May 14, 2015: Workshop introducing a range of technologies and brainstorming ways to implement them in classics-specific courses
After attending several online and in-person workshops about digital technologies and ways to use them to enhance learning, I organized a workshop for graduate student instructors in my department. In conversations with my colleagues, I found that many of us were interested in these new technological options to enhance our teaching, but we often felt as though the workshops did not directly apply to the sorts of classes that we generally teach, which fall into two broad (but quite distinct) categories:
- Classical Civilization courses
- Small or medium courses with a heavy focus on analyzing literature and writing analytical essays (first-year writing requirement courses, upper-level writing requirement courses, and other courses dealing with ancient literature in translation) as well as courses with a more historical focus.
- Classical Languages courses
- Latin courses: Introductory language courses (Latin 101 and 102) and early reading/translation courses (Latin 231 and 232)
- Ancient Greek courses: Intensive Greek courses in the Spring term
When teaching Classical Civilization courses, we are Graduate Student Instructors and the course structure is standardized across all the sections, so we have less room to experiment with some innovative technological tools. In Classical Language courses, however, we are the primary instructor, which gives us more control over the format and structure of the class. To further complicate things, many of the more popular pedagogical technologies often seem more suited to the content of and learning objectives of Classical Civilization courses.
[This workshop] provided a balance of presentation and discussion, giving participants a helpful look at different digital tools and pedagogical techniques while also facilitating the exchange of ideas between people with different levels of teaching experience. We discussed the potential of techniques like gamification and from this concept we worked together to develop strategies for implementing this technique, determining if we thought it was more helpful for language learning or historical information. I was asked to discuss experiences I had teaching standalone online classes, and was happy to not only describe which digital tools and techniques had been helpful for me, but I also received thoughtful and fruitful feedback on my plans for developing my syllabuses further. Conversation was lively, collegial, and well organized around the ideas presented, but was also easily expanded outward into a variety of topics, all of which provided for a thoroughly valuable workshop experience.–Evan Lee, PhD student in the Michigan State English Department
This workshop introduced me to several technologies I didn’t know about already, which was extremely useful. However, the part that I really appreciated was being able to talk to other instructors and brainstorm ways to use these resources effectively in the sorts of classes we teach as classicists. Many of the workshops I’ve attended on these sorts of topics have been aimed at a broad audience of graduate students across the university, and what might be useful for an engineering grad student isn’t applicable for us. This was a chance to talk to other GSIs about how we could actually use these resources in our classes!–Jacqueline Stimson, PhD student in the Classical Studies Department
