Family Bible Study / Connections / Computers

My wife and I have two teenage girls. One is 17 and the other 13. My wife and I each have i5 notebooks which handle Logos software requirements. My children share a low end Celeron powered laptop.

I would like to set up a Faith-life study group within my family, so that each of us have separate log in accounts. One that allows my children to have an electronic library and access to Logos resources. I currently have the Logos 5 Silver, with many add on resources I have purchased over the past few years.

What would be your suggestion concerning hardware and Logos packages for my children? I understand that some of the Faith-life is free, but not clear as to what resources they would have access to. If I purchase a basic Logos package for each, they would need a machine adequate to run it. I am not sure the Celeron class machines are up to the task. So two new machines may be needed.

Going into a new school year both could use an upgrade in computers. Budget constraints are present, so the high end gaming systems are not an option. Two machines costing $1000-1200 total would be acceptable. Lower is always better.

Thanks for your suggestions.

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Comments

JT (alabama24)

I am sure you will get a number of suggestions. I want to make sure you are aware of the definition of "one user" as per your license agreement. Your license agreement allows you "one user." Bob (the owner of Logos) has interpreted "one user" for us in generous terms. "One User" can include a spouse (in non vocational ministry) and school age children living at home. There are things you should know about this, however. Obviously, this would be the most advantageous economically. On the other hand, since Logos is designed for one and only one user, things like notes, highlights, etc will become mixed. Depending upon your intended usage, this may or may not be a good option to consider.

As for computers... Your girls will love you if you buy them MacBook Air's. [:D]

NB.Mick

Gerald,

I think you understood perfectly that you may be eligible to have your family use your account, but for a Faithlife group to work, they'd need different Logins which would need separate installations. FSB and a lot more is free (look at Vyrso!).

Regarding the technical requirements: I'm not a pastor or scholar and run L5 in current beta with a >5000 resources library on a really oldish & small-scale Acer Extensa with 2GB RAM. With the exception of indexing and re-sorting the Library from by-title to by-last-update I find no real issue with the speed - if a machine can handle current usage requirements of your daughters (e.g. editing some photo material, creating powerpont visuals for school etc) it will most likely be no issue to put Logos on it for them.

Mick

David Thomas

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/513033#Comment_513033

As for computers... Your girls will love you if you buy them MacBook Air's.

But Surface Pro's will better prepare them for a lifetime of collaboration with those inside and outside of the Apple ecosystem [:O] and yesterday the prices dropped! (for a month as a back to school incentive).

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/513046#Comment_513046

Surface Pro's will better prepare them for a lifetime of collaboration with those inside and outside of the Apple ecosystem

Corrected it for you. [:P]

David Thomas

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/513065#Comment_513065

[quote]

Corrected it for you. Stick out tongue

[:#] So as not to hijack the thread any further. Back to the OP, I admire the idea of equipping one's children with resources that will allow them opportunity to engage with the community of faith, while encouraging them to personally investigate and "buy in" to the claims of Scripture. By allowing children/teens to "own" their own faith some of the "millennial exodus from local church" may be averted.

John

Budget constraints are present ...

Get the kids E-sword and let them run it on the Celerons. Total cost: Free

Have a real Bible study the traditional way in your home in person. Total cost: Free

Gerald

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/513069#Comment_513069

Thanks to all for suggestions. My 17 year old is very active in Bible study and her faith. I was thinking she would benefit with her own copy of Logos to build upon. I didn't even start buying concordances and bible dictionary's until I was in my 30's. Had Logos been as mature as it is now in the development curve, I would have had a much better platform to do Bible study and small group lesson prep.

Although I have E-Sword, and have purchased several add on modules, the program is built around public domain resources. I would still have to purchase more recent bible translations and commentaries for them.

I teach a Sunday morning bible study class to age 70+ adults who favor the KJV, It appears that this is the only version they have been exposed to. I use the ESV and NLT in prep. It gets somewhat confusing to follow a participant reading from the KJV as I follow along in my ESV or NLT. I don't want to get into a KJV argument concerning original translation texts, but to me the KJV is not the best translation to use in my family bible study. The KJV is at least a 12th grade and above reading level. The NLT maybe around a 6th grade level.

Being able to use the Logos lema searches, etc., opens up a whole new world to me. I can accurately find similar passages using the same word and how it is translated. Maybe not necessary for a 13 year old, but it is there for her if she wants to use it.

Concerning the Faithlife community feature, this is just another way for us to create a connection. It does not substitute a round table study. I was trying to discover what Faithlife resources were available when I first posted. After I have researched it, it appears that the Faithlife platform is for tablets and smartphones, as well as a web-browser platform. not a downloadable PC program like Logos 5. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks.

NB.Mick

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/513357#Comment_513357

it appears that the Faithlife platform is for tablets and smartphones, as well as a web-browser platform. not a downloadable PC program like Logos 5.

Gerald,

the Faithlife platform is not another downloadable PC program, but it integrates into Logos 5.

You will get the LEB bible, working just as ESV (note that ESV currently seems to be thrown in for free as well) and any other bible in Logos 5.

