Teaching History and the Bible with The Brotherhood of the Scroll using Amazon’s Kindle

As a self published author, I’ve seen a lot of changes in the way the book publishing industry works over the last dozen years.  I wrote my first novel, The Brotherhood of the Scroll, in 1999, and in 2005, added a study guide designed to be used for a bible study geared toward high school or college aged youth.  In 2009, I re-published my novel as an e-book onto Amazon’s Kindle platform.  Through the Kindle, I quickly realized that by adding hyperlinks in the text of the novel, the reader could click a link about a person, place or event, and learn more about that by reading an article on the Internet.

Through all of this, I’ve been amazed at how the availability of a book as a digital download makes a book into something more than just a book – it turns it into a multimedia platform that allows one to communicate both story and information.  While “old fogies” like myself may still prefer the touch and smell of a “real” book, the ability to turn an e-book into a portal to a world of information and entertainment has a ready audience:

Teenagers.  And I’m not the only person who thinks so.

Recently, a woman in my church who home schools her children, Shannon Baker, spoke to me about the possibility of using The Brotherhood of the Scroll for a group of seven high school girls to use as a bible study over the summer.  She had read my book several years ago, and thought that it might serve as a great way to get these girls into the Old Testament.   What Shannon didn’t know is that I had the study guide designed for just that purpose.  Since then, we’ve been talking about how home school families might use the book and study guide to create assignments that combine both Bible study and learning about ancient history.

This summer, she will lead “The Son Shine Girls” in a study of the history of the exile of the Jews to Babylon during the time of the prophets Jeremiah, Daniel and Ezekiel using my novel.  Additionally, they’ll write a critique of the process to share with other families who home school.  Here’s what Shannon and her daughter, Taylor, already have to say about their experience:

“This book is a great way to mix adventure with Biblical Truths. We have, and never will study these stories of bible the same again. Very fast paced and set for teens to learn about God’s word.”

To learn more about their experience and the reading schedule Shannon has put together, visit http://www.wisejargon.com/courses/brotherhoodflyer.pdf

Now, if you’re a writer – or someone that wants to take written material and make it useable for online use – a question you might have is:  How do I prepare my book for use by a multimedia audience?   My first piece of advice is to look for websites on the Internet that have information specifically suited to your written material, and learn how to embed the weblinks into your manuscript.

Here’s a two minute Youtube video I created where I demonstrate that you can download Amazon’s Kindle software to your PC for free, and then read a book that has weblinks in it.  Take a minute to watch the video to see how I’ve embedded hyperlinks in the Kindle version of The Brotherhood of the Scroll.

 The ability to click on the hyperlinks in the novel via the Kindle and learn about the people, places, events and ideas that come from actual history is what Shannon and The Son Shine Girls are discovering as they read the book.

A second thing one should do is to begin the entire writing process with the idea in mind that you are writing for “An Audience of One”.    Recently, I created this video to explain the concept:

If you’d like more information on this topic, I’ve written more extensively about what I call “Writing for an Interactive Audience of One” at http://hubpages.com/hub/Writing-for-an-Interactive-Audience

For now, let me just say that whether you are home schooling children, leading a group of people from work in an online project, or conducting a Bible study with friends scattered all over the globe, the use of ebooks with embedded media is fast becoming the way in which information will be communicated in the twenty first century.  I should know – I teach online for several universities, principally the University  of Phoenix.  In fact, in my next blog post, I’ll address how you might lead an online discussion based on the same principles of online instruction I employ as a university instructor teaching such topics as critical thinking, economics, and everyone’s favorite, statistics!

Did you know you can download the Kindle Software for your PC for FREE? You can then order The Brotherhood of the Scroll for just $8.50! Here’s the Kindle of the PC download link? http://www.amazon.com/gp/kindle/pc/download

To order The Brotherood of the Scroll for the Kindle, simply Click Here

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