AbleMedia LLC

MEDFORD, MA - February 6, 2002 - Florida teachers are using the Internet to transport ancient personalities into the present to launch their students into the future. For creating a time warp in cyberspace, Sue Shelton and Kay Ruhle, Latin teachers at The Florida Virtual School in Orlando are this week’s AbleMedia Bronze Chalice winners for Back to the Future: Teaching Latin in Cyberspace published on the Classics Technology Center on the Web (CTCWeb, http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb). “Why sit in a classroom and be lectured when you can logon to a virtual classroom and learn Latin from some unreal characters,” said Wendy E. Owens, CTCWeb Editor-in-Chief.

In Back to the Future: Teaching Latin in Cyberspace, Shelton and Ruhle describes their techniques for teaching Latin in a virtual environment via the Internet. According to Shelton and Ruhle “delivering lectures online is not possible or desirable,” so they use virtual characters to introduce students to new material. Students are introduced to Latin vocabulary by the virtual character Lucius, while his counterpart Magister Grammaticus teaches students Latin grammar. Shelton and Ruhle also provide a brief description of The Florida Virtual School’s education philosophy of “any time, any place, any path learning” that is the basis for their methods for teaching Latin online.

Shelton and Ruhle’s virtual Latin courses are not only about learning Latin. “Through our translations students learn about the culture and history of the Romans,” Shelton said. Students are required to do research projects exploring the social, economic, and political history of ancient Rome. Shelton and Ruhle provide links to Websites that they have reviewed to assist students with their research. Not all learning in Shelton and Ruhle’s Latin courses is done online, though. “We encourage students to rely not only the computer but to use the old fashion flash card,” Ruhle said. Examples of virtual assignments, students’ work, a grading rubric, and the online environment in which students learn are provided in Back to the Future.

Each week AbleOne’s sponsor, AbleMedia, salutes contributors for outstanding submissions to the AbleOne Consortium (http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/consortium/), the CTCWeb Showcase (http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/showcase/), and CTCWeb Netshots™ (http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/netshots.html). Each receives the Bronze Chalice award. AbleMedia awards Silver Chalices for the outstanding submissions of the month. At the end of each year, AbleMedia awards Gold Chalices for the outstanding submissions of the year.

AbleOne serves millions of educators, students, and other users in over 100 countries and the number of users is tripling annually. AbleOne’s CTCWeb is a repository of practical tools, for classicists and other educators, to enhance the use of computer technology in Classics education. At CTCWeb, students, educators and others find the free dissemination and open exchange of practical educational materials, systems, and applications by individuals and organizations involved in the Classics community. AbleMedia sponsors CTCWeb as part its AbleOne Education Network.

The AbleOne Education Network (AbleOne) is an online educational resource for millions of educators and students at the K-12 and post secondary levels around the globe. For seven years, AbleOne’s has used the Internet to provide quality teaching and learning materials to its rapidly growing corps of dedicated users: educators, students, and other curious minds worldwide. For more about AbleOne go to http://ablemedia.com/ableone.

The Internet’s #1 search engine loves AbleOne. AbleOne’s educational materials routinely appear among the top five results for Google keyword searches within the educational disciplines covered by AbleOne’s Centers.

AbleMedia LLC is a global management and technology consulting firm. For over a quarter of a century, we have served the best, the brightest and the biggest in business, technology, and education. AbleMedia can be found on the Web at http://ablemedia.com.