Teaching Milton in the Electronic Age

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Teaching Milton in the Electronic Age

• Pros, Cons, and Complications

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Liberated Learning
www.liberatedlearning.com
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An international project

• Australian National University, Australia
• Cambrian College, Ontario
• Central TAFE College, Australia
• Messiah College, United States
• Murdoch University, Australia
• Purdue University, United States
• Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia
• University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia
• Trent University, Ontario
• Psychology
• Computer Science
• English

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My recruitment!

• Eunice Lund-Lucas Trents Disabilities Office
• Jan Myland Liberated Learning Support
• Liberated Learning meets English 365H English
  Canadian Poetry (WI 2004)
• The cons
• The pros
• Why continue?

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English 365H - sample responses

• I didnt find the in-class or online
  transcripts useful I found that listening to
  the audio while having the Powerpoint
  presentation in front of me was very useful while
  studying.
• The transcriptions were distracting until I got
  used to ignoring the humorous misquotes. If I
  missed something you said during lecture it was a
  good way to pick it up.
• I found the simultaneous transcription both
  distracting and useful I knew I would be able
  to catch up with the lecture because I could just
  get the points as they moved on the screen,
  which made it easier to just LISTEN to the
  lecture.
• I made use of pretty much everything on the WebCT
  transcriptions, audio files, Powerpoint slides
  especially in exam preparation, and, as I said,
  the additional resources were helpful but also
  just plain interesting.
• a valuable tool to have in the classroom, not
  just for the disabled, but for everyone.

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ENGL 201 Milton his Age

• classroom
• simultaneous transcription of lecture
• Powerpoint (text, image, sound)
• seminar
• seminar reports
• discussion
• WebCT course site
• syllabus
• assignments
• grades spreadsheet
• vetted research resources
• lecture notes
• threads before class
• audio, edited transcript, Powerpoint after
  class
• student-generated material

3 tiers of technology classroom delivery
course resource centre instructor
student-generated
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Voice recognition in the classroom
extra stimulus cues and clues to the
speakers logic focusing (and re-focusing)
of attention

• supporting students with
• physical disabilities
• hearing (transcription)
• sight (audio recording)
• dexterity (note-taking)
• learning perceptual disabilities
• attention deficit
• dyslexia
• cultural or linguistic differences
• ESL and international students
• a range of learning styles
• providing aids and options in
• following oral argument
• note-taking

And outside of the classroom in study and review
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The Process
from, Liberated Learning Network ViaScribe
Project (November 28, 2003)
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The ideal candidate

• the university lecture
• broadcast delivery
• delivered in a well-equipped lecture theatre
• networked computer
• data-projector
• supplemented by audio processor and headset
• a course with a single instructor
• a specific focus
• a predictable vocabulary
• enabling training of the voice recognition
  software (keyed to the individual instructor)
• offered on a regular rotation

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Voice recognition meets the text-based course

• lecture/seminar courses
• ENGL 365H Canadian Poetry (36 / WI 2004)
• ENGL 201 Milton (40-45 / FW 2004-05)
• unequipped classroom or small lecture hall
• portable equipment
• computer, projector, audio processor, headset
• a single instructor (a rarity)
• a diverse focus
• an eccentric (and archaic) poetic vocabularies
  and
• emphasis on textual form as well as content
• offered in alternating years

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Special problems for VRS

• highly structured poetic texts (verse)
• archaic vocabulary
• cultural and literary allusions
• eccentric (latinate) syntax
• Solution
• supplemental technology
• Make the problem an opportunity!

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Pythagorus,The Cosmos as Musical Instrument
Lecture sample
From Robert Fludd, Utrisque comsmi... historia
(1617-19).
This illustration represents one way of ordering
the heavens and earth in musical harmony the
mystic threes begin with God, whose hand is
visible at the top, and descend in groups of
three as "Diapasons" (harmonic scales) through
the spheres to the earth. Cosmic order was seen
in both music and dance. Shakespeares Life
and Times Home Page
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The Music of the Spheres
Lecture sample

• Spherical music
• Each scale or "mode" in medieval music was
  associated with a
• particular sphere or planet (seven scales, seven
  planets), and each
• had a characteristic meaning and mood (much as do
  the two
• common remaining scales today, major and minor).
  Plainsong
• chants, simple and graceful in melody, were
  followed by the
• glorious church music of the high Renaissance
  (hear a mass by
• William Byrd), still written in the ancient
  modes.
• Spherical dancing
• As the spheres moved in their stately dance to
  the music of
• the spheres, so humans could move in the motion
  of a dance,
• imitating the circles and figures of the cosmos.
  Thus dance was a
• way of celebrating order in society and nature.
  The court masque
• was an especially self-conscious expression of
  the ideal.
• Shakespeares Life and Times Home Page

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Prolusion II
Lecture sample

• ... who in his senses would suppose that
  Pythagorus, a very god among philosophers, ...
  ever put forward a theory based on such very poor
  foundations? Surely ... it was only as a means
  of suggesting allegorically the close
  interrelation of the orbs and their uniform
  revolution in accordance with the laws of destiny
  for ever. In this he followed the example of the
  poets, or (what is almost the same thing) of the
  divine oracles, who never display before the eyes
  of the vulgar any holy or secret mystery unless
  it be in some way closed or veiled.
• ... Aristotle ... foisted on Pythagorus a
  literal
• doctrine of the unheard symphony of heaven and
  the melody of the spheres. (p. 851)

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At a Solemn Music
Lecture sample
BLest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heav'ns
joy,Sphear-born harmonious Sisters, Voice, and
Vers,Wed your divine sounds, and mixt power
employDead things with inbreath'd sense able to
pierce,And to our high-rais'd phantasie present,
5 That undisturbed Song of pure concent,Ay
sung before the saphire-colour'd throneTo him
that sits theronWith Saintly shout, and solemn
Jubily,Where the bright Seraphim in burning row
10 Their loud up-lifted Angel trumpets
blow,And the Cherubick host in thousand
quiresTouch their immortal Harps of golden
wires,With those just Spirits that wear
victorious Palms,Hymns devout and holy Psalms
15 Singing everlastingly..
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At a Solemn Music (2)
Lecture sample
metric structure rhythmic variations
? ? ? ? ?
iambic pentameter / / o / o
/ o o / / BLest pair of
Sirens, pledges of Heav'ns joy, ? ?
? ? ? / /
o / o / o / o
/ Sphear-born harmonious Sisters, Voice, and
Vers, / o o / / o
/ / o / Wed your divine
sounds, and mixt power employ / ø
o o / / / o o
/ Dead things with inbreath'd sense able to
pierce,
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At a Solemn Music (3)
Lecture sample
Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heavns joy
Sphear-born harmonious Sisters, Voice, and Vers
(ll. 1-2)
Prolusion II Platos metaphor that upon
each of the celestial orbs is seated a being
called a Siren, at whose mellifluous song both
gods and men are rapt in wonder.
The Sirens in Greek Mythology
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At a Solemn Music (4)
Lecture sample
Christianization of the story referred to in
Prolusion II of how the Muses dance before
Joves altar day and night hence too the
attribution to Pheobus, in the remote past, of
musical skill.. Hence the belief held by revered
antiquity that Harmonia was the daughter of Jove
and Electra, and that at her marriage to Cadmus
all the choirs in heaven sung in concert. (p.
851b)

• Hans Memling, Christ Surrounded by Musician
  Angels (1480s)

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At a Solemn Music (5)
Lecture sample
The Nativity Ode Ring out ye Chrystall
sphears, Once bless our human ears, (If ye
have power to touch our senses so) And let your
silver chime Move in melodious time, And let
the Base of Heavns deep Organ blow, And with
your ninefold harmony Make up full consort to th
Angelike symphony. For if such holy Song Enwrap
our fancy long Time will run back, and fetch
the age of gold. (XllI, l. 124-XVI, l. 135)
Matthais Grunwald, A Consort of Angels at the
Nativity (1515)
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Responses
From Leitch and McMillan, Final Research Report
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English 201 responses (31 of 39 students)

• How often did you watch the digitized lecture?
• Frequently 6 (19.4 )
• Sometimes 15 (48.4 )
• Rarely 7 (22.6 )
• Never 3 (9.7 )
• How often did you compare your own notes with the
  displayed lecture in your LLP class?
• Frequently 2 (6.5 )
• Sometimes 3 (9.3 )
• Rarely 9 (29 )
• Never 17 (54.8 )
• What did you focus your attention on in class?
• Digitized lecture 0
• Professor 22 (71 )
• Powerpoint 11 (35.5 )

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English 201 responses (2)

• Did the displayed lecture detract in any way from
  the lecture?
• Every time 2 (6.5 )
• Sometimes 9 (29 )
• Rarely 13 (41.9 )
• Never 7 (22. 6 )
• How useful was the displayed lecture in terms of
  improving the way you take notes in class?
• Very useful 4 (12.9 )
• Useful 2 (6.5 )
• Somewhat useful 15 (48.4 )
• Not useful 10 (32.3 )
• How often did you obtain Online Lecture notes for
  this class?
• Everytime posted 4 (12.9 )
• Sometimes 6 (19.4 )
• Rarely 10 (32.3 )

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English 201 responses (3)

• How often did you use the Online Lecture notes
  for this class?
• Frequently 4 (12.9 )
• Sometimes 6 (19.4 )
• Rarely 10 (32.3 )
• Never 12 (38.7 )
• How would you rate the ease of use of the Online
  Notes?
• Very easy 13 (41.9 )
• Somewhat easy 8 (25.8 )
• Difficult 3 (9.7 )
• No Opinion 7 (22.6 )
• Would you recommend a Liberated learning class to
  others?
• Yes 22 (71 )
• No 4 (12.9 )
• No Opinion 2 (6.5 )

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Would you recommend a Liberated Learning Project
class to others?
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Instructional outcomes

• The benefits
• Evident in course evaluations
• Access
• Effect on note-taking, study habits
• The glitches
• humour and frustration
• The word penis repeatedly appearing on the
  screen during a lecture on Comus (an allegorical
  drama celebrating chastity)
• The unexpected
• Students
• Affect on the students seminar presentations
• Affect on citation habits
• Spin-offs
• Milton reading group
• Radio dramatization of Paradise Lost (ongoing)
• ? a new resource for future classes ?
• Faculty

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Bibiliography

• English 201 Milton his Age. English Department
  Course Evaluations and Liberated Learning
  Project Evaluations. Trent University, April
  2005.
• Leitch, David and Trish McMillan. Innovative
  Technology and Inclusion Current Issues and
  Future Directions for Liberated Learning
  Research. Halifax, Nova Scotia St. Marys
  University, IBM, J.W. McConnell Foundation,
  2003.
• ___. How Students with Disabilities Respond to
  Speech Recognition Technology in the University
  Classroom Final Research Report. Halifax, Nova
  Scotia St. Marys University, J.W. McConnell
  Foundation, 2002.
• Liberated Learning Brochure. www.liberatedlearni
  ng.com