What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Sermon preached on 12 October 2014

    20141012 kelvin holdsworth – gnashing of teeth.movie from Kelvin Holdsworth on Vimeo.

    ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen

    In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

    Here in St Mary’s we end our Gospel reading with the response – Give thanks to the Lord for his Glorious Gospel, Praise to Christ our Lord.

    In many churches, they end readings with the response “This is the Word of the Lord – Thanks be to God”.

    I think that is one of those readings from scripture that would tempt me greatly, if that was the response that we were used to, to say, “Is this the word of the Lord?”

    There’s no denying at all that it is a tricky gospel reading for many people who will be sitting here this morning.

    Maybe you don’t think so and find it an obvious way of reinforcing what you believe – that anyone who doesn’t conform with what God wants will be thrown out of the feast unto the outer darkness.

    Well, if that’s you, then good luck living your life with it. I know it isn’t for me.

    Conformity to anything is a challenge to me and I find myself immediately troubled by the poor victim of Jesus’s tale who gets thrown out of all that is good and nourishing simply for breaking a dress code. What’s that all about?

    Well, perhaps the best I can do this morning is to tell a few more stories. Let us see whether we can start to unravel this parable by telling some more parables.

    Here’s one about dress codes to soften you up and we’ll come back to the gospel story in a minute.

    Once upon a time (about four weeks ago) in a land far away (the West End of Glasgow) there was a Provost. And the Provost would strut around his cathedral the Lord of all he surveyed. He was young (or at least he still thought he was still young) and witty (or so they told him at the end of the service in about half an hour’s time) and he was handsome and fair…..and thanks be to God, he was modest and humble too. (more…)

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3 responses to “Listen up! Moocs are the future”

  1. Jaye Richards-Hill Avatar
    Jaye Richards-Hill

    Great stuff – peer assisted learning and peer assesvent to boot. The feedback you get from peers is incredibly motivational as well as informative and powerful in stimulating further learning. Have a look at Sugata Mitra’s work on Self Organised Learning Environments for further evidence of the power of a heutagogical approach to learning. I call it Knowledge Grazing! And it’s lifelong, isn’t it…

    The certificates and the open ‘badges’ for learning like this are great on a cv or profile. They demonstrate a self-motivated desire to learn for lesrning’s sake. We need to use thus approach more in schools to re-engage kids with learning and turn ‘schooling’ into real meaningful education.

    Well done you…and the thousands like you 🙂

    Reply
  2. Kelvin Avatar
    Kelvin

    One of the things that interested me was how much of a learning experience it was assessing the work of others. I’d thought it would be a bind but in fact it was incredibly interesting seeing what other people had made of it.

    There was an option to assess extra students than the three one needed for credit. An interesting concept – that marking is fun, interesting, educational and not for teacher.

    Reply
  3. PamB Avatar
    PamB

    As a graduate of the Open University I have to say that a lot of this sounds very familiar in essence, if on a much greater scale. However, I would nitpick (it’s my job) that moocs are PART of the future. Not such a snappy title, though.

    Reply

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