this develops the idea of the islands and the obsession with what tends to be the final instruction of Christ in all the Gospels.

(KJV) Mark 16:15-16: And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

(KJV) Matthew 28:19: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

This idea of the whole worth, to the very ends of the earth itself became obsessive. It was in fact part of the reason for Gregory the Great sending St. Augustine of Canterbury to Britain to evangelise the people there. Another area worth some very interesting study.

This theme of the end of the earth pervaded most exegetical works at the time resulting over time of the Black Magus theory.

Christianity as we know is, but it’s nature, a missionary faith. As the above quotes of Mark and Matthew serve testament to. This notion of the ends of the earth. An important consideration that led to the idea of these Magi having separate countries and fell in together on the journey as it were is one widely debated.

Among many of these alleged locations are Persia, Armenia and Scythia, but ultimately the most interesting of these is Ethiopia. These Ethiopians were deemed as Gentiles “per excellence” as they represented a society on the fringe of the known world, but they were civilised for the main, cultured and educated. They had the potential for enlightenment to the Word of God, as Gregory say in his Angles of the Northern Isle, these Angels of blonde hair and heavenly appearance.

Interesting, St. Hilary of Poitiers and Sedatus, Bishop of Bezairs put forward very strong arguments but it’s not until the 15^th Century long after their death that a change is made in referring to this Black Magus, a move from “fuscus” or Dark to “niger” or black. This theme of the black magus is one strong in Renaissance art, with some rather fascinating portrayals of the giving of gifts to the Infant Christ such as that below, you can also see the traditional image of a young man, old man and middle age man carried on despite the prescence of the Black Magus.

The Gifts of the Magi:

Matthew 2:11: And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

Born a king on Bethlehem plain,

Gold I bring to crown him again –

King for ever, ceasing never

Over us all to reign:

Frankincense to offer have I;

Incense owns a Deity night;

Prayer and praising gladly raising

Worship him, God Most High:

Myrrh is mine; its bitter perfume

Breathers a life of gathering gloom

Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,

Sealed in the stone-cold tomb:

The gifts of the Magi themselves have very important significance for the medieval theologian as well as having a deeper meaning for those of us trying to glean more from this account of the nativity which includes the presence of the Magi.

The gifts themselves and what they would be are frequently account in several other books of the bible including Psalms, Numbers and Isiah:

(KJV) Psalms 72:10-11: The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.

(KJV) Numbers 24:17: I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.

(KJV) Isaiah 60:1-6: Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the LORD.

The gifts themselves are symbolic of future life, as in the Hymn we’re all familiar with shows us, but within the bible certain quotes also exist justifying the apt choices of these Magi:

Gold was seen as the gift of Wisdom:

(KJV) Proverbs 21:20: There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up.

The Book of Psalms testify to the power of prayer which is symbolized by incense.

(KJV) Psalms 141:2: Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

The Myrrh used to symbolize the mortification of the body as well as the mortality of man as well as being used for embalming it was used for the treatment of wounds so again the idea of mortality is emphasized.

(KJV) Song of Solomon 5:5: I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.

A conclusion:

I felt the above is what I consider to be an account detailing the traditions surrounding this aspect of the nativity and advent. I also feel I examined it with no small amount of reason and logic approaching it from my personal background of a Medievalist Historian. But what I’ve felt I’ve learned from doing this was a number of scriptural insights that can be developed with some knowledge of the above.

That the story of the Magi revolve around the early days of Christ’s life is important I felt. By using reason and tradition to examine the scripture itself I found that there are lessons to be learned.

• How the Magi come to worship the infant Christ lead by a star first to herod to announce the birth of Christ, the King of the Jews, how the star then leads them on to Christ. But God reveals to them that they should not return to Herod and after a receiving a message in a dream they resolve to return back another road. It’s an interesting thought, the metaphor that could be taken from this is the many roads we have in life and how different roads lead to different paths but always the overriding message seems to be that God is guiding us to make the right choices. Not in a predestination sense but rather that God loves is and is conscious of the choices we make and encourages us to make the right ones.

Matthew 2:12: And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

• Secondly the importance of scripture and knowledge of both new and Old Testaments for understanding the word of God in much of the New Testament, the subtle referencing of Matthew to Isaiah, Psalms and Numbers. It’s important as it makes us aware of the signs used by God to proclaim the arrival of Christ, the Messiah. It illustrates how God let the world know He had send His Messiah, his son made flesh. But it was only through knowledge of the scripture could the signs God sent be recognized for what they were and salvation attained for us through Christ’s sacrifice.

“Glorious now, behold him arise,

King, and God, and Sacrifice!

Heav’n sings alleluia, alle-

-luia the earth replies:

Shane Mc’Auliffe B.A.

Paul Rellis, Microsoft’s country manager for Ireland, believes such investments are crucial and form a key part of the approach to developing a multi-disciplinary skills base early in the education system. “What we need is citizens coming out of school with good basic IT skills, skilled in communication and with an understanding and ability to relate to different cultures. Getting a combination of these hard and soft skills is vital.”

