Classics and Internet Technology

CAN ANYONE SERIOUSLY QUESTION the momentous changes that computer technology, the Internet in particular, has brought to the life and work of classical scholars and teachers? Although some will no doubt disagree, it is possible to argue that the advent of the computer and its attendant technology has had no parallel since the invention of the printing press centuries ago. Just as the printed book created classical scholarship as we know it, so has computer technology effected a transformation that extends beyond the limits of our vision. We would like to call attention here to some of the possibilities that computer technology offers, both in our teaching and scholarship.

Pedagogy

The Internet offers classicists a rich variety of pedagogical resources and tools covering every major area of classical study. These resources have a number of advantages over more traditional pedagogical materials:

• Resource-based learning: easy access to many primary ancient materials (e.g., texts, databases, archival materials); teachers can link many different types of resources and provide a guided path through them.
• Collaborative learning: quick and inexpensive communication, even across great distances, promotes collaboration and community and challenges the idea of exclusively personal "intellectual property."
• Control over learning: students can choose the time, place, and pace of their learning.
• Interactivity: possibility of self-testing, commenting on or contributing to information, asynchronous and synchronous discussion.
• Publication: inexpensive publication of student work for a potentially wide audience can motivate students, increase their focus and time on task, and promote satisfaction.
• Updatability: resources can be constantly corrected and improved.

Using the Internet for teaching does, however, raise a number of difficulties; these do not outweigh the huge advantages provided by the Internet, but it is well to be aware of them in advance:

• Timeand learning curve: the most serious problem for both teachers and students.
• Unreliability: evanescence of links and uneven quality of resources.
• Equipment failure and software incompatibility.
• Differential access: becoming less of a problem as campuses expand their computer facilities, but less affluent commuter students can still be seriously disadvantaged.
• Cost: low for the user; significant for institutions but generally accepted as a necessary part of operating budgets.

Designing Assignments

The first step in designing effective Internet assignments is to locate relevant resources on the Web. Gateway sites such as Maria Pantelia's Electronic Resources for Classicists (<http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~tlg/index /resources.html>) provide links to many different types of classical websites but should be supplemented by searches with a powerful search engine like Google (<http://www.google.com>) because it is impossible to keep them current and comprehensive. The most useful gateway sites are often those that focus on a specific topic; an excellent example is Marc Huys' Greek Grammar on the Web (<http://perswww.kuleuven.ac.be/~u0013314/greekg.htm>).

Once resources are located and an assignment is designed, it is especially important to include clear directions and learning goals so that students understand what these tasks have to do with their progress in a specific course, and majors understand what part the tasks play in their development as classicists. Examples of assignments already posted on the Web can be very helpful in this process:

• Although directed toward pre-college students, these two sites provide models that can be adapted for college students: EDSITEment's "In Old Pompeii" (<http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=271>) or WebQuest training materials (<http://webquest.sdsu.edu/materials.htm>).
• Diotima: Materials for the Study of Women and Gender in the Ancient World (<http://www.stoa.org/diotima>) includes not only links and valuable teaching resources but also many syllabi.
• The Pompeii Forum Project (<http://pompeii.virginia.edu>) includes a section for students and teachers.
• Oxford University's Sphakia Survey Internet Edition (<http://sphakia.classics.ox.ac.uk:591/index.html>), dealing with an archaeological field survey in Crete, provides an excellent example of resource-based, situated learning in which students emulate practitioners...