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 Authors
Colin Harrison, Ph.D.
Bernadette Dwyer, Ph.D.
Jill Castek, Ph.D.

Foreword
Donald J. Leu, Ph.D.
Elizabeth Calhoon, M.S.
 Publishing Credits
Robin Erickson, Production Director; Lee Aucoin, Creative Director;
Timothy J. Bradley, Illustration Manager; Sara Johnson, M.S.Ed., Editorial Director;
Maribel Rendón, M.A.Ed., Editor; Sara Sciuto, Assistant Editor;
Grace Alba Le, Designer; Corinne Burton, M.A.Ed., Publisher

Standards
© Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and
Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.

Shell Education
5301 Oceanus Drive
Huntington Beach, CA 92649-1030
http://www.shelleducation.com
ISBN 978-1-4258-1314-7
© 2014 Shell Educational Publishing, Inc.

The classroom teacher may reproduce copies of materials in this book for classroom use only. The
reproduction of any part for an entire school or school system is strictly prohibited. No part of this
publication may be transmitted, stored, or recorded in any form without written permission from
the publisher.

2
Table of Contents
Forewords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 1: Using Technology to Make the Teaching of Literacy

More Exciting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Chapter 2: Strategies for Capitalizing on What Students

Already Know. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Chapter 3: Strategies for Using Digital Tools to Support

Literacy Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Chapter 4: Strategies for Using eReaders and Digital Books

to Expand the Reading Experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Chapter 5: Strategies for Teaching the Information-Seeking Cycle:

The Process of Searching for Information on the Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Chapter 6: Strategies for Teaching the Information-Seeking Cycle:

The Product Stage of Searching for Information on the Internet . . . . . . 117

Chapter 7: Strategies for Encouraging Peer Collaboration

and Cooperative Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Chapter 8: Strategies for Building Communities of Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Chapter 9: Strategies for Building Teachers’ Capacity to Make

the Most of New Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

3
4
 We have entered a highly globalized world of reading and learning, and Using
Technology to Improve Reading and Learning leads the way. This is the first book
devoted to classroom instruction, in both traditional and cutting-edge literacies,
that has been written in collaboration by leading scholars from three different
nations—Dr. Colin Harrison from England, Dr. Bernadette Dwyer from Ireland,
and Dr. Jill Castek from the United States. Most importantly, each of these
authors is also a profoundly talented teacher with many years of experience.
They speak with a knowledgeable teacher’s voice from the classroom.

The Internet and other technologies are a profoundly shifting force, regularly
altering many elements of society. These technologies are also transforming the
nature of reading and learning as we shift from page to screen, where new tools
continuously appear, calling for new skills and strategies in reading, writing,
and communication. Moreover, the new literacies now required to read in our
world are not just new today, but as the latest tools for reading, learning, and
communicating are introduced, they each necessitate the acquisition of new skills,
strategies, dispositions, and social practices. How we adapt in this changing
world of reading and learning will define how well our students are prepared for
their future.

Collaborations like the one in this book enable us to succeed in our classrooms
during challenging times. Colin, Bernadette, and Jill have provided us with a
highly readable and, most importantly, teachable volume to guide us into this
modern world of classroom literacy and learning. We are able to obtain the very
best instructional ideas from changing classroom contexts in three different
nations, not just one. In addition, these ideas are connected to an important
learning framework, the Common Core State Standards that are currently
emerging in the U.S.

You and your students will be transformed and energized by the ideas in this
book; I was. The authors have shown us a path that will enable our students to
become the highly literate and knowledgeable citizens the world now demands.

Donald J. Leu, Ph.D.

The John and Maria Neag Endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology
University of Connecticut

5
 It is without a doubt that teachers are no longer the holders of all information;
rather, we are the master curators, facilitators of learning, and champions of
curiosity. This shift in the role of the teacher is recent, fast-paced, and incredibly
scary. But like all change, it is also constant, inspiring, and the greatest challenge
our educational system has ever faced.

There are few books that actually provide practical, pragmatic advice and
support for educators who are looking for guidance on how to shift their own
learning (and teaching) to become lead learners, and the teachers we all know we
can be. The real effectiveness of Using Technology to Improve Reading and Learning
lies in its clarity and brief dives into the essence of effective learning technologies’
instructional practices. For example, cell phones have been controversial in an
educational setting, but they are hugely popular with many teachers. For those
of you who haven’t made up your minds about them yet, this book provides a
succinct, clear argument for their use in the classroom, backed up with common-
sense rationale.

In my work as an instructional technology lead learner/facilitator/

support‑system/shoulder-to-cry-on/cheerleader, I’ve had the opportunity to work
with educators worldwide who have opinions of their own technical expertise
that are as wide as the Amazon River. Many people assess their tech-pertise
based on others’ perception. When we are just beginning to explore how to really
leverage technology, we are limited by our geography, by our past experiences
with technology, and by our colleagues’ perception of us. The challenge then
becomes to find a way to get a real, accurate assessment of your skills so that,
and here’s the important part, you know where you need to grow. If you don’t know
where to grow, you are guaranteed to never get there. I prefer to look at my
own growth through my interest level and my skill level. When it comes to
technology, I’d encourage you to start assessing each chapter in this book with
that lens and open up to the possibility that both interest and skill are things you
can change, and increase, with enough perseverance. I’d also highly encourage
you to use the “Questions for Reflections” to reflect on the ideas in this book, as
it helped me re-center my thinking and instructional practices.

No matter where you think your interest and skill levels are, have fun with
this book. It’s a fantastic resource to come back to over and over again. Read
some of the books in the References Cited—some are central to the thinking of
the greatest educators’ minds today. Most of all, learn…learn a lot. Because it is
all going to be okay, and this is a fun book!

Elizabeth Calhoon, M.S.

Google™ Certified Teacher
Past ISTE Innovative Technologies Professional Development Chair

6
 The authors wish to thank the many colleagues, students, teachers and
principals with whom we have worked in the USA, Ireland, and the UK in order
to develop and evaluate the resources in this book. Without their cooperation,
creativity, and cheerful assistance, we would have had no worthwhile story to tell.

To our friends at Shell Education, our thanks for your inspiring creativity,
your enthusiasm for our work, and your encouragement to get the job done.

Finally, to our families and loved ones, thank you for your support; we couldn’t
have done this without you.

7
8
 1
Using Technology to Make
the Teaching of Literacy
More Exciting
In this chapter, you will learn:

• how this book can help you become a more confident and a more
effective teacher;
• why the authors are confident that this book will be helpful for
you; and
• three ways in which you might use this book.

After reading this chapter, you will understand:

• that the authors of this book do not believe technology will solve
every problem; and
• that developing students’ critical Internet literacy is one of a
teacher’s most important jobs.

Why You Need This Book

The aim of this book is to help teachers improve their students’ reading,
writing, and communication skills, and particularly to help teachers become
more confident in using technology to make the teaching of literacy more
exciting, more engaging, and more effective.

9
 Do you want to develop the following in your students?

• literacy • engagement
• vocabulary • autonomy
• comprehension • planning skills
• fluency • teamwork skills
• critical thinking • Internet criticality
• skills in synthesizing • collaborative learning
• creativity

Do you feel you need to know more about how technology can help you to
achieve these goals? If the answers to both these questions are “yes,” then this
book is for you.

Computers have been in classrooms since the 1980s, but in many schools,
the usage of technology to enhance learning and empower learners has
hardly changed since those early days. Yet in other schools—in economically
disadvantaged districts as well as rich districts—teachers and students are
using computers and other devices in every lesson, and students’ learning and
their achievement have been transformed. How can it be that while there is
broad agreement about how to teach reading, there are massive differences
between how teachers in different schools use technology? National and state
policies drive the reading curriculum, and therefore the teaching of literacy
is delivered using materials and approaches that are broadly similar. This,
however, does not apply to teachers’ use of technology.

We know from research that different teachers have completely different

professional experiences when it comes to professional development and
support in using new technologies. We also know from research, from over 30
years ago, that it’s no good to simply present teachers with computers, tablets,
electronic whiteboards, or video cameras. If teachers are not given support
and professional development, they will not use them.