Yes, yes, yes! That we are doing a Digital History module at a Masters level in university in many ways shows the failings of the educational system at the lower levels and in particular from primary to secondary. I’m aware many schools have limited resources but I am also aware that many students these days have access to laptops, laptops being one of the most dominant on the computer market with Desktops ever increasingly aspiring to the clutter free environment of a laptop. But more importantly having individual dedicated room facilities are available to almost every school in the country these days. Instead of condeming the use of social mediums as Twitter, Facebook, Bebo and the like why not promote alternative usage. Like we learned, tools for networking. Creation of links between schools in different countries. Areas of academic interest. Shared sporting interests. But have these things more fruitfully used and have the benefits more readily available by the teaching and education in such uses. Show what can be brought from the computer to the classroom and vice versa and show how one can embellish the other. As well as having social and educational benefits it also gives students a firm grounding in the very basics of computer use. Our lecturer in Digital History spoke of a module in the university which began with the use of the mouse! A fantastic idea now days when computers are everywhere!

Students should be helped to define a life purpose and be given opportunities to undergo transformative experiences, he believes.

The above point I’ve made, expressed more concisely here. But should be taken no more less forcibly.

“Citizenship implies sharing resources, not maximising one’s own interest. This depends on young people having an enduring sense of self-worth. Practical patriotism must be fostered and promoted so students emerge with a clear recognition of what it means to be Irish, a sense of ownership of the country and responsibility to use their knowledge, skills, and energy on its behalf,”

This theme of digital history relates to the above idea of citizenship. The sharing of resources but in our case academic resources for the benefit of society. The idea of copyright and intellectual property is one constantly being challenged and battled for in this modern age of Pirate Bay and the likes. This sense of ownership and responsibility to their knowledge and skills is an important point I felt reading the article. In an area such as history, where we so often here the slur of, “Oh an arts degree” being bandied about. Why should it be any less of a degree then a science. We learn just as many life skills as anyone else. Often accused of less practical skills the historians and arts students of the world hold significant office of power throughout the world. Strong well educated individuals. With a pride in themselves and what they know and no doubt or fear in their application of the skills to what they do. As in this article the idea is a simple one:

“…that the specific choice of focus for study be delayed by two years, to allow young people to gain skills and also to experiment in a variety of fields. This would give them greater adaptability in a changing world and could prove to add greatly to Ireland’s economic resilience,”

An arts degree isn’t a cop out degree as many say. It is an excellent interdisciplinary qualification that allows a person to formulate the interests and specialisations required by our economy. Getting the right people for the job as it were. We develop excellent transferable skills, languages, economics, advanced IT skills, mathematics, history, music. These shouldn’t be considered our weaknesses but more accurately like earlier said our knowledge base, which we should have pride in. And share with others.

According to Bradley, we need to look at the way in which we have been educating our young people and to radically change the model from passive delivery by teachers to one in which educationally-rich experiences are driven by self-discovery. “Students should perform their own research, solve real-life problems and make decisions such as developing the capacity to apply knowledge to projects in local communities. In such situated learning, they discover the appropriate circumstances in which to apply what they are taught. They learn where, when and why some concept fits or does not fit a particular situation. This, not passively ‘taking’ courses, should constitute the heart of the education endeavour. Without this, students are unlikely to emerge as creative, engaged and responsible citizens,”

The sentiment expressed above, finally. Is an important one. And speaks for itself. Also in this piece the idea of re-skilling is approached. This I felt was rather interesting and particularly applicable. As a medievalist historian I see the sagely lecturer buried in books, daunting tombs you daren’t ever delve into, firstly because it may be classical greek, latin or medieval english! But mainly because you wouldn’t know where to begin. While I appreciate and promote the study and knowledge of such texts that they’ve not been digitized and made accessible to a wider population outside of academic circles is questionable and lies mainly with the medievalists and how for the main part the realm of computers is a foreign one. Most have email, some even blog and twitter I’ve found. But the titans in the field don’t. This idea of re-skilling should not only be applied to those out of work, but those in work. In areas of research where inter community and social connectivity would benefit the study and dissemination of such medieval texts as Bede. While I appreciate the production of academic study into things such as Bede, critical commentaries and the like I also feel that such commentaries would be no less authoritative by including communal input from social interaction with others. We spend our academic lives writing bibliographies and our noses buried in books to see what’s been said. We rarely look for what could be said, what should be said, how it can be said and how all this can come about. I’m aware academic research would contradict this idea but I’m not attacking the idea of that. Rather the methodology behind it. Rather then write a study we should edit the ideas of the community of medievalists for example. And interpret them individually. Share and discuss, argue and agree, get the ball going on new ideas. We should be editors extraordinaire s. We should put our study out there to be critiqued. Expose ourselves as someone in class worriedly asked. But that’s the idea, no one person is infallible. They are insightful perhaps yes, but why should they be immune to the insightfulness of others. What I’m trying to say in my roundabout way is we compile large and extensive bibliographies, why not do the same with digital commentary on what it is your researching. Why is the statement of a considered, thoughtful, extremely knowledgeable peer any less relevant then the same thing said 150 years ago in a book you never had the time to read because of the time constraints of that particular project?

I guess that’s more a question of a good historian then citizen but reflects the idea of education being important, and niche areas being even more so. And the idea of how to build a good historian, and what should define or constrict historical thought and the exchaning of ideas.