nimble enough to respond to localcontextual needs.

Chapters seven and eight propose atheoretical foundation for educationaldevelopment. Researchers created a com-petency map and distributed it to facultyat various development workshops. Themap explored five core questions at theheart of educational development: (1)the context and mission of educationaldevelopment, (2) the guiding principles,values, and ethics of educational develop-ment practice, (3) the organizational struc-tures that support education developmentwithin an institution, (4) the expertise ofeducational developers, and (5) the evalua-tion of the impact of educational develop-ment on teaching and learning. Workshopparticipants were asked to add to, deletefrom, or change the concept map in lightof their own experience and apply theframework to a particular scenario.Researchers concluded from participantevaluations that though there are similari-ties on the surface, differences in policiesand practices exist due to local institu-tional and cultural contexts. Nonethelessthey emphasize that associations, work-shops, and meetings do provide oppor-tunities for information exchange, criticalreflection on shared teaching practice, andprovide a venue for the possibility ofdeveloping new models for practitioners.

As someone who teaches at a theolo-gical seminary that takes faculty develop-ment seriously, but who could also refinethat practice by learning broadly fromdifferent educational settings around theworld, I was very excited to read thisbook. That said, I was also initially disap-pointed that the “comprehensive interna-tional model” proposed in the subtitle onlyincluded Canada and four northern Euro-pean countries. How does a purported“comprehensive international model”ignore reflection occurring in SouthKorea, Japan, Australia, India, China,Turkey, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, and

South Africa, to name some of the coun-tries I would be interested in hearing moreabout? The researchers admit that theframework represents the experience andexpertise of only five contexts and theyinvite further elaboration and testing(141). Still, faculties in theological educa-tion who have taken interest in recentbooks on clergy formation in the UnitedStates will benefit from asking the corequestions developed on the educationaldevelopment competency map. It is clearthat the field of faculty development intheological education in the United Stateswould benefit from broader internationalcomparisons, particularly as religionflourishes across the globe.

Jessicah Krey DuckworthWesley Theological Seminary

Networked Collaborative Learning:Social Interaction and Active Learning.By Guglielmo Trentin. Oxford, U.K.:Chandos Publishing, 2010. xvii + 166pages. ISBN 978-1-84334-501-5. $75.00.

Guglielmo Trentin is an Italian researcherwho teaches at the University of Turin innorthwestern Italy. Though he is writingfor European college educators, much ofwhat he writes can be directly applied totheological education in the United States.For Trentin, Networked CollaborativeLearning (NCL) is not simply traditionallearning facilitated by technology; thoughtechnology is essential to NCL, it is thesocial network of learners composed ofstudents, teachers, tutors, and expertscommitted to a common goal that makeNCL effective. NCL draws on collabora-tive learning models (which contend thatknowledge emerges from interaction) andandragogical models (which premiseactive participation and sharing of lifeexperiences as elements essential toeffective learning).

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The book is divided into five chapters:technology enhanced learning and net-worked collaborative learning, pedagogy,the e-teacher professional, instructionaldesign, and evaluation and assessment.In the first chapter, Trentin takes time todefine important terms and advocate forNCL as a viable learner-centeredapproach. He defines NCL as a type ofTechnology Enhanced Learning (TEL)that takes collaboration seriously. Thesustainability of TEL is dependent onthe degree to which instructors allowlearners to play an active role in thelearning process by encouraging them toraise questions, experiment, collaborate,and enhance new knowledge andunderstanding.

In the second chapter, Trentin reviewstraditional learning theories and modelsand concludes that they are inadequatefor the technological age. He argues thatGeorge Siemens’s theory of Connectivism(which values a diversity of opinions andacknowledges the learning potential thatresides in electronic data) encompasses themultiplicity of enhancements to learningthat technology can offer. The collabora-tive nature of NCL enables students tomove during the course from teacher ortutor dependence to independence to inter-dependence. Trentin makes it clear that ifan instructor is seeking a pedagogicalmodel that decreases the amount of workthey need to do to facilitate a course, NCLis not the one to choose. NCL is laborintensive in both the development andimplementation stages. Perhaps a primaryreason instructors would choose to adoptNCL is to enhance a student’s formationaldevelopment, abilities, and competencyfor work outside of the university setting.