The picture is changing rapidly and in two very significant ways. First, many
teachers who say “I’m not really a technology person” are in fact increasingly
competent with technology: they own and use a computer every day, they
use other devices such as a phone and digital camera, and they already use

10
technology in their teaching, at least some of the time. Second, teachers’ access
to support has changed radically. Research into teachers’ use of computers in
the 1990s showed that those who had access to informal networks of support
(for example, a close colleague who could show them what to do, or a teaching
partner or neighbor who was knowledgeable) learned more and became more
confident than those who only received professional development from experts
in a more formal school setting (Harrison et al. 1998). However, teachers today
have access to many more sources of ideas, guidance, and informal learning. To
begin with, their students—collectively, at least—often know more than their
teachers about how to use the Internet, how to share files, and how to make
and edit multimedia. The other key resource for informal and just-in-time
learning is the Internet itself. The 25 billion pages of the Internet contain tens
of thousands of lesson ideas and thousands of videos for teachers. At the time
of this writing, a Google™ search for the verbatim phrase videos for teachers
offered nearly a million links, some of which were to sites that offered over
3,000 videos.

This book will help you learn more about what resources are available out
there to support your teaching. However, resources alone are not enough.
Teaching is a social as well as a cognitive activity, and, as a teacher, you need
to know how to organize your students and their learning in order to make
the best use of technology. Every teaching idea in this book has been used,
and used successfully, in day-to-day school contexts and mostly in schools
in economically challenged areas. The authors are classroom teachers who
became college professors, but each of them has continued to spend part of
their year in classrooms, teaching and evaluating new software and hardware,
and road-testing new ideas. They know how to engage those students who
are the most challenging to teach: the weaker readers, those who lack the
confidence or social skills to work collaboratively, those whose language skills
are only emerging, and those whose learning needs a good deal of scaffolding.

Nearly every teacher these days can use PowerPoint® in his or her instruction,
and that’s a good thing. A digital presentation requires planning, organization,
and the ability to connect hardware and software to a data projector. A good
presentation can hold the attention of a class (at least for a while!) and may
be the focus for a brilliant expository lesson. But some teachers have used
the phrase Death by PowerPoint to describe lessons in which the slide show
presentation is used in no more creative a manner than a chalkboard was a
hundred years ago—to present a sequence of textbook pages for copying as

11
the teacher simply reads the text aloud. This can leave the students bored and
disconnected from any engagement with the material. It is this approach that
Tom Fishburne tried to capture in the cartoon found in Figure 1.1. We know
we can do better!

Figure 1.1 We Know We Can Do Better!

Printed with Permission from Marketoonist LLC

Finally, but very importantly, this book is necessary because the skills
that students need to acquire are new, and teachers need to learn what these
new skills are and how to develop them in their students. Twenty years ago,
every school textbook went through a dozen stages of editing and adoption
before it came into the classroom, and textbooks would be replaced in a
regular cycle by newer, more authoritative editions. Today, schools in the
United States and Europe are buying fewer textbooks, and, at the same
time, students are relying more on Internet sources. This creates a serious
problem because, while textbooks have the authority of established authors
and publishers behind them, anyone can publish on the Internet. In this brave
new postmodern world, students, and especially younger learners, can be at

12
serious risk. They don’t know how easy it is for any group to set up a site that
willfully mimics a legitimate site, and then subverts it. They don’t know how
to evaluate and adjudicate between Web sources, and they don’t know how to
summarize or transform the information they locate in order to make good use
of it. The authors of this book have been dealing with this challenge head‑on
in classrooms on both sides of the Atlantic, and if you adopt the teaching
approaches that are shared in the pages that follow, you will not only find
some great lesson ideas, you will take a major step forward in developing
critical Internet literacy in your classroom.

Why the Authors Are Able to Help You

There are three reasons why you should feel confident this book will help
you to become an even better teacher.

1. We are all teachers. We are teachers who love creating those joyful
moments in classrooms when the students not only learn, but become
so engrossed in their learning that they sigh with disappointment when
it’s time for the lesson to end and beg you to let them carry on working,
even though it’s lunch time or time to go home.

2. We are all experienced in the professional development of

teachers. We know that it’s not helpful to just show a video of a
brilliant teacher giving a virtuoso performance in the classroom and
invite you to copy him or her because this can simply make a less
experienced teacher feel that there is an unbridgeable gulf between
him or her and a more expert colleague. What we know as experienced
professional developers is that the best way to help teachers is to instill
confidence about what they already know, and then to help them move
forward in small steps, supported not only by lesson plans and good
ideas, but by encouraging voices from real classrooms that make them
feel they’re not making the journey alone.

3. We are researchers who have been working in the United States,

in Ireland, and in the United Kingdom in a wide range of schools,
with some of the most talented, knowledgeable, and inspirational
experts in new technology on the planet. This has connected us to
some wonderful teachers and some inspirational teaching.

13
 Colin Harrison began as a high school English teacher, and he has
been teaching using computers in elementary and high school classrooms
since 1980. Figure 1.2 shows him with a class of 12-year-olds in 1984. The
students had been writing adventure stories based on Pac-Man™, a very
simple computer game in which ghosts chase an animated chomping mouth
around a maze. From this educationally questionable start, he went on to
lead over 40 research projects evaluating the use of computers in schools. He
has been involved in a number of transatlantic studies of computer use and
pan‑European studies of technology in schools. He is a former president of the
UK Reading Association, he chaired the Technology and Literacy Committee
of the International Reading Association from 2001–2004, and he has directed
six national evaluations of technology and teacher development for the UK
government. But his work has not only been at policy level. Between 1980
and 2010, there were only five years in which he did not teach at least once a
week in a local school, wherever possible bringing together technology and
literacy development.

Figure 1.2 Colin Harrison Working with the BBC Model B Computer, Helping
Students Publish their Pac-Man Adventure Stories in 1984

Printed with permission from Fairham Community School

14
 Bernadette Dwyer began as a primary school teacher, where she taught
at all grade levels before becoming especially interested in meeting the needs
of those students who need extra support for learning. She currently works
in teacher education in Dublin, where she has taken a special interest in
reading development and online reading comprehension, two themes to which
she gave particular prominence during her recent time as president of the
Reading Association of Ireland. Her doctoral study focused on the use of the
Internet in an inquiry-based elementary school classroom in one of the most
economically disadvantaged areas of Dublin, and what she learned from the
two years in which she worked in that school has contributed a great deal to
the chapters in this book. Bernadette is a member of the Board of Directors of
the International Reading Association (2013–2016).

Jill Castek began her career as a teacher in high school special education
classes for students who struggled with basic literacy. After earning a K–12
reading specialist credential and a masters degree, she specialized in supporting
the literacy development of students at the elementary level, many of whom
were English language learners. Jill’s interest in computers for learning
led her to join one of the most respected literacy and technology research
groups in the world—the New Literacies Research Team at the University
of Connecticut—where she completed her doctoral study on the development
of students’ comprehension during online learning. She then worked on the
influential Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading project, a cross-curricular
initiative that brings together the teaching of science, literacy, and technology
in order to give students skills that are not only valuable in elementary and
middle grades but are also going to be valuable to them in high school, college,
and beyond.

Schools change slowly, but the world doesn’t wait for schools to change. The
world is becoming more interconnected every day. These thoughts are scary,
but we need to remember that we are teaching people who are going to be
alive 75 years from now, and that the pace of change will never be slower than
it is now. The world will change in ways we can only begin to imagine, but
two things we can be reasonably sure of—it will be interconnected in richer
and even more complex ways, and it will still need education systems that use
technology to promote not only communication but also equity, freedom of
thought, and responsible knowledge. Our aim as authors is not just to help you
become an even better teacher but also to help you become a teacher who is
inspired rather than threatened by new technologies and who is determined to

15
help students become successful users of technologies not yet invented in an
ever more interconnected world.

How This Book Is Organized

Our goal as authors is not to persuade you to use technology. We are not
evangelists for hardware, for software, or for the Internet. In fact, each of
us believes strongly that the most important person in the classroom is the
teacher, not the computer, and that there are many occasions when it may well
be downright wrong to use the computer. We believe in the joy of holding a
book, in sharing a book, and in reading a poem aloud as well as in the delight
of helping a printed book capture the hearts and minds of students.

