On-Line Classroom Projects

[Andrew Reinhard]

Now that the school year is well underway, how many class projects will be done via digital means? Audio, video, blogs, animations? Are teachers encouraging their students to explore new media to give a contemporary presentation of the Latin/Greek they have learned? Are students expecting a digital component to the Latin/Greek classes they are taking, if only in the form of a class project? Judging from the hundreds of Latin videos (and a few mythological ones), the concept seems to be catching on rather quickly. What have you assigned your kids, and how have they delivered the linguistic goods?

[Laura Gibbs]

Hi Andrew, although it's not Latin language, in my Mythology-Folklore and World Literature classes, the students all do their own "Storybook" projects, retelling the old stories in new ways! They are free to choose the topics they want, and they often choose Greek and Roman topics. It's so much fun! I've got a huge archive now of past projects, and that is one of the best things about doing digital projects: when students can see the work that other students have done, it inspires them, guides them and even provokes them to try to do better themselves! You can see the current semester's projects along with a link to past projects here at my course websites:
Mythology-Folklore
World Literature
Some of my favorite past projects on Greek mythology would have to be:
Poseidon:Lord of the Seas
Athena: Warrior Princess
Sex and The Civilization
Women of the Trojan War
Hera: The Essence of Power and Beauty
I could go on... the students absolutely AMAZE me (and they amaze themselves, too!) with their own creativity in working with these stories in new ways. I've been teaching the "same" course for five years now, but every semester is different from every other semester because of the unique combination of creative projects the students come up with. I've got about 90 students spread over three classes (I also teach the Epics of Ancient India) every semester, and at that rate, the websites really accumulate over time; there are hundreds and hundreds of them now, on all kinds of topics!

[Laura Gibbs]

whoops - forgot to include the World Literature link - and here's Indian Epics, for that matter; the parallels with Greek epic are something the students are often very struck by!