Creating a Virtual Learning Environment for Shakespeares Plays: All the Webs a Stage

Kyle Stooshnov EDULEARN12

Speake the Speech

Top Five Most Quoted Lines

1. To be or not to be, that is the question. 2. All the worlds a stage 3. O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? 4. Now is the winter of our discontent 5. Is this a dagger I see before me
Jamieson (n.d.) about.com

Top Five Most Studied Plays

1. Romeo and Juliet

2. Macbeth
3. Hamlet 4. Julius Caesar 5. A Midsummers Night Dream
LoMonico (2009)

Problems with High School Shakespeare

Language difficulties - Old English
Focus on tests rather than the plays Reliance on video adaptation

Pile of papers instead of learning

Mary Hartman on Playing the Plays

The Director of Education for Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival in Vancouver, Canada

Shakespeare in Elementary School

The work of a child is play
Gee (2004)

Children have the natural curiosity

needed to explore the plays in a fun and safe environment

Vancouver Montessori
From kindergarten to grade three, students were working together on three school productions:
The Tempest (2007) A Midsummers Night Dream (2008) Much Ado about Nothing (2009)

Made use of Richard Carters series of original verse adaptations

North Vancouver School District

Parent/teacher involvement in the
intermediate grades

Integrated lessons explored Globe

Theatre and 16th century England Made use of Alain Chirinians retelling of original text for Romeo & Juliet

Romeo and Juliet (2008)

Martin Stuible gives a prologue to his students production in North Vancouver

Langley School District

A year-end project of grade fives Midsummers Night Dream in 2010 Students researched Greek myths, mapped out the play and composed music using Internet and GarageBand Made use of Lois Burdetts verse adaptation, and may go digital for next production, The Tempest (2013)

Virtual Learning Environments

The Web allows for more than a content delivery platform or reading rooms but also an expressive medium in itself.
Trettien (2010)

the digital world [is] split between highcost packages and cheap or free-access oerings.
Murphy (2010)

Virtual Globes
Previous examples of Shakespeares plays performed in Virtual Worlds: Arden: the World of William Shakespeare Second Lifes mShakespeare Company Minecraft has several theatres, some on fire

Globe Theatre with Actors, from Google SketchUp

Advantages to On-line Learning

Students already more familiar with
networks and social media

Same type of learning happening at

home and at school Semantic mark-up will help to build the learning environment

Required Technology
Interactive whiteboards
Desktop personal computer Laptop/tablet

100 dollar computer

Affordances and Applications

Viewing plays in 3D Globe Theatre
Text-to-speech/karaoke cue sheets

Performances capture
Classroom collaboration Building a database

Shakespeare and Technology

Mary Hartman explores the link between 17th century tech and what todays students are familiar with in network devices

The Design on the VLE

Choose your player

Burbage

Kemp

Condell

Heminges

Cooke

Character design Del Col and McCreery 2010

References
Del Col, A. & McCreery, LoMonico, M. (2009) Shakespearean C. (2010) Kill

Shakespeare
Gee, J. P. (2004)

ruminations and innovations

Situated language and learning

Jamieson, L. (n.d.)

Murphy, A. (2010)

Shakespeare goes digital Disciplining digital humanities, 2010

about.com Shakespeare eduction

Trettien, W. A. (2010)