Monday, March 02, 2009

educatores


The two last papers, separated by lunch, had a more educational slant.
The first of these, presented by indefatigable Andrew Reinhard, I am fortunate enough not to have to recap, as he has kindly consented to do a guest entry with some of the facts from his presnetation. He is not only the director of eclassics (affiliated with Bolchazy-Carducci), which has a huge wealth of web-resources and in general is an excellent forum for people interested in the classical languages (you should really join, even if the layout is a little messy; it's similar to FB, and I’ll totally be your friend), but also does a great Scottish brogue.

The second, directly after lunch, in some was a dangerous slot, as you are full and sated, was a presentation of VRoma, and the work behind it. VRoma is a, to quote their own text, “a community of scholars, both teachers and students, who create online resources for teaching about the Latin language and ancient Roman culture”, and is mainly a teaching resource, situated in a virtual simulation of the ancient city of Rome circa 150 AD.

The presentation was at times very technical with explanations of the programming, which sadly is impossible for me to relate or even follow, but the simulation seems interesting, and if I was still teaching high school I would probably use it (even if this too feels a little messy at times, wonderful pictures however, se above), especially since “it” speaks Latin!

The conference then reached its end, and there was the usual separation anxiety that is common when you’ve had such intense days together. There will probably be a volume of proceedings, however, how to publish so varied papers was subject to discussion, it was suggested that it be done as a Cdrom (someone noted that it might be outdated soon) or perhaps even online, as much of the material was virtual and should come with plenty of pictures and links.

I cannot thank the organizers enough for inviting me and letting me participate in this groundbreaking conference, and also while allowing me to for a few days call myself a professional blogger (why one would want to do that is something to think about), doing something so unconventional as having their conference blogged, which fits nicely into the theme of the conference, classics in the computer age.

(There will be one more installment, about my talk that night at the students’ association, but this concludes the conference.)

No comments: