Kolbe Catholic College explorer the world of Catholic News.
Students trialling the new Mediaplayer on The Record’s website were intrigued to discover that unicorns are mentioned in the Bible – as wild bulls.
The information emerged from a podcast loaded on the Mediaplayer that some students in a Year 11 Religion Education class at Kolbe Catholic College listened to last Monday morning as part of their Religious Education class.
In fact, there were once eight references to unicorns contained in the Bible, Paulist Fr Larry Rice told listeners in his podcast.
But modern interpreters have translated the Hebrew word used in the King James Bible as ‘wild bull’ or ‘oxen’.
The students were trialling the new CNS Mediaplayer on The Record’s website, and posting their feedback on a special website as their class progressed.
They gave the Mediaplayer, which offers video reports from journalists in Rome, podcasts and written reports, a mixed review that was generally positive.
The class trialled the Mediaplayer at the request of The Record; Kolbe RE teacher Patrick Branson set up the wiki page – an internet page intended for a limited audience – so that students could post their feedback.
“The discovery of the unicorns in the Bible was interesting. I think these resources were good in finding out new information, however I would have liked a little bit more time to be able to watch more videos and I was a little lost in the instructions,” wrote Kolbe student Taylah Reynolds.
Three students, Daniel, Jordan and Gail, posted their response to the CNS video reports on the current Synod of Bishops for Africa being held in Rome.
“The African Synod message on CNS wants to ensure peace and justice for all families in society. It was good to have these resources as they were very insightful and showed us what was happening around the world. It also showed us how the Church gathers everyone together to discuss and determine a better life for our Catholic community,” they wrote in a post by one member, Gail Panopio.
Some students also researched the online edition of the printed version of The Record as part of their class activity.
“In today’s lesson, Eamonn, Nathan and I researched how the Word gathers,” wrote Chantel Dybell. “In the most recent edition of The Record, we discovered how the Word gathers and unites religious and non-religious peoples of all nations, race and gender.”
“The recent debate in Spain on abortion laws caused the unified approach and rally against the wickedness of the law. The new law would allow foetus’ to be terminated at 14 weeks. In The Record, through media files, we see just how far people will go to save a life.”
On the negative side, some students said that a search engine on The Record’s website would have been helpful. Record Editor Peter Rosengren said the exercise had been thoroughly worthwhile.
“We believe the Mediplayer delivers important information the print edition of The Record can’t do as well,” he said.
“We wanted to trial the Mediaplayer with younger people who are far more conversant with the Internet and mobile media than their contemporaries who are older, and hear what they really think. I appreciate their honesty and their advice, and we look forward to developing The Record website to complement the print edition even more,” he said.