Finally figured out the contours of my big project assignment for my online Ancient World class this spring. I've moved away from the traditional research assignment in my survey courses in favor of projects that allow for creativity, analysis, and application. +
I'd been stressing about this project because,
a. Previous semesters' assignments have been less than what I'd hoped for, and
b. The course starts January 7! +
a. Previous semesters' assignments have been less than what I'd hoped for, and
b. The course starts January 7! +
The obstacles for students in this course are a lack of familiarity with much of the material beyond 300 or Ancient Aliens (gah) and unfamiliar geography (to many) makes it hard to establish context. But they also come in interested, even excited, about the era +
I try to leverage that interest in the service of good historical analysis, and to make connections between the ancient world and the present--here, the global context of the course is useful, particularly in introducing students to ancient India and China +
It's that connections piece that I've struggled with--I want them to research, think, and write about how what they're learning about connects to their lives and world today. I've tried to frame the course project to do that, with limited success. So I'm trying something new+
This spring, my students will be asked to write a white paper, or build a digital exhibit, on an ancient archaeological site that's currently damaged or endangered (one of their resources will be the UNESCO list). They'll describe the site, its context and significance, +
Why it's endangered and how specific policy and/or actions can protect that site. In ancient history, so much of thev evidence we have is material culture, and that's a key course theme. So I'm hoping this puts a nice cap on that. I'm also excited for them to see these tangible +
connections to the past, but more importantly, how tenuous and fragile--and in many cases contested--those connections are (think of the Buddha monuments being destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan). I want them to be personally invested in this history and its preservation+
in addition to doing the research and analysis I want them to practice. I'm a lot more excited about this project than I have been for previous iterations of the course. We may blog all of these, who knows? But hopefully we can make the ancient world meaningfully present, too.
Now I gotta finalize the syllabus and finish building the space my students and I will be working in together 😮
