Also, this semester at Pepperdine. one of my Religion 101 sections has been issued iPads as a grand experiment in learning technology. All students in that section have been given iTunes Gift Cards to purchase their textbook: the NRSV for Bible Reader!

I’ll respond since it was my statement. Note that there is a compound object in that what I said: bringing a Bible AND keeping up with notes. In other words, I was trying to simplify and travel light.

In fact, on weekends such as this in the past, I’ve brought a backpack full of books. This year, since I had my iPad, I was able to bring my Bible, even more books, curriculum guide and more–all on one device (the iPad)–backpack not needed!

I can assure you no one was distracted by what I was doing. In fact, I doubt that most people even knew I was using an iPad. My wife took a picture of me which you can see here:

http://gallery.me.com/rmansfield#100639/IMG_0137&bgcolor=black

In that picture, I’m teaching from 2 Corinthians in BibleReader on the iPad. But you would hardly know it unless you looked over my shoulder.

Look, I understand the desire to remove distractions. In fact, I often struggle with that very issue. The beauty of the weekend was that at the campsite, there was no wifi. So I could read or study on my iPad without being distracted by the beep of incoming email or twitter.

In that light, I don’t think “getting away from a screen” mattered that much.

And no doubt somewhere around the 4th century, someone was telling someone to put down his codices and get away for the weekend with some good old fashioned scrolls

This seems a bit backwards. For a Church camping trip, shouldn’t the priority be the Bible? Getting away from a screen for a little while is a good thing. I’ve found that other people get distracted when they see others with note taking/ reading off of laptops/tablets/phones.