Howard University 

Martel A. Perry

 Higher Education 

By Stefanie Sanford
HOWARD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY

Technology for Spiritual Connections

THE SPIRITUAL REQUIREMENTS MADE SOPHISTICATED DEMANDS ON THE TECHNOLOGY TOOLS.

Howard University is among the nation's leading historically black colleges, with a proud history of producing leaders in all walks of life, including business, law, politics and the arts. As a cutting-edge Carnegie Research I university situated in the nation's capitol, it is no surprise that Howard would be experimenting with distance-education. When asked to identify the most technologically innovative department at Howard, Lewis Long, chief of staff to the president, respond-
ed with startling conviction, "The Divinity School is leading the way." 

Reverend Clarence G. Newsome is dean of the Howard University School of Divinity. Appointed in 1992, this student of history and theology saw a centuries-old relationship between the church and technology. "Since the printing press, the church has been no stranger to technological progress," said Newsome. "As a place of hope, aspiration and progress, our goal in the church and the Divinity School is to promote good and healthy spirituality ­ and that has everything to do with connecting people." Modern information technology has been able to make those connections in unprecedented ways. 

The principal technological architect is Martel Perry, director of the International Faith Community and Information and Services Clearinghouse. 

For Perry, this project is a labor of love, a gift to his community and an important show of respect for his parents' lifelong commitment to teaching. He explained, "Since segregation, minority communities have been disconnected from one another. People have been throwing their hands up in the air, giving up hope. I wanted to figure out a way to connect communities to one another, and to strengthen existing physical communities. 

Where do you start in African-American communities? The church. It is the one place where we all go ­ and which purely belongs to us." 

Perry cares for his mother and mother-in-law, both of whom are in their 80s and live with him and his wife. "All of their waking time is concentrated around the church -- but they are in a physical station where they can't always get there. So, we thought, how can we link these parishioners back to what makes them feel good and connected? We started by wiring the church and their rooms -- so I can videoconference to their rooms. This connects them to their institutions. Next, we plan to connect nursing homes so we can keep up with people we love. We are bringing our communities back together," said Perry. 

This is the vision driving the development of distance education at Howard Divinity School. 

The irony of using distance education to bring communities together is not lost on Perry. "Distance education means a lot of different things to different people. What it does not mean to us in our community is e-mail and text. That is way too low-tech for our people. 

"Our folks want to be able to see your face, to interact with you, to hear your voice. That means that we've had to think in very sophisticated ways about how to deliver courses, sermons and information to folks. We needed to be high tech and hightouch." 

Dean Newsome concurred, "We are not an engineering school. we are a divinity school, so we need to be able to appreciate the nuances of communication. We need to be able to feel you smile." These spiritual requirements made quite sophisticated demands on the technology tools. 

Perry remembers looking for models: I looked about at every distance ed Web site in the world and figured out the best of what they were doing and tried to learn from their horror stories. We looked at MIT, and they were great, but we didn't have $20 million. So we looked at trade-offs. Essentially, we did the poor man's version of what the richer community would have. This analog platform, still in its pilot stages, has enabled the school to videoconference anywhere, and to connect communities all over the country and all over the world." 

These successes, emerging from what many might view as an unlikely discipline, have led to a veritable avalanche in the use of technology to help African-American communities. Perry can barely contain his enthusiasm as he lists the new developments resulting from their work connecting churches to each other and to Howard. 

"While we were thinking about linking churches with Howard, I thought ­ let's think about all of the possibilities. For example, the minority community has difficulty maintaining its history," he said. "Folks tell wonderful stories, but we're not keeping written records. So, let's use this technology as an opportunity to record our history, so that we don't lose events. Then, let's create the tools so we can give our students the tools they need to succeed, while also promoting a love and respect for our history. Let's show youth the possibilities that lay before them with a good education and strong technical skills. Let's connect young people from their churches to mentors across the country ­ so they can see the world beyond their circumstance. Let's use all of this technology as a recruiting tool for Black colleges and universities. And let's connect them to our own grassroots communities ­ where the church is the primary anchor. We can make the church a community learning center. More than any other group, our people still gravitate to the church. Let's take that strong historical tradition and use it for modern opportunity ­ and create a forum that opens our people's eyes to the wonder and opportunity that technology can give them." 

Newsome agreed, and also raised an important and intriguing point about their work connecting disparate and far-flung people into virtual faith communities: "They start virtual; they meet each other. They watch these conferences, and they share ideas. That connection makes them want to meet. These virtual connections are creating a highway for folks to come physically to us and to each other. We see our platform as a catalyst to bring people together to shape a collective vision of what it means to live in a pluralistic society. They feel safe in a virtual environment, they get to know each other -- then they want to meet. From there, we can make real social progress." 

Perry likewise sees profound opportunities for diverse communities across the world to build greater connection and understanding in the Information Age ­ and feels a special sense of duty and fulfillment. "I'm helping prepare my people for change, and this work is tapping the softer nature of my wife and me in our mid-years. We are enjoying the chance to give back, in a way like our parents did. But instead of teachers, we just happen to be technologists in a religious world," said Perry. 

Stefanie Sanford , a consultant and freelance writer based in Austin, Texas, has served in several public policy capacities in federal, state and local government and was a '96-97 White House Fellow. She holds an MPA from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

World Translation Click On Language and enter Website http://www.martelanseperry.com