But there are times, and perhaps an increasing number of times, when it is
appropriate to use a computer, and our goals are therefore twofold:

• To help you set up learning opportunities in ways that make

technology your ally rather than your rival, and
• To help you to be a more confident and knowledgeable user of
technology, as a result of which your students will become confident
and more highly motivated readers, more skilled navigators, and more
critical users of information.

In order to help you, we have written this book with an emphasis on one
central set of resources: strategies for the classroom. We make the assumption
that you already have a rich repertoire of professional skills, and that you also
understand that you need to augment that repertoire because many aspects of
reading are changed by new technologies.

The strategies have been divided into categories by chapter:

• Strategies for Capitalizing on What Students Already Know (Chapter 2)

• Strategies for Using Digital Tools to Support Literacy
Development (Chapter 3)
• Strategies for Using eReaders and Digital Books to Expand the
Reading Experience (Chapter 4)

16
 • Strategies for Teaching the Information-Seeking Cycle: The Process of
Searching for Information on the Internet (Chapter 5)
• Strategies for Teaching the Information-Seeking Cycle: The Product
Stage of Searching for Information on the Internet (Chapter 6)
• Strategies for Encouraging Peer Collaboration and Cooperative
Learning (Chapter 7)
• Strategies for Building Communities of Writers (Chapter 8)
• Strategies for Building Teachers’ Capacity to Make the Most of New
Technologies (Chapter 9)

Most teachers believe that a student can only learn if the new material is
at their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)—the zone where their prior
knowledge can provide secure scaffolding for new learning (Vygotsky 1978).
And, of course, the same applies to teachers. As authors, our hope is that you feel
that while this list of strategies seems challenging and valuable, you also feel that
you have some useful scaffolding upon which to build this additional knowledge.

We have good news for any reader who feels that his or her background
knowledge is woefully thin: you are not alone. Many, many teachers with
whom we have worked on professional development have confessed to feeling
a little inadequate around new technology. It is precisely for this reason that
we begin in Chapter 2 with strategies that build upon not what you know, but
what your students already know.

As many teachers have already discovered, students know a great deal

about new technologies. Unlike some grown-ups, they generally do not try
to make those who know less than they do feel inadequate. Students are often
enthusiastic and generous-spirited teachers who are delighted to find that they
have skills or knowledge that they can share. Chapter 2 introduces you to a
variety of ways in which this knowledge can be shared in beneficial ways.

In the chapters that follow, the authors present dozens of strategies that
link to skills that most teachers already possess as well as to the Common
Core State Standards, which lay out clearly what students are expected to
learn in U.S. classrooms. We encourage you to enhance your expertise and
to try new approaches, but we will never ask you to abandon your own
professional proficiency and knowledge. The strategies that we offer have all
been extensively tested in a range of classrooms, in different countries, and

17
with a variety of school populations, and they draw upon a deep research base.
We try never to leave you feeling alone and isolated; instead, we try to share
the voices of students and teachers to help sustain and support you, and we
offer many links to the good practice of others, extending your professional
contacts using a range of different networking opportunities.

Many of the strategies and the key arguments of the book are presented
in the chapter text, but we have also tried to present some of our ideas in a
variety of other ways to make them easier to locate and use. We’ve made use
of different types of call-outs, each of which serves a different function. Each
call-out is presented in its own distinctive format. We hope that you will find
these really useful. Figure 1.3 explains the nature of each call-out.

Figure 1.3 Our Call-Outs and What Each Is Trying to Achieve

Call-Out What This Call-Out Does

Voices from the Classroom We believe that the authentic voices of students
and teachers have a special place in making our
book compelling and valuable for other teachers.
Classroom Connection Lesson plans and ideas can be incredibly helpful,
even more so when they capture the moment of
teaching and learning.
Pause for Thought Time for reflection is so precious, especially when
a teacher is trying out new ideas and approaches.
Common Core to the Fore All good teaching is anchored to goals that are
part of a larger plan, and here, we can connect our
reading and technology objectives with broader
curriculum goals.

Connections to Common Core Standards:

The Knowledge and Skills That Your
Students Will Gain
The Common Core State Standards represent an attempt to bring some
coherence and cohesion to U.S. educational efforts by both capturing the
essence of the curriculum goals of individual states and aligning them with
future college and workplace expectations. In this respect, the Standards have

18
much in common with national curriculum goals in other English-speaking
nations, most of which have adopted a similar approach and have tried to bring
rigor and coherence to the curriculum while at the same time ensuring that
there is an emphasis on higher-order thinking and the new skills needed in
our developing societies.

The U.S. standards have been developed following an international

benchmarking exercise, and our hope, therefore, is that by offering points of
correlation to Common Core Standards, we shall be assisting not only U.S.
teachers but also those from other countries to link their teaching to these
important goals.

How to Use This Book

The chapters in this book form a logical sequence, but each is freestanding
and may be used on its own as a support for your personal learning or for
group professional development. We want to encourage you to try out many
of the strategies that we propose, but where should you begin?

We suggest three possible starting points:

• Starting point one is Chapter 2. Perhaps the easiest place to begin

is by finding out what your students already know. The Classroom
Connection in Chapter 2 addresses the question How can you make the
best use of technology that your students possess, and the skills they have in
using it? Collecting this information could be an invaluable starting
point for your students to begin sharing expertise with one another,
but they will also be sharing it with you!
• Starting point two would be for you to choose a chapter title
that you feel resonates with some knowledge or a particular
interest that you already have. If you are already confident in
developing comprehension, for example, you could begin with Chapter
6, Strategies For Teaching the Information-Seeking Cycle: The Process of
Searching for Information on the Internet. If you already enjoy setting
up peer collaboration and cooperative learning, you could begin with
Chapter 7, Strategies for Encouraging Peer Collaboration and Cooperative
Learning. Whichever chapter you choose, we are confident that the
lesson ideas in these chapters are approachable, but that they will also
take you into new areas of professional expertise.

19
 • Starting point three would be to begin with Chapter 9, Strategies
for Building Teachers’ Capacity to Make the Most of New Technologies.
One reason for doing this would be that the chapter offers advice on
how to set up networks and new online professional communities. The
chapter contains many examples of how to establish and sustain such
communities. If you began here, you would be planning on sharing
plans, ideas, and resources with other colleagues from the outset. If
you follow the plans, you will be on your way to success.

As authors who are themselves continually seeking to expand our knowledge

of how to make the best use of new technologies, we know that there will be
unanticipated changes in hardware and software during the coming years.
But the ideas that we share in this book will not rapidly go out of date. The
new skills that your students need to develop and hone are not ones that
will change, even if educational policy changes. The skills needed to develop
reading and literacy will not change; the skills needed to be able to navigate,
critique, and transform the billions of pages of information available through
the Internet will not change; the need to develop literacy skills for life in the
world after school will not change.

Our responsibilities as teachers are daunting. Some politicians may believe

that the responsibilities of a teacher are to develop literacy and instill knowledge.
How little such people understand about the real reasons why teachers work
night and day. Teachers work ceaselessly because they are engaged in the most
important “manufacturing job” of all—making knowledgeable people. As
teachers work with parents on that daunting task, they know with certainty
that literacy and knowledge alone are not enough and that five hours a day
are not enough. Our students, the citizens and parents of tomorrow, will
learn as much from the Internet as from their teachers; they will be creators
of knowledge as well as consumers of knowledge, and their ability to use
technology not only to communicate but to set up collaborative and equitable
networks will be an essential life skill. As teachers we need to do all we can
to help students develop the skills of literacy, understanding, criticality, and
social responsibility that will enable them to use technology not simply to
make their lives more interesting but also to make the world a better place. As
authors who are also teachers, we sincerely hope that this book will make a
contribution to supporting your professional development as you take on this
vital work.

20
Questions for Reflection

1. Does the expression Death by PowerPoint sound familiar?

Has your own use of PowerPoint® changed over the last
couple of years? If so, in what ways has it changed?

2. How do you feel about students bringing their own devices

into class? Some teachers are happy to encourage this. Are
they naïve, or are they ahead of their time?

3. How do you perceive your own responsibilities in relation to

teaching critical Internet literacy?

4. The authors all believe working with a colleague can make

learning both more fun and more productive as you learn
together from each other. Can you identify a colleague or
a small group of colleagues with whom you might work in
trying out some of the ideas in this book?