In the third chapter, Trentin argues thatteachers need to be trained to facilitateNCL courses. NCL requires competencyin: the use of social software, the charac-teristics of the distance learner, approachesand strategies for effective e-teaching, the

pros and cons of computer-mediatedcommunication, how to manage onlinegroup interaction, how to evaluate onlinecourses, the legal and ethical implicationsof online learning, how to solve accessi-bility issues for disabled persons, andstrategies for effective integration ofonline activities in classroom learning.Trentin also argues that teacher develop-ment should be ongoing rather than a one-time event. Using his experiences at theUniversity of Turin as his point of depar-ture, Trentin provides concrete details todemonstrate how teacher training can bedone effectively.

In the fourth chapter, Trentin advocatesdefining every aspect of the course includ-ing aims (expectations of those proposingthe course), objectives, suitable materials,and appropriate learning strategies forthe study of materials and preparationfor evaluation. He advises instructorsto survey all elements instrumental tomaking key decisions about a course,including: context, learning needs, learnerprofiles and expectations, infrastructure,technology, and economic factors.

In the final chapter, Trentin explainswhy assessment is needed, what to evalu-ate, how to evaluate, and what to do withthe results. One very important element ofevaluation for NCL courses is interaction.He asserts that messages exchanged bystudents throughout the course should beevaluated for what is said, how it is said,and the impact it has.

The strengths of this book include cleardefinitions of key terms and tangibleapplications of suggested learningapproaches. However, the rubrics thatindicate changes in topic throughout thebook are so numerous that it is difficultto read the book as a whole. The book isstructured as five separate articles ratherthan as a cohesive volume. For facultyat theological institutions in the UnitedStates, implementing NCL could provechallenging in the areas of technological

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infrastructure, personnel support, and time(considering current demands on faculty).Notwithstanding these shortcomings, ifthese challenges can be overcome, NCLwould be a worthwhile endeavor forfaculty, students, and perhaps even faithcommunities. The book is definitely worthreading for those who are thinking aboutadopting a technology enhanced learningmodel.

Debra J. MumfordLouisville Presbyterian

Theological Seminary

Teaching Literature at a Distance: Open,Online, and Blended Learning. Editedby Takis Kayalis and Anastasia Natsina.New York, N.Y.: Continuum, 2010. ix +204 pages. ISBN 978-0-8264-2703-8.$140.00.

As schools and colleges adopt onlinelearning to increase accessibility, criticscontinue to characterize the Internet asthe destroyer of close and careful reading.Indeed, some would have us believe thatall readers under thirty years of age will“tweet” at least twice before the end ofthis sentence. Of course, the editors ofTeaching Literature at a Distance have amore positive estimation of the potentialof the still new(ish) technologies for openand distance learning. Yet they too concurwith Hillis Miller’s maxim that “if you arewatching a movie or television or playinga computer game or surfing the Internet,you cannot at the same time be readingShakespeare” (1–2). Thus, when learningenvironments are not in the traditionalclassroom context they must competewith digitally generated distractions.

Any publication that purports toprovide help for studying literature at adistance ought to address concerns of thiskind. Attention should be given to institu-tionally led pushes toward affordable and

convenient education, the expectationsinvested in education by all concerned,and the potential impact of these decisionson pedagogy.

The book includes sixteen essayswritten by teachers of literature rather thaneducational specialists. Throughout thevolume they tackle these issues fromencouragingly creative (rather than apolo-getic) positions. The essays in part one,for example, are optimistic about thetrajectories of present trends in distancelearning. Anastasia Natsina reports that thegrowing demand for open and distancelearning relevant to personal and profes-sional development has been comple-mented by a general move towardsinterdisciplinary scholarship. Ellie Cham-bers suggests that open and distance learn-ing can be used to welcome new studentsinto meaning-making communities in away that counters the wider trend towardspedagogies that privilege only individualcognitive skills. Having confirmed thataccess to resources has always beentreated as an essential in U.K. OpenUniversity masters level programs, BobOwens points out that the digitalizationof important documents has made thiseven more achievable. And in the finaltwo essays of this section, both DennisWalder and Takis Kayalis argue thatwhile national canons circumscribe thepotential of open and distance learningthe broad reach of this format has thepotential to foster a culture of transna-tional collaboration.

With continuing enthusiasm, parts twoand three look at digitalized and onlinelearning in particular. Kristine L. Blairnotes that the Internet offers the kind ofinteractivity that can resist those pedago-gies that treat learning as little more thanthe consumption of texts – as Ian Lan-cashire then points out, whether it isdeemed good or bad magic, the Internet ishere to stay; it is up to educators to ensureit is the former. Experience at an entirely

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