Past Pedagogies, Present Perspectives, and Future Directions: Reading Classics Online

Monday 15th May 2023, 10.30-16.00 

Location: University of Lincoln (in-person and online), NDH2018 (Digital Crit Room), Nicola de la Haye building, Brayford Pool Campus (building 12 on the Brayford Pool campus map here: https://estates.lincoln.ac.uk/campus-info/maps/)

Resources:

 

Funerary relief of a Roman school scene, c. 180185 CE. The teacher (centre) instructs two students (seated left and right), who are reading scrolls, while a third younger student enters holding wax tablets bound by a leather strap. Currently held in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Trier.
Funerary relief of a Roman school scene, c. 180-185 CE. The teacher (centre) instructs two students (seated left and right), who are reading scrolls, while a third younger student enters holding wax tablets bound by a leather strap. Currently held in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Trier.

Reading is relevant to all disciplines in higher education, and has undergone a transformation over the past twenty years. However, student experiences of learning-through-reading are under-researched and lack theorisation. We know strikingly little about how students read online, how these practices relate to overall learning, and which pedagogic strategies are effective. Technological advances and pressures caused by the pandemic have dramatically changed how we all engage with learning-through-reading: resources are increasingly digitised, mobile devices are frequently utilised, and virtual learning environments have emerged to dominate elements of teaching practice. It is thus imperative to understand how these changes in particular can help or hinder the student experience.

Given the importance of reading complex texts in ancient and modern languages to the discipline, and the increasing digitisation of primary and secondary texts, these issues are especially pertinent for Classicists. Building on work on online reading practices and pedagogies at the University of Lincoln, in which Classics lecturers and students played a leading role, this hybrid workshop will draw on the expertise and experiences of university staff, university students, and schoolteachers to explore how best to use these tools in education.  

Schedule

10.30–11.00: Registration

11.00–11.10: Introduction (slides)

11.10–12.20:   Roundtable 1: Perspectives from Classical Studies at the University of Lincoln

  • Michele Vescovi. Subject: Enhancing Digital Literacy in the Lincoln School of Humanities and Heritage. (slides and recording)
  • Graham Barrett. Subject: Reading and reading online in the Classical Studies programme. (recording)
  • Joe Broderick (online). Subject: Online tools and the Classical Studies programme. (recording)
  • Joshua Aslin, Zoe Kelly, Annabelle Mansell, and Melissa Rabbett. Subject: Student perspectives.

12.20–1.00: Lunch

1.00–2.20: Roundtable 2: Perspectives from other disciplinary and institutional contexts

  • Anna-Rich Abad, University of Nottingham, Is the honeymoon over? Talis Elevate, my students and me (slides and recording)
  • Jon Chandler, University College London. (recording)
  • Martina Astrid Rodda, University of Oxford (online), Content warnings in the online classroom. (recording)
  • Cressida Ryan, University of Oxford, Multi-modal workbooks for improving set text work. (slides and recording)

2.20–2.40: Break

2.40–3.50: Roundtable 3: Perspectives from secondary school contexts (download collected transcript here)

  • Steven Hunt, University of Cambridge. Subject: Online parsing and dictionary tools. (slides and recording)
  • Sam Koon, Haileybury. Subject: Tools and methods for intensive and extensive reading. (slides and recording)
  • Thomas Sims, Nottingham High School. Subject: Online Reading in the Age of Instagram. (slides and recording)

3.50–4:00: Concluding remarks

YouTube playlist with recordings of talks

Further details

Registration link: https://forms.office.com/e/BWZb6TMpZy (please specify whether you plan to attend in-person or online)

Sponsors: this workshop is supported by the Council of University Classical Departments, the new Lincolnshire Branch of the Classical Association, and the School of Humanities and Heritage at the University of Lincoln. 

Organisers: Michael Wuk (mwuk@lincoln.ac.uk) and Jamie Wood (jwood@lincoln.ac.uk).