21
22
 2
Strategies for Capitalizing on
What Students Already Know
In this chapter, you will learn:

• some of the ways in which the lives of students are being changed by
new technologies;
• why we should not feel threatened by the fact that our students may
know more than we do about how to use digital tools;
• that for many students, participating in online activities is teaching
them valuable skills and making them smarter; and
• that the mobile phone may be a more powerful learning tool
worldwide than a computer.

After reading this chapter, you will:

• understand two key principles of working with students who

are ahead of you in using technology, that students can become
co‑workers, and that in using new technologies, you do not have to
abandon traditional teaching approaches;
• know how to map and make use of your students’ knowledge of
new technologies;
• know how to set up a wiki that will engage and motivate
students; and
• have encountered 14 ways of bringing Web 2.0 teaching into
your classroom.

23
 Voices from the Classroom

They’ll Learn from Me, I’ll Learn from Them

Geoff, a high school art teacher with 30 years of experience,
comments on how his students have helped to make him a confident
user of technology: “How has technology changed my teaching?” he
asks. “Drastically. We teach one another now...the software normally
has five or six different ways to bring about a solution. They’ll find
them all. They’ll teach me new ways. I’ll teach them the way that I
know, and they’ll come up with different solutions all the time. So it’s
absolutely fascinating. They’ll learn from me, I’ll learn from them.”

The Bad News: Students Know More than

We Do
To many teachers, the pace of technological change is frightening. It isn’t
slowing down. Computing performance (as measured by Moore’s Law—see
the graph in Figure 2.1) has roughly doubled every year since 1970, and the
trend is set to continue for a few years. As nanotransistors begin to approach
the size of atoms, this trend will slow down, but developments in memory,
screen, and camera technologies have already brought us to a world we could
hardly have imagined 50 years ago. The mobile phones that so many of
our students bring to class (in most schools, they still tend to be hidden in
bags and turned off some of the time) not only have access to the 25 billion
pages of the Internet, but they can also process email, record video in high-
definition, function as a GPS, hold dozens of books, and permit international
videoconferencing. New applications offer online TV and newspaper content
from all over the world and even instant language translation of text viewed
through the video camera.

24
 For teachers, this presents a real problem. In the past, dedicated educators
have traditionally been two or three steps ahead of their students, and this
has enabled them to go into class confident that they have new knowledge to
impart. However, this model of education is changing. Schools are structurally
conservative institutions and tend to be slow to react to external forces, but
new technologies don’t wait—their impact on our world is driven by powerful
market dynamics, and these don’t ask for the school board’s permission to
change the nature of education. Today, access to knowledge is not determined
by who has a college degree but by who has the better technology. Often, it’s
students rather than the teacher who have the better technology.

Figure 2.1 Moore’s Law: The Number of Transistors on a Computer Chip Has
Roughly Doubled Every Two Years Since 1970

Moore’s Law
Dual-Core Intel 2 Processor
10,000,000,000

Pentium 4
1,000,000,000
NUMBER OF TRANSISTORS ON A CHIP

100,000,000

10,000,000 286

1,000,000

100,000 4004

10,000

1,000
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
YEAR

25
The Good News: What Your Students
Know Is Valuable, and What We Know Is
Different from What They Know
But there is good news, which we can express as two principles:

• First Principle: In the new world of technology in education, our

students can become our co-workers, allies, and assistants rather than
our competitors or adversaries.
• Second Principle: If our teaching approaches are the right ones, they
work just as well, or even better, in a world that makes effective use of
new technology.

Let’s look, for example, at Geoff. We met him while working on a research
project whose purpose was to report on how teachers in high-technology
schools were using computers. Geoff told us that his whole approach to
education had changed during the past five years, and what he had to say about
this change illustrates both our principles. As his words demonstrate (see the
Voices from the Classroom at the beginning of this chapter), technology has
changed his teaching “drastically.” His students have become his co-workers,
and he’s no longer intimidated by the fact that collectively they know more
about the technology than he does. He has also completely changed how he
teaches, and has opened up his teaching resources and even his lesson plans
to his students. More of Geoff ’s story is shared below.

One lovely little instance was a [sixth-grade] girl who saw me

on Wednesday and said “I hope you don’t mind, I’ve been looking
at your resources. I’ve done the next three pieces of homework that
you’ve assigned, and I’ve also worked two or three pages ahead. Is
that all right?”

Five years ago, Geoff would never have dreamt of sharing his plans for a
whole semester with his students, but now they can all see his planning online,
and he’s happy with the freedom this gives his students:

That is why it’s there. That’s fantastic. She printed the work off at
home and brought it in in a file, which was just lovely.

26
 Throughout this book, we shall attempt to demonstrate both of these
principles—working with our students and adapting our teaching to use
technology more effectively—in a very practical series of ways, with lesson
plans, case studies, and examples that make use of the latest research from all
over the world.

In the Classroom Connection that follows, we suggest one way in which you
might make a start on this journey simply by finding out what your students
know, and what skills they possess that might be valuable to you and to one
another. It’s probably not a good idea to ask directly what technology students
have at home—this might be divisive or intrusive. However, if you try to find
out what skills they have, you will inevitably find out a good deal about the
technologies to which they have access, and this could be an important step in
your making better use of their knowledge.

The Classroom Connection suggests how you might conduct an informal

audit of your students’ knowledge and skills with technology. You can decide
the best way to encourage your students to complete an I can... list, depending
on your local circumstances and the age of the group. It’s a good idea to get
started by including some answers that everyone will be able to write down,
whether it’s make a call on a mobile phone or save my work on the computer.

27
 Classroom Connection

Conducting an Audit of Your Students’ Skills

How best can you make use of the technology that your students
possess and the skills they have in using it?

You might ask students to write an I can… list of the skills

they already have and then add more possible skills suggested
by members of the class. This might be turned into a
whole‑class graph:

I can… make a phone call

I can… use a camera on a phone
I can… play a game on a phone
I can… do a search on Google™
I can… view a video on YouTube™

We can…

A chart of the skills

possessed by the group
as a whole could be an
invaluable starting point
for the students to begin
sharing expertise with one
another, as well as with
their teacher!

28
 To ensure that you gain some information about your students’ newly
acquired skills (which may include some that you don’t possess as of yet), ask
them to think of five skills that they possess that they didn’t have a year ago.
It is also useful to get students to share their ideas, both to remind others of
skills they might have forgotten that they have, but also to alert you to how
much collective knowledge there is in the group.

Common Core to the Fore

Preparing Students to Meet the Common Core

Arguably, the most influential reform in the last five years has been
the movement toward a set of Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
The CCSS map out national benchmarks that outline the expected
knowledge and skills students need to acquire to be college- and
career-ready at the end of their K–12 education. The CCSS target the
application of knowledge through higher-order cognitive skills such as
analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. This movement toward a national
set of standards has transformed curriculum development efforts
and assessment approaches, so they are aligned in a more targeted
way toward these benchmarks. Knowing what students know and
can do, and building on the collective knowledge they possess,
goes a long way in helping you proactively plan to address these
standards. Instructional approaches that emphasize literacy across
the curriculum and use of digital technologies for reading, writing,
and communication are important places to start. Integrating process
skills such as collaboration, listening, and speaking are also central to
meeting the CCSS.

