elearning and religion

During this past semester my husband has been attending seminary while I am taking IT courses online here at Bloomsburg. During a conversation a few weeks ago one of my husband's colleages asked what I was in school for. I told her about the great program I am in at Bloomsburg. My husband commented that he would have liked to have had the opportunity to take a few courses online. Immediately the colleague says that seminary courses should not be online. Basically because it would be hard to teach the topics without seeing and feeling the emotion of the rest of the class. This led me to ponder the debate topic of whether or not there are some courses or training that should not be taught online. This also led me to explore some of the ways ministers and churches may be using elearning tools to teach bible study and church membership classes. One of the neatest things that I found was a church in Second Life! At the virtual church users are able to listen to a sermon, attend bible study, and even play musical instruments. Another source I saw was Godtube. This is a Christian version of Youtube where pastors and churches can post bible studies and info. about their church. At crosswalk.com I found a self paced bible study course as well as various bible study tools. While reviewing some of these resources my husband and I have decided to put together a presentation of some of the elearning resources ministers can use. Hopefully he will be able to present this in class and open some of his colleagues up to the idea of using elearning tools as a resource for church members and themselves.