The skirmish begins

I'm into my reading on the subject of Christian and theological education and distance and e-learning (topic 1a). From the initial readings gathered, I have 16 down and 50 to go! I have been carefully reading each article, extracting key themes and quotes in Endnote. From there I have been assembling thoughts in a draft chapter. Only then is an article considered 'down'. I have assembled 24 pages of raw notes (using a smaller font) and 13 pages of early draft notes. At the current rate, I can look forward to about 75 pages of raw notes and 39 of early draft notes from these initial readings alone. The scale of things is starting to dawn on me.

I have been challenged by my primary supervisor to read (='down with') six articles each week as a part-timer. I feel up to it.

This round of articles is sourced from only four journals, only two of which could be considered thoroughly gleaned. The oldest article is from 1996; the youngest three are from 2007.

Already the draft headings I have used for the draft of this 'chapter' are showing their inadequacy. I am redrafting under the following structure:

1.0 Terminology: Online distance education and hybrid learning
1.1 Paradigm shift
1.2 Online theological education
1.3 Hybrid learning
1.4 Barriers and issues
2.0 Technology and change
2.1 The imperative
2.2 Opportunities
2.3 Theological arguments
3.0 Unanswered questions and issues for exploration

It's exciting to already see a useful article result from my progress, as several lessons become apparent once the ideas in the first 16 articles are mixed together and decanted. My next step is to redraft my raw notes for this 'chapter' into the structure above. Then, it's back into the reading... it will be about eight to nine weeks before I finish this initial round of readings. During this time I will also trawl through other journals, then it will be a task of 'downing' them. Once I've done that, I think a publication will be timely!

Or is this just typical early war optimism...?