29
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
The manifestations of the divine goodness were never in deed
absolutely confined to any single branch of the human family; nor,
even when they assumed most of a partial and restrictive aspect,
were members of other tribes excluded from partaking in them — if
only they showed themselves ready to fall in with the terms, on
which the way was laid open to the favour and fellow ship of
Heaven. But the imperfections that inevitably attached, in the earlier
stages of the world's history, first to the organization of human
society, and then to the means and agencies connected with the
divine plan, led by a kind of necessity to the employment of par
ticular races, through which, as the more select channels of working,
the truth of God should be more especially disclosed, and the
testimony for it more faithfully maintained. It is the genealogy of
mankind in its bearing on this higher interest — reaching from Adam
through the line of Seth to Noah, then from Noah through the line of
Shem to Abraham, then again from Abraham through the lines of
Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and David to Christ — over which the
providence of God lias most carefully watched, and which it has
most fully exhibited in the historical records of Scripture. In other
branches of the human family, and especially those more nearly
related to the one in question, not a few genealogical tables are also
given ; but they have no more than a subsidiary place; and the chief
interest and importance of the genealogical matter of Scripture
hangs around the great central chain which connects Adam with
Christ, and indeed with that more select portion of it which stretches
from the call of Abraham to the birth of the Son of Mary. Nothing of
spiritual moment now depends upon any question, of genealogy,
except what lies along the track of this definite line. It was different,
however, under the old covenant. From the period of its
establishment, the people of God were obliged, not as a matter of
family pride, or for the sake of a merely antiquarian interest, but for
the deter mination of important questions of civil and religious polity,
to keep with the utmost care and regularity their genealogical tables.
It was these chiefly that preserved the land-marks between tribe
and tribe, family and family, and regulated the succession to
inheritances of laud, so as usually to render unnecessary the specific
de stination of property or the framing of wills. It was on these, as
connected with the family of Aaron, that the right of any individual
or family turned to enter into the sacred and honourable functions of
the priesthood; and when, as happened on the return from Babylon,
any
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GENEALOGIES 639 GENEALOGIES persons claiming' this

distinction were found unable to produce the proper register
establishing their descent from Aaron, they were "removed, as
polluted, from the priesthood, " Ezr. ii. G-2. The settlement of the
king dom in the house of David, imposed of course a similar
necessity for scrupulous exactness upon the members of that house,
in order to secure their title to any participation in its honours. So
that a manifold and wide-extending interest attached to the keeping
of correct genealogical registers among the tribes of Israel from the
conquest of C'aiiaau to the coming of Christ. And that a
corresponding degree of attention and cure was applied to the
matter is certain, not only from the place given to genealogies in
Scripture, and the high, even undue account that is said there to
have been ultimately made of them, 1 Ti. i. 4; but also from the
testimony of Josvphus as to the state of things regarding them in his
day. lie expressly affirms, that he ascertained his own pedigree from
the public re gisters (Life, l); and further states in regard to the
priesthood, that most exact tables of their descent and family
connections had been kept from the time of their original
appointment, and that not in .Judeaonlv, but in all the places of their
sojourn, the members of the priesthood were at the utmost pains to
have their family registers kept, so as to be above all suspicion
(Contr. Ap. i. 7.) Josephus mentions these things respect ing the
families of the priesthood, because his o\vn priestly origin, and his
immediate purpose in writing, led him to refer more especially to
them ; but such ex actness and careful preservation in respect to the
priestly families, necessarily implied a great degree of the same in
respect to the families of the other tribes. As the keeping of correct
genealogical tables had a national interest, so it may be said to have
formed a national peculiarity. A report indeed is mentioned, in a
fragment of Africanus, preserved by Eusebins (Hist. Keel. i. 7), that
the public registers had been destroyed by Herod, who was
conscious of the infelicity of his Idumeaii origin, and sought thereby
to prevent the possibility of its detection. But Africanus himself
seems to have been doubtful of the truth of this report; for after
noticing it, he adds the qualifying clause, "whether the matter
actually stood thus or not" (tir ore oiVws, dr d\\ws t'Xfi); and
Valesius, the learned editor of Eusebius, in his notes on the passage,
justly rejects the story as altogether at variance with the known
facts of history. There can be no reasonable doubt, that down to the
taking of Jerusalem by the Komans, the genealogical registers of the
Jews were kept with singular care, and with sufficient accuracy to
determine all ordinary questions of relationship and descent; but
after that event they cease to be heard of. The fearful cata strophe
which finally destroyed the place and nation of the Jews, also
scattered their genealogies to the winds — fused family and family,
tribe and tribe together ; so that it henceforth became impossible to
tell, if there tccrc an altar, who had a right to minister at it; or if a
throne, who stood in the line of succession to its honours. The hand
of God was as visibly in this as in the general overthrow of the old
typical constitution of things ; and if a judicial blindness were not
upon | the minds of the Jews, they would see in the loss of their
genealogies, and the distinctions therewith con nected, the clear
sign of the abolition of their ancient polity, and the necessity of
looking for a fulfilment of their prophecies of a different kind from
what they have been expecting. The relation of the Genealoyits of
Scripture to questions of Chronology is somewhat variable, and even
where it seems most precise requires to be applied with caution.
That some of the earlier lists have been framed with a reference to
this use — those, for example, of (>e. v., and again of Ge. xi. 10-i>0
— there can be no reasonable doubt; for specifying, as they do, the
exact year of each father's life when the son was born, through
whom the line of descent was to be transmitted, they necessarily
provide the materials of a chronological reckoning. But in the great
mass of genealogical registers this is not done; we have merely a
certain number of generations given, and, on the supposition of
there being no blanks in these, for the sake of brevity or any other
purpose, we can only form an estimate of the entire period by
striking an average for the successive generations. We cannot,
however, be always sure that every link in the chain is given; and a
degree of doubt or uncertainty as to the number, not less than the
length, of the several gene rations, must render chronological
calculations founded on such a basis in many cases problematical.
Thus, the register of Levi, in Ex. vi. lb'-^(>. gives only two links
between Levi and Moses — Levi, Kohath, Ainram, Moses — and it
has been frequently argued on this ground, that the children of
I*rael could not have been in Egypt at the utmost above the half of
the 4oO years mentioned in Ex. xii. 40, as the term of their
sojourning. Such also is the view taken of the matter in this work in
the article CHRONOLOGY. It is con nected, however, as is there
admitted, with serious difficulties; such, indeed, as appear almost
insuper able, when placed alongside other things connected with the
same table. Tiele. in his t'lti-on. ((ex Alt. Te*t. ([i. ;«;), thus states
them: •' According to Nu. iii. '27, the Kohathites were divided in
Moses' time into four fami lies — Amramites, Jehezarites,
Hebronites, and Ussielites, which together composed 8000 men and
boys (women and girls not being reckoned). The fourth part, or
about 'Jljju men and boys, would fall to the Am ramites. Moses
himself had only two sons. If, there fore, Ainram, the son of Kohath,
the father of the Amramites, were identical with Amram the father of
Muses, Moses must have had 21 47 brothers and brothers' sons. But
as this is an impossible supposition, it must be admitted as proved
that Amram the son of Kohath was not the father of Moses, but that
between him and his descendant of the same name a considerable
num ber of generations lias been dropped out." Such, at least, is one
solution of the difficulty, and one in perfect accordance with other
known instances of abbrevia tion, as in the priestly register of Ezra,
cii. vii. l-:,, com pared witli l Ch. vi. 4-1:1, there is only one Azariah
given, where the other has two, and several intervening gene rations
are dropped out. Genealogies of this descrip tion appear to have
been formed, not so much with the view of furnishing definite
measurements of time, as of noting the ramifications of tribal and
family relationships, and certifying them in a manner from one age
to another. For not this, but the former was the matter of chief
moment, as regarded the purpose and arrangements of the old
economy ; and to apply such family registers to the determination of
historical epochs in a chronological respect, especially if in doing so
some violence has to be done to the facts recorded in the history, is
to turn them to a purpose for which
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GENEALOGIES 640 GENEALOGIES they were not

