Protocols for Online Teaching of Thucydides: The ‘Final Word’ Case Study

Abstract

This paper sets out to describe and analyze issues relating to the role of new literacies and technologies in the teaching process. More specifically, the article deals with how the educational design process of Ancient Greek changes through the implementation of technology by using online discussion protocols. These were utilized as a tool for active learning and as an alternative proposal for teaching in the text of Thucydides ‘Epitaphios’ (Funeral Oration of Pericles), in the third grade of Lyceum at an Athens school during the 2013-2014 school year. The significance of this teaching proposal based on two facts: it is compatible with the philosophy that governs the New Curriculum for the lesson of Ancient Greek and secondly the need to modernize the teaching methodology of this lesson taking into account the new technological facts in the context of digital literacy. The reference point was the highlighting of the social and political character of this text and their projections in the contemporary era. The evaluation of the students’ activities showed that students collaborated to a satisfactory degree, approached knowledge constructively, structured and restructured it, while generating their own interpretations, comparisons and conclusions.

Keywords: Ancient Greek literature; teaching methods; literacy; New Technologies