You will get the Faithlife Study Bible (FSB), working not only just as the ESV SB or any other Study bible, but dynamically adapting to your translation of choice.

You will get the Lexham Bible Dictionary (again, just like ISBE etc) and a daily devotional resource (...) plus the Logos Infographics and Photo/Video material which should be very well received by teenagers interested in bible study.

In terms of functionality, Faithlife is (via the group system it provides) the basis for the Community Notes which will display in Logos 5, can be created and replied to from within the desktop appliocation application. In other words, you would visit the website to create your family group and your family members would need to visit it once to join - then y'all can interact with Community Notes within L5 if you want to.

There's a bit more to the website, such as news postings etc you may want to use or not. The strength of the cross-platform approach would be that your daughters can access the resources as well as your Community Notes (and classical L5 notes and documents as well, if you choose to use them for your bible study) from the desktop, from mobile devices and even from the web.

Hope this helps,

Mick

Erwin Stull, Sr.

Hi Gerald;

Lets begin by looking at the computer systems, as the computer system is common to both their general academic school work and modern day bible study. This is probably the best time to get one for school, with the back to school specials many manufacturers offer. I have always found Dell to be excellent in their offerings, but go for the business class machines (such as Optiplex) instead of the home type machines (Dimension). Look on the website and search for models with a free monitor. This of course is assuming that a PC is what you are in the market for. Go with a Core i5 or Core i7 with 6 or more GB of RAM.

Now, for the bible study software. Logos is very good with integrating and promoting group and individual study with their various platforms. You can also put together a Logo package from Free on up to many thousand dollars. I would measure the daughters interest before investing very much. One thing is that with Logos you can always add and build upon. My family does not yet have the interest for intense bible study yet, so for them I installed a $10 standalone bible package which is adequate at this time. And with that, they still use a standard paper bible 90% of the time. [:)]

David Thomas

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/513357#Comment_513357

You know your girls better than any of us so you best can determine how they would deal with "fairness". I might suggest an Android tabled (Nexus 7?) for the 13 year old and a Win8 laptop/tablet for the 17 year old. The older daughter may be going off to college and so may justify higher hardware. You can tell the younger that you intend to provide her with adequate hardware before she moves away as well but that the computing world could change a LOT in the next 5 years. The Faithlife Study Bible App would be great on the Android tablet and the meatier machine could handle a Logos5 base package.

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

Two machines costing $1000-1200 total would be acceptable. Lower is always better.

Dell Outlet has Home Hot deals => http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/22/campaigns/dfo_dfh_deals_page

Coupon code reduces price to $ 445 with review => http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-Inspiron-17R-5721-Notebook.88735.0.html

The 17" laptop has a choice of colors: Pink, Blue, Passion Purple, Red, and Silver.

Noticed 15" laptop has coupon discount to $ 385 with review => http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-Inspiron-15R-5521-Notebook.88075.0.html

An upgrade option is replacing hard drive with Solid State Disk (SSD), which is noticeably faster for Logos use.

Keep Smiling [:)]

John

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/513357#Comment_513357

The KJV is at least a 12th grade and above reading level. The NLT maybe around a 6th grade level.

I'm not sure it qualifies for 12 Grade level English. It is more like a foreign language [H]

Thou knowest [Y]

Edwin Bowden

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/513357#Comment_513357

I teach a Sunday morning bible study class to age 70+ adults who favor the KJV, It appears that this is the only version they have been exposed to. I use the ESV and NLT in prep. It gets somewhat confusing to follow a participant reading from the KJV as I follow along in my ESV or NLT. I don't want to get into a KJV argument concerning original translation texts, but to me the KJV is not the best translation to use in my family bible study. The KJV is at least a 12th grade and above reading level. The NLT maybe around a 6th grade level.

Being able to use the Logos lema searches, etc., opens up a whole new world to me. I can accurately find similar passages using the same word and how it is translated. Maybe not necessary for a 13 year old, but it is there for her if she wants to use it.

Gerald,

I really like what you are dong with your family. Others have given you some great advice.

I have been teaching a SS class for 45 yrs. My class are all senior citizens.

We have a wide variety of translations used by the class. When I began teaching my current class over 20 yrs ago, I used the KJV. I later moved to NIV. I changed to ESV about 5 yrs ago. I usually teach in a detailed manner and the ESV works well for that.

Many years ago I started printing out the text that I was using and formatting it similar to diagramming. I highlight key terms. I began doing this for my own use and then I realized that it would benefit the class to see the structure and key terms that I was emphasizing.

For many years, I have been printing this text out for the class so we all had the same thing in front of us.

I have also done parallel translation printing of the major translations used in the class. Logos makes it very easy to do this. You can even go further and align the translations phrase by phrase.

Logos has enabled me to do many things in the class that would have been impossible otherwise. It is always a challenge to reduce the material I have gleaned from Logos to what will fit into a single lesson. I have at least one handout for each class.

Fortunately, my class is open-ended and we can take as long as necessary to cover the material.