immediately destined, and which they nuty lie incapable of serving.
We know for certain that the table noticed above in Ezra vii. would
be mis applied if so used; we know also that such would be the ease
-with the table in Mat. i., in which, though divided into three
fourteeiis, the second certainly omits three names in order to exhibit
the requisite number, and the third probably omits still more (as may
be in ferred by a comparison with the corresponding- portion of St.
Luke's table— see below). There is no reason known to us why it
may not have been so in other instances. What some have done
\\ith the genealogy of Levi in reference to the sojourn in Egypt, has
been done by others in particular by Lord Arthur Hervey, in his
treatise (admirable in many respects) on the genealogies of our Lord
with that of Nachson, of the tribe of Judah. in the book of If nth.
Nachson was the repre sentative of the tribe, in the line of Pharez,
at the time of the exodus, and betwixt him and David in the table
referred to, Ru. iv. is, L':i, there are just four intervening links —
Salmon (who married Rahab), Boaz, Obcd, Jesse the father of Uavid.
Supposing this to be the entire line of succession, and striking a
probable aver age for each generation, the whole period from the
settlement in Canaan to the commencement of David's reign is
computed at -2'.>t> or :>40 years — scarcely the half of the
common reckoning from the historical data in the book of .Judges.
The chronology of the period is undoubtedly involved in some
obscurity, and it is pos sible that the briefer period in question
maybe as near the actual time as the longer. But the genealogy of
the house of David is a very narrow and uncertain basis on which to
rest it; for here also several names may have been omitted — a
supposition which appears quite probable (notwithstanding what
Lord A. Hervey says to the contrary), by the much greater length of
the genealogies of the house of Levi, which for much about the
same period exhibit nearly double the number — seven between
Phinehas and Zadok, and still more by the line of Gershom, i ch. vi.
It seems, therefore, rash to press a particular genealogy as alone
entitled, in such a case, to be regarded; and still more so, when this
of necessity carries along with it a disparagement of the historical
correctness of some of the narratives in Judges. (Sec JUDGES, also
JABIX.) Besides the tendency to practise abbreviation in the
genealogical lists, the peculiar regard sometimes mani fested in their
construction to specific aims requires to be taken into account, in
order to guard against impro per deductions from them. No more is
the strict?)/ historical, than the chronological element always made
the ruling principle of their formation : for in not a fevv of them
marked respect was had to the mishpaJioth or family -clans under
which the offspring of each tribe ranged themselves, and in others a
regard to specific numbers exercised a determining influence. For
example, in the Levitical genealogy already re- i ferred to in Ex. vi.,
four sons of Kohath are mentioned — Amram, Izhar, Hebron, Uzziel;
then follow the sons i of three of these, while Hebron is dropped out,
as if he ' had died without issue. But in 2 Ch. xxiii., we find ! no
fewyer than four sons ascribed to him; so that it must ] have been
from some specific reason — in all probability because no distinct
family sprung from him as its head— -that Hebron has no offspring
connected with his name in the earlier genealogy. An anomaly of
nearly the reverse kind exists in the case of his brother Izhar; for
while three sons are ascribed to him in Exodus, in the table of
Chronicles there is only one, and he appa rently different from any
of the three. Such things clearly show that it was often not intended
in particu lar genealogies to give a complete list of the descen dants
in that line, nor perhaps farther than was re quired to mark the
formation of distinct families— whence calculations as to increase of
population founded on those tables, and proceeding on the
supposition of their including all the male offspring, are entitled to
no confidence; they are based on insufficient data, and turn the
genealogical registers to an account for which they were' not
framed. And the same doubtless may hold in other directions, as
when they were constructed with a specific regard to the
significance or convenience of certain numbers. A regard of this sort
plays a pro minent part, as will be more particularly noticed below,
in our Lord's genealogy according to Matthew, affect ing it in the
way of what seems to us (viewing the mat ter in a simply historical
aspect) arbitrary omissions and abridgments. It does so yet more
peculiarly in the genealogy of Jacob's family in Gen. xlvi., where for
the purpose of making out the seven times ten — the combined
multiple of the symbols of sacredness and completeness --Jacob is
counted among his own family (reckoned with the sons of Leah);
and two grandsons of Judah (Hezron and Hanml), and all Benjamin's
ten sons, are contemplated as among the original settlers with Jacob
in Egypt, though neither the two former, nor many of the latter,
could be born till some time after the descent thither. The persons
mentioned, with only an exception or two, which probably arose
from subsequent changes, became heads of families (comptable in
Nu. xxvi.); and the settling down for the Egyp tian sojourn only
appeared complete, when these came into existence and made up
the ideal number seventy. They have therefore a place in the
genealogy, which, along with its general historic aim, coupled the
spe cific design of preserving a memorial of the other cir cumstances
referred to. Such a regard to numbers and family distinctions may
appear to us unnatural; it may seem to want exactness, or, as has
been recently alleged, to violate historical verity; but the real
question is, whether it did not exist, having certain ends to serve for
the time then being which might otherwise have been lost? For if so.
then it is as much our duty to consider it, and make reasonable
allowance for it, as to make account of the idioms of language and
forms of ex pression which are peculiar to the original records of
Scripture. It is only through such knowledge and consideration that
we get at the real purport and proper bearing of their contents. If
the principles now briefly indicated respecting the Old Testament
genealogies are rightly apprehended and applied, no difficulty need
be experienced on the general subject, nor will hasty and groundless
deduc tions be raised on them. For the individual peculia rities and
occasional corruptions found in connection with some of them, we
must refer to the particular names in connection with which they
occur, and to the work of Lord Arthur Hervey already mentioned.
GENEALOGY OF JESUS CHRIST. The question of chief moment, as
regards the substance of the genealogies in relation generally to the
interests of truth and righteousness, is the bearing they have upon
the per son of Jesus Christ, whether in realitv he was, after the
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GENEALOGIES 041 GENEALOGIES flesh, of the house and

lineage of David < The word miraculous conception, he is
represented as going to a of prophecy declared he should be this ;
do the genea- ] •' virgin espoused to a man, whose name was
Joseph, logies extant prove that he actually was so? On this of the
house of David," Lu. i. 27. When the same or point we have two
genealogies to appeal to, preserved another angel is sent to Joseph
to instruct him to respectively by the evangelists Matthew and Luke,
consummate his marriage with .Mary, he is saluted and each
produced for the purpose of bearing evidence ''Joseph, thou son of
Dm- id,"1 Mat. i. 20^ and. still aavid. (Delitzsch.iii Ku.li;ll.:u-
li\/dtscl.rift for IV.n, p. 5sl,seq .) Such, apparently was tin- view
taken of the matter by the evangelist Matthew, perhaps by both the
evangelists. But it by no means excludes, it might possibly rather
imply and take for granted, the rela tionship of Mary to the house of
David. The .Jews of : ha
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GENEALOGIES (142 GUNK A LOG IKS descent of Joseph,

somewhat perplexing difficulties attach to the two tallies. For they
differ even in regard t<> one of the nearest links of the chain — the
father of Joseph, who appears as Heli in Luke, and Jacob in
Matthew. And in the whole period between ; Joseph and David they
have but two or three; names , in common. This will be more readily
seen from the j following table, presenting this portion of the two •
I.I KE. . NVri. •I. Rhesa. ;j. Joanna. 0. Ju.la. ~. Semei. S. Mattatliias.
!i. Maath. I". Xa"-v. 11. Ksil. 1-J. Xaum. lii. Amos. 14. iliittuthiai. lii.
.lamia. 17. Mclcln. is. l.,-,\i. r.i. .MaUhat. 20. Heli. 21. Joseph. •2-2.
Jesus. Various schemes have been devised to account for this
serious discrepance, and reconcile it with the truth of things ; but
none was so readily adopted, or met with such general and
continued acceptance, as that of Africanus, which proceeded on the
principle that the table of Matthew indicates a stricter bond of
relation ship than that of Luke — that in announcing what son each
father in succession begot, the former gives the real or natural
descent ; while the latter, in naming successively the son of such an
one as his father, in cluded sons by adoption or relatives of the
second and third degree : that, consequently, in the first evangelist
we have the actual descent of Jesus from 1 >;;vid ; in the third, only
the legal succession. It is strange that this explanation should ever
have appeared satisfac tory, and especially that it should have so
long held its place, since the principle on which it is based is mani
festly not in accordance with the facts of the case. The Jews made
no such distinction in their genealogies as is implied in the
explanation. It was all one whether these took the form of
representing what son a father bcgnt. or who stood in the relation of
father to a son. in both cases alike they were wont to include a more
distant, as well as a nearer degree of affinity. In the table itself of St.
Matthew, we find no fewer than three links in the chain omitted :
Joram is said to have begotten Ozias, or T'z/iah, although in reality
he be gat Ahaziah ; and Ahaziah begat Jehoash, and Jehoash begat
Uzziah. And instances are found in the Old Testament genealogies of
persons being said to have begotten whole races and districts of
people, merely because these sprung from them.
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GENEALOGIES 043 GENERATION subject by Lord Arthur

