By Wilf O'Neill, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Developments in ICT have greatly enriched the resources available to teachers of Classics, especially so in the case of Latin. While such resources are proving invaluable in schools by providing material for homework and other assignments as well as for independent and guided research by students, they perhaps come into their own in the area of independent and distance learning and in providing Latin for students in schools where there is no specialist teacher.

The background

Until the universities of Oxford and Cambridge removed the requirement for all students to have a qualification in Latin, schools and teachers were guaranteed an uptake for the subject in the UK. The ending of this requirement could easily have finished off Latin in schools, and although there has been an appreciable decline in the numbers taking Latin, it is a tribute to the positive response to the crisis that the subject still exists in schools and that the developments outlined here are taking place. The opportunity to devise new styles of teaching and learning which could bring Latin to a much wider range of students was seized upon eagerly. Thus was born the reading course of which the Cambridge Latin Course (CLC) is the predominant example.
The course, first published in 1970, was well established when, in 1999, Bob Lister, the then Director of CSCP, the body responsible for the creation of the CLC, conceived the notion of Latin eLearning. This began in a modest way, with PGCE students at Cambridge marking work sent to them via email by the first online students. This Cambridge Online Latin Project (COLP) now caters for both school-based students in UK schools and independent learners worldwide. Alongside the textbooks, COLP students are provided with Independent Learning Manuals which expand on the material in the textbooks and provide advice and help for those working alone.

A major breakthrough came in 2000, when the UK government decided to run a pilot scheme to develop eLearning resources in the three curriculum areas of Numeracy, Japanese and Latin, the two latter chosen as minority subjects especially well placed to benefit from this approach. In the event, the £5m contract to develop the Latin materials went to a consortium consisting of CSCP, CUP (as publishers of CLC), and the media company Granada.

Pilot materials were created and trialled in schools and at the time of writing, a DVD with resources for Book I of the course is due for imminent publication. Further work was undertaken on a similar resource for Book II which should appear in 2005. Parallel with all of this, CSCP themselves are constantly developing the Project's CLC website which provides free access to a varied selection of resources including interactive versions of stories, vocabulary testers, an audio dictionary and much more.

The materials

The electronic materials are based closely on the course books but go well beyond being simply an electronic version of the course. Each element in the course has been provided with resources, many of them interactive. Thus students can listen to a story being read, or in some cases see it acted out, and then explore it by way of hypertext, which gives the meaning and grammar of each word. Numerous exercises are provided along with explanations of language features. The civilisation aspect of the course is also supported with a wealth of activities, images and video clips.

How it all works

The materials (both e-resource and web-based) are extremely flexible and can be used in many different ways and circumstances.
In schools with a Latin specialist teacher:
Ø       in the conventional classroom, via data projector/electronic whiteboard;
Ø       by students for homework assignments and independent research (especially useful where Latin has reduced space on the timetable or is taught in extracurricular sessions;
Ø       to provide a taster for prospective students (I myself used this approach for several years to give Year 9 pupils experience of the subject prior to their opting for a higher level course, with pupils working on their own and submitting work for marking by email).
In schools without a Latin teacher:
Ø       schools wishing to make Latin available but unable to provide a specialist teacher can become Partnership Schools with COLP, in which case students are supervised in their Latin sessions by a facilitator, who may or may not have some knowledge of Latin and whose role is to help students with encouragement and technical support; work is sent electronically to an e-tutor or e-marker who will check it and return it to the student.
Outside school:
Ø       there are many people of all ages and backgrounds wishing to learn or renew their existing knowledge of Latin and for these COLP provides support via an e-tutor alongside the print and electronic materials.
It is clear from feedback that both teachers/facilitators and students enjoy the materials and the approach. Some schools have found this an excellent way of enriching their curriculum in line with other UK government initiatives aimed at gifted children.

Speaking personally ...

I have been involved with COLP for about four years as an e-tutor for Independent Learners (ILs). I have tutored almost 50 students to date, mostly true ILs but in two cases groups of school students working as ILs. Students have ranged in age from 13 to 86 and have come from places as far afield as the USA, Israel, Luxembourg and Australia, as well as the UK. Clearly they all have widely differing reasons for studying Latin: some are total beginners, some returning learners; some are doing it purely for its own sake, others for career-related reasons. Not all students succeed and some give up: personal circumstances may change, making continued study impractical. One student was so keen that she decided to enrol on a university course instead, so not all drop-outs are failures! In this regard the experience of COLP is not dissimilar to that of other distance-learning providers.

Although teaching ILs and learning this way is of necessity different to traditional methods and has inherent disadvantages, there are some distinct benefits. From the teaching point of view, although one loses the interaction between teacher and student and between the students themselves, there is the bonus of dealing with one student at a time without the interruptions common in schools (not that working at home is completely distraction free!). Email can at times provide very prompt feedback and there is always a telephone when an immediate response is needed. Videoconferencing is already being used to bridge the gap with school-based groups and webcams and online chat are starting to be used to good effect with ILs. The gains and losses for students are similