Blog Smith is inspired by the myth of Hephaestus in the creation of blacksmith-like, forged materials: ideas. This blog analyzes topics that interest me: IT, politics, technology, history, education, music, and the history of religions.
ATYD
http://www.comcasttix.com/events/venuepg/east/Havana+New+Hope/Havana+New+Hope/
What is the ideal society?
And, how would you build it if you had the chance?
The students will be challenged to build their own civilization in the first part of the course using Sid Meier's game, Civilization. In the second part of the course the class will transition to "Reacting to the Past," a role-playing game which recreates the threshold of democracy in Athens in 403 B.C.
Humanities classes focus on learning about cultures but why not provide students with the means to try and build one themselves? What is ideal way to govern? Should leaders control the people? Should the people do anything they want? How do you balance social vs. individual needs? Can your civilization survive? Can it thrive? How will you mediate conflicts within your civilization?
Democracy is one of the options to govern in Civilization and students will experience first-hand its drawbacks and its advantages. They will have to decide if it works or not in practice. As stated by Winston Churchill:
"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this
world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or
all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."
(House of Commons, 11 November 1947, http://richardlangworth.com/worst-form-of-government)
The challenge for students is to understand how democracy actually works out in practice. The game will allow them to consider the topic of governing a population and teaching civilization and democracy so that students understand history and the need to balance individual vs. social needs.
This is a challenging area since students are working all day, have families, and many other adult responsibilities. It is difficult to convey the humanities material without directly involving them and providing a vehicle for them to learn. Many of our students have attended college previously and it did not work for them. Nonetheless, the mission of the University is to make high quality post-secondary education accessible to adults of diverse backgrounds and is organized around three primary goals: Educational Access, Academic Quality, and Student Success. In our University, we have to be conscious of how traditional androgyny does not always motivate our first-generation college students. Also, we also have a certain percentage of active duty military students or retired military who would find the gaming aspect, and the role-playing course work more involving. The curriculum must be innovative, relevant, and engaging for students. The University is investing in enhancing teaching and learning with technology. New technologies are integrated to enhance student learning, student engagement, and relevancy to the workplace.
I will provide a brief description of how I plan to address the learning challenge. As I understand it, that is the next step of the process. Classes meet for four hours in the evening between 6 - 10 pm. Most of the students have put in a full day of work already before attending class and have numerous other adult responsibilities. Thus, the classes need to be dynamic, and engaging. I can schedule classes in a computer Lab thus the proposal is realistic and should work well on campus.
As described, my pitch has included a brief, concrete description of a situation in which learning is challenging for a number of reasons: full-time working adults, active military, or ex-military adjusting to civilian life, coupled with lengthy 4-hour session classes which can be held in a computer lab. The nature of the content is difficult enough in traditional short session classes, and often students do not obtain actual experience in building a civilization but they just read about it. In my case, I have taught in a wide variety of settings, K-12, traditional college age students, weekend college students, and at my present position which leads me to conclude that this project will go over well.
Relevant Academic literature, news articles, etc., will be listed
COURSE DESCRIPTION/PRINCIPAL TOPICS
This course introduces students to the idea of civilization from its origins in the late Bronze Age to the Renaissance with special focus on Athenian democracy. The course will be introduced with Civilization, a gaming accessory to illustrate the issues of balancing governance, social demands, defense, and a myriad of issues brought on with organizing a society. Thereafter, the class will transition to “Reacting to the Past,” a role-playing game to enable students to relive important intellectual debates in a specific historical moment. With The Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 B.C., students will draw on Plato’s Republic as well as on excerpts from Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, and other contemporary sources to debate the Reconciliation Agreement between Athens and Sparta after nearly three decades of war (431-404 BC). Topics may include: Homeric poetry; Greek religion; from Dark Age to city-state, 900-600 B.C.; Herodotus and the Persian Wars (490–479 B.C.); Freedom and imperialism: the Athenian Empire; Athenian democracy and society; Attic drama; Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War (431–404 B.C.); Radical ideas and radical reactions; Socrates and Plato. By examining democracy at its threshold, the game provides the perspective to consider its subsequent evolution.
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students will:
1. Explain how key social, cultural, and artistic contributions contribute to historical changes.
2. Explain the importance of situating a society’s cultural and artistic expressions within a historical context.
3. Identify major historical developments in world cultures during the eras of antiquity to the Renaissance.
4. Identify and describe key artistic styles in the visual arts of world cultures during the eras of antiquity to the Renaissance.
5. Identify and describe key literary works, styles, and writers from world cultures during the eras of antiquity to the Renaissance.
6. Explore the presence of cultural parallels between the world’s cultures.
7. Examine the influences of intellectual, religious, political, and socio-economic forces on social, cultural, and artistic expressions.
8. Use technology and information resources to research issues in the study of world cultures.
9. Write clearly and concisely about world cultures using proper writing mechanics.
10. Demonstrate their
knowledge
of basic literary, philosophical, social, and cultural
developments
that affect the interpretation of texts, artifacts, and historical events.
11. Develop strategies on
how to read and/or interpret
literary
texts and artifacts from the
ancient world,
such as art objects, material remains, monuments, inscriptions, and so on.
12. Appraise information in
primary sources
so as to
appreciate the values of the ancient
Greek culture.
13. Distinguish the
different theoretical approaches in evaluating primary sources from the
ancient Greek world.
14. Create and Role
-
play a character based on primary sources, representing key positions,
as outlined in
the Student Reader.
15. Engage
in debate through
improvisation and composition of consistent, historically
accurate and carefully argued speeches.
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