iCAS

We do a lot of reflection when we pray.

I’m a Catholic and my elementary education occurred at St Catherine Laboure Primary School, in the parish of Gymea. I realize now that the good Sisters of St Joseph and the reverend Father Wilkinson had a lot to do with teaching me how to reflect.

At the mature age of seven years old I was prepared for the sacrament of Confession. I was taught to reflect on when, and how, I had been a “bad” boy as I prepared a list of transgressions against God’s rules – the 10 Commandments. This preparation and reflection led to me making lists – numbers of sins – and then reciting that list in the confessional box.

“Bless me father for I have sinned – it has been 2 weeks since my last confession. Since that time I have used bad words 10 times. I have disobeyed my parents 13 times. And I have told lies to Tony, Diane, and Sue 24 times.”

In response, the priest who was hearing my confession would reply with another list – more numbers, and a piece of wise advice, “Now be a good boy and say 3 Hail Mary’s and 2 Our Fathers as your penance.”

I recently found a new version of The Lord’s Prayer in ‘The International Herald Tribune’, February 10, 2011.

It goes like this:

“Our Father, who art in pixels,
linked be Thy name,
Thy Web site come, Thy Net be done,
on Explorer as it is on Firefox.
Give us this day our daily app,
and forgive us our spam,
as we forgive those 
who spam against us, 
and lead us not into aggregation,
but deliver us from e-vil. Amen.”

Maureen Dowd had me enthralled in her column as she explained and expanded upon “Confession – a Roman Catholic App”.

It’s a popular application that you can buy and download onto your mobile device and it’s essentially a tool to help reflection. In this case a reflection on your sins, transgressions, and penance.

How long before we see a similar app for CAS?  A tool to induce appropriate reflections on how many times a student has ‘hit’ a learner outcome.

“iCAS” – an app for helping Diploma students reflect upon their learning in their CAS activities on their mobiles.

I’m sure it’s coming and I’m sure it will make a nice compliment to managebac.

Let me know when you see it on the app store.