Hervey (The Genealogy of our Lord). 3. A name exists in the
postdiluvian portion of the genealogy, as presented by Luke, which is
not only wanting in Matthew, but is also wanting in the list of
Genesis, ch. x. The name is that of Cainan, inserted in Luke's table
between Sala and Arphaxad. It is quite uncertain how this second
Cainan \a prior one belonging to the antediluvian period being in all
the tables) should have originated. It is wanting in the Vatican copy
of the Septuagint, but is in the other extant copies, though omitted
by the same copies in the corresponding table of 1 Chronicles i. It is
want ing also in the Samaritan Pentateuch, as well as the Hebrew ;
and seems to have been unknown to Josephus. Nor does it appear
to have been in the copies of the Septuagint used bv Theophilus of
Antioch in the second century, by Africanus in the third, or by
Eusebius in the fourth. Jerome, in his anno tations on the chapter,
takes no notice of it ; but Augustine had it both in his copy of the
Septuagint and his copy of St. Luke. There can be little doubt that
the name has somehow crept in by mistake ; but whether into the
Septuagint first, and from that into the copies of Luke, or vice I'ci'&i,
cannot be certainly determined. The greater probability is, that it
first appeared in the Septuagint. (See CAIXAX, and more fully in
Bochart's Plmltij. 1. ii. c. 13.) 4. A peculiarity in Matthew's table- its
division into three fourteens, is iu perfect accordance with a very
common practice among the Jews respecting genealogies. They
occasionally resorted to artificial arrangements for the purpose of
aiding the memorv. Lightfoot gives various instances in his //(ff€ws,
book of generations, Gc. v. i; xxxvii. -j; -Mat i. 1,17, ic., i.e. lists of
successive lines of descent from father to son. c2.) Then it is used as
a mark of time -the successive lines of offspring being taken to repre
sent so many .stages in the world's history. Differing as the intervals
do in this respect from one stage to another, generation could never
be intended to mark a very definite period, and it must be
understood with some latitude. But people in such cases readily
come to strike1 a sort of average in their minds; and as so many
successive generations are observed to fill up the interval between
two or more notable points of history, so they take generation to
signify much about that space of time. Thus Herodotus says, " three
genera tions (T/30S ytftah of men make an hundred years" (ii. 142).
The term is commonly used more indefinitely in Scripture, much in
the sense of time, or successive, divisions of time, as in Ac. xv. '21,
"from ancient generations," y. ,/. from times of old; xiv. in, " in
bygone generations,'" '/. i/. times that have gone past; Lu. i.2o, "to
generations of generations,"
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GENESIS CENESIS exhibited l>y Cod's people in regard t<>

the higher in terests, with which they have more especially to do. It
has been maintained by some, in particular by Stier, that in one
passage -" Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all
these tilings be ful filled," Mat. xxiv. .11, our Lord identified
generation with the Jewish race; and meant in the passage referred
to that the Jews as a people should not lie extinct, they should still
have a separate and outstanding existence, when the prophetic
outline given by our Lord should have readied its complete
fulfilment. Hut this is a very forced explanation; and not a single
example can be produced of an entirely similar use of the word.
Whatever ditiieulties mav hang around the interpn t;i tion of that
part of Christ's discourse, it is impossible to understand by the
generation that was not to pass a\vav anything but the existing race
of men living at the time when the word was spoken. GENESIS, THE
BOOK OF. 1. Name and < 'ont ents. The first book of the Hible is
named in the Hebrew canon r.'w'8-\2> (ff>'i-t, man's violation of
that law ; the consequences of his transgression, with the divine
intimation of a recovery, ch. iii; commencement of the history of
fallen humanity in the propagation of the race, which is seen to
consist m< >rally of two classes, but without prejudice to the divine
promise, ch. iv. This last particular confirmed by the genealogy of
Adam in the line of Setli down to Xoah, ch. v., when the corruption
of mankind reached a degree which called down a judgment on the
guilty, which, while destroying the wicked, saved a godly seed for
repeopling the earth, ch. vi.-i.\.; the descendants of the family thus
saved, and their dispersion over the earth, ch. x. xi. 2. The history of
Abraham (to which ch. xi. 27-32 is the special introduction) and of
the other Hebrew patriarchs to the death of Joseph, including
notices of Abraham and Isaac's descendants in the collateral lines,
ch. .xii.-l., viz.: — (Li History of Abraham; his call and journey to
Canaan accompanied by his kinsman Lot, ch. xii. 1-5 ; his
journeyings in that land and descent into Egypt, ch. xii. i;-2n ; his
return to Canaan and separation from Lot, who removed towards
Sodom, ch.xiii.; invasion of the land; Lot taken captive, but rescued
by Abraham, who pursued and defeated the invaders, ch. xiv.;
renewal and enlargement of the divine promises to Abraham, ch.xv.;
birth of Ishmael by Hagar, ch. xvi. i- further divine communications
with Abraham, ch. xvii. xviii.; destruc tion of Sodom and deliverance
of Lot, with notice of his posterity, ch. xix.; further incidents in
Abraham's history, ch. xx.; birth of Isaac by Sarah, ch. xxi ; trial of
Abraham by the call to sacrifice Isaac, ch. xxii.; Sarah's death.
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GEXESIS 645 G EXES IS the progress) of human affairs

given in the imme diately succeeding portions of Genesis composed
in the spirit of mere secular history. There are indeed inci dental
notices of the kind which constitutes the staple of such
compositions: as the origin of the arts by the Cainites, the founding
of cities and empires by Ximrod, and particularly the wars of the
confederate kings in the time of Abraham: but all these matters are
referred to in a way which plainly shows their entire subordi nation
to the sacred character of the narrative. The whole history of the
Cainites is disposed of in the compass of a few verses, Ge. iv. lu-i't1,,
while the particulars there noticed are adduced only as indicatii >ns
< if the character i if this elder branch of the human family, and of
the si mrces whence they looked for happiness. The wars <>f the
kings, too, are noticed simply on account of the part Abraham
performed in rescuing his kinsman Lot. and of his interview on this
occasion with Meluhizedek. l>ut it is from the relative importance
given to the several subjects introduced, that the special purpose of
the historian more fullv appears. In the narrative of creation, the
religious aim of the writer at once ap pears from the comparatively
large space occupied with the account of man. whereas the most
stupendous creations and arrangements of the merely material uni
verse are despatched in a few words. And not only so. but a
supplementary narrative, of nearly equal extent to the first, is
appropriated t<> a detailed account of man's creation and original
condition. Tin same also appears from the limited space devoted to
the general or preliminary history extending over a period of up
wards of two thousand r_'i>L!:',i years, compared with that occupied
with the biographic sketches of tin; Hebrew patriarchs. The simplest
domestic incidents in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are. in
the view of the historian of Genesis, of greater moment than the rise
and revolutions of empires. lint even when the details are most
copious, it is the moral and spiritual life of the individual concerned
that comes prominently into view. Jn the account, for instance, of
Abraham's sojourn in Egypt, where an opportunity was afforded to
the writer for stating many interesting particulars regarding that
country, only one incident is recorded, because bearing on the
patriarch's character, and though not redounding to his honour, yet
manifesting the protection atlordcd him by Cod. That tin.- histo rian,
had it suited his purpose, could have furnished particulars which a
modern Egyptologist would highly prize, appears from the matters
incidentally introduced in this connection. Such information,
however, was foreign to the aim of this record as a revelation of Cod
— an aim which is never lost sight of or subordinated to any other
consideration. Xevertheless with respect to such foreign and subor
dinate matters on which it incidentally touches the history of Genesis
is of inestimable value. Even in a secular point of view there is no
record which can be brought into competition with it. Taking the very
lowest estimate there is absolutely nothing in the whole range of
ancient literature which could supply the place of this document if
lost; while it is further to be ob served that if confidence cannot be
reposed in its authenticity, no reliable information exists on many
subjects with which it is desirable man should be ac quainted, and
after which there is indeed naturally an intense longing in the human
mind: as for instance the ; origin and the earliest history of mankind,
a subject which without the information supplied in Genesis must be
involved in impenetrable darkness. But this is taking the very lowest
ground: for the matters ad verted to and others of a like character
are of little moment except when viewed in the relation which they
occupy in this history, by means of its disclosures on the subject of
human redemption. With regard to this point the notices in Genesis
are very full, showing the necessity in which such a remedial
provision origi nated, and the form in which it was first announced,
and subsequently repeated with ever-increasing definiteness, but
which even in its obscurest announcements gave being to a life of
faith, various evidences and ex amples of which appear throughout
and from the very commencement of this history, giving form and
sub stance to the narrative. It is accordingly as a re\-elation of God,
and of man as related to God his Creator and 'Redeemer, that the
importance of Genesis is to be estimated. .More parti cularly this
record was intended to serve as an intro duction to the theocracy, or
the peculiar arrangement into which God entered with the Israelitish
people for the purpose of carrying out his covenant with Abra ham,
the theocracy beini;' a^ain a direct preparation for the gospel
dispensation. And as the Old Testa ment begins with a historical
narrative, so also the New, and indeed the two volumes with a
/fyiXoj yevffffws. -M.it. i. l; and further, the account of the creation
of "the heavens and the earth" in the first page of Genesis has its
counterpart in the notice of " the new heavens and new earth" with
which the Apocalypse and the canon of Scripture concludes the first
creation having for its object the first Adam, the new creation taking
its rise troin the second Adam. Tins is the i;Teat prin ciple which in
ves coherence not only to Genesis but to the whole biblical history.
The second portion of Genesis is intimately con nected with the first,
which is an introduction not so much to the lives of the patriarchs as
to the whole his tory and contents of the sacred volume. Abraham is
pre-eminently the head of a new dispensation, but his appearance
on the paifc of history has nothing in it abrupt or unexpected. On
the contrary the patriarch stands forth in the closest relation to the
fundamental principle which directs this narrative. His descent is
clearly traced from Adam, the father of the human family, through
Seth, '' the seed given in the room of Abel." Ge. iv. 25, down to
Noah, the second father of mankind, and thence in the line of Shorn,
who. it was predicted, should occupy a special relation to Jehovah,
and mediately as regards his brethren, di. ix. 21;, -jr. Ab raham's
divine call and consequent migration to Canaan form the first
practical step in furtherance of that pecu liar mediatorial
arrangement, the germs of which ap peared in the announcement of
the relation of Sheni and Japheth, and through which, as afterwards
more fully declared to Abraham, mankind should ultimately be
blessed, ch. xii :t. In the history of man, as recorded in the first
portion of Genesis, every step in advance showed only a further
divergence from the original unity, moral and social, and locally from
the central residences first in Eden, ch. iv Hi, and afterwards in the
plain of Shinar, ch. xi. u — migrations and dispersions re quired and
contemplated indeed in the original consti tution, but without the
feelings of alienation which subsequently ensued. In the call of
Abraham, how ever, a new unity was established; an individual was
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GENESIS G4G GENERIS elected out of tin; mass for the

purpose of reuniting the scattered nations l>y ne\v and indissoluble
bonds. Yet as if seemingly to defeat this purposes one branch after
another of Abraham's posterity is excluded from the chosen line: first
Ishmael, and next Esau: but this excision served in reality to
consolidate to the utmost the desin:;! unity: for this prolongation of
the single ; stem to the third generation gave the required direc tion
to its vital energies, besides answering other pur poses in the divine
economy, as showing that the pro mised blessings were dependent
not on the ordinary course of nature' but solely on divine grace. III.
It* J'r<>ji/i, so the specific purpose of the history of the first two
brothers was to show how, notwithstanding the spread of sin with
the propagation of the race, the divine idea embraced in the promise
of redemption through ' ' the seed of the woman" began to be
realized in and through humanity, by the establishment of the
kingdom of God in antagonism to the power of evil which was now
visibly exercising an influence in the world, ch. iv. L>;., 2ii. It is this
prophetic element, consistently presented from the commencement
almost of the biblical narra tive, and gradually developed through
the progress of events, rather than the more external or formal links
of genealogy and chronology, that imparts a living unity not only to
Genesis, but to the entire volume to which it forms an introduction.
Through the influ ence of this principle too the men of faith in
primeval times "called on the name of the Lord," ch. iv 20, and had
their hopes directed to a future which should wit ness the removal of
the curse imposed on the ground for man's sin, ch.v. 29; while,
without adverting to the intermediate examples, Jacob, at the very
close of Gene sis, sustained in the same way, with his dying breath
intimates, " I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord," ch. xlix. is. The
entire series of divine revelations, as well on this as on other points,
was of a progressive character, the earlier being truly the germ of
the later development, and however formally yet not essentially
different from it. It is this which gives to Genesis its intrinsic value,
and secures for it a permanent place in the volume of inspiration,
and in fact prevents any portion of that volume from ever becoming
obsolete. The truth announced in the promise ''the seed of the
woman shall bruise the head of the serpent," and running like a
golden thread through successive systems and dispensa tions till
reduced to the historic form, " When the fulness of the time was
come, God scut forth his Sun, ID ide of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law." (;a iv. 4, r>, further
gives to the whole a unity which palpably stamps on it a divine
signature ; for He only who sees the end from the beginning could
direct such various and complicated adjustments for carrying out the
purposes announced in this history. I V. It* Gcinii'iicnf'** (difl <
'r((li/>ififi/. — Reserving for the article PKXTATEIVH the general
discussion as to the unity, ant:quity, authorship, and credibility of
that portion of Scripture ascribed to Closes, notice need be here
taken only of such special objections as apply to Genesis. These are
to the effect that it bears traces < a being the production not of one
but of several writers, and of an age long subsequent to that of
Moses. Cer tain German critics, by the application of rules and
criteria of their own, pronounce the win >le Pentateuch, but
especially Genesis, to be an aggregate of heteroge neous fragments,
without however being able to agree as to their nature or the
manner of their combination; some supposing them to be the
productions of two or at the most three writers, while others with
equal confidence quadruple even the highest of these numbers;
some again assuming that the several documents or frag ments have
been connected by the merest accident, while others discern in the
compilation a most skilful I literary operation. Hence the various
names "docu ment," "fragment," and "complement hypothesis," '
used in this disintegrating criticism. At first this theory was limited to
the book of Genesis: and while so limited bv Yitringa, who was
among the first to raise the question as to the sources of Moses'
information on matters prior to his own time, and subsequently by
Astruc, who sought to define the number and character of the
supposed memoirs, it excited little interest, for such a use of earlier
documents was perfectly reconcilable with the Mosaic authorship
and inspired character of Genesis. Even Eichhorn's scheme, a
modification of Astruc's. was of a somewhat harmless character, not
withstanding his doubts that the compiler of Genesis from the two
original documents might have been another than Moses, for this did
not necessarily follow from the scheme itself, which was still
confined to the pro-Mosaic period. Eichhorn, while admitting the ex|
treme difficulty of separating documents so carefully interwoven, set
himself to mark off their respective por tions, larger and smaller,
sometimes consisting only of verses or even clauses, distinguishing
also the interpo lations of the compiler, and even to correct the
errors of the original autograph, due, as he said, to the inad
vertence of the compiler. This arbitrary emendation of
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GENESIS 647 GENESIS the text, which, but for the fact that
it wa"s Scripture that was subjected to such treatment, might be
viewed as critical pleasantry, was carried to a greater length by
Eichhoru's followers, as by thus conforming the text to the theory
there was an easy avoidance of all per plexities. The separation of
the assumed documents was effected chiefly through the recurrence
of the divine names Elohim and Jehovah, alleged to be characteristic
of different writers. Subsidiary tests were also resorted to, and
latterly to a greater extent than when the scheme was first
propounded; but the interchange of the divine names has always
been its governing prin ciple, and it is only in the absence of such
that much weight is attached to other characteristics of style and
expression. In some passages there is a concurrence of these with
the divine name supposed to lie appropriate to them; but even
when, as often happens, the revt-r.se is the case, it occasions no
difficulty to the critics, as they at once assume that there has been
an interpolation from the other document, or that the anomaly is
owing to an oversight of the compiler. Hut even this did not suffice;
the scheme itself has been subjected to modifi cations which
continually present it iu new aspects, llgen would improve it by
rejecting the interpolations of Eichhorn, and assuming the existence
of three origi nal documents instead of two; the result of which was
that passages which, on leaving the hands of Eichhorn, had some
extent and uniformity, were by Ilgen's process reduced to a
complete mosaic. Other theories speedily followed, differing from the
original and from one another; for while llgen and Gramberg were
labouring to per fect the scheme of Eichhorn, but in reality were milv
showing its untenable character, others were avewedlv setting about
its destruction, with the view of substi tuting in its stead something
fitted to tell more power fully against the genuineness of the
Pentateuch. Such was the aim of the ''fragment-hypothesis" of V.-iter.
extended to the whole Pentateuch, but of so wild a character that it
found no reception. 1 >e \Vette at tempted, but unsuccessfully, to
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