AbleMedia LLC

Needham, MA - September 14, 2005 – Stories of lust, scandal, and decadence in the biographies of ancient political figures attract students to classical studies, according to Prof. Margaret Cotter-Lynch. Cotter-Lynch, an Assistant Professor at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, is this week’s AbleMedia Bronze Chalice winner for her Teaching Ancient Biography published on the Classics Technology Center on the Web (CTCWeb, http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb).

“Cotter-Lynch plays on college students’ inner tabloid-loving voyeurism to stimulate learning in a course she calls ‘Classical Heroes & Villains,’” said Wendy E. Owens, CTCWeb Editor-in-Chief. “In her award-winning posting on CTCWeb, she teaches other educators how to stimulate libidos to make biographies about dead Romans and Greeks interesting to modern students.”

In Teaching Ancient Biography, Cotter-Lynch provides more than just well-crafted lecture notes, historical background, and in-class discussion questions. She demonstrates why public interest in the lives of the major political figures is timeless. Cotter-Lynch’s impressive attention to detail and conversational prose make her insights into the works of ancient biographers accessible to both students and teachers. To aid other educators in preparing to teach a course in ancient biographies, Cotter-Lynch describes how visual materials can amplify students’ understanding of what biography is and what the ancient biographers accomplished.

“I find that teaching Plutarch and Suetonius provides students with an excellent way to become engaged in Classical Studies, by seeing the relevance of the ancient world to their current lives,” said Cotter-Lynch. “In these biographies, students read about personalities, political maneuverings, and virtues and vices, which they recognize from their own experiences and from current events, illustrating the continual importance of learning from the past.”

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 eighth 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.

Keyword	Google Rank
Gladiators	#1 out of 1.13 million
Roman Gladiator	#1 out of 368,000
Latin Mottoes	#1 out of 15,800
Movie Gladiator	#1 out of 705,000
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Greek Tragedy	#1 out of 920,000
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Homer’s Iliad	#3 out of 95,800
Sophocles’ Antigone	#3 out of 103,000
Ancient Olympics	#4 out of 2.3 million
Etymology Dictionary	#5 out of 1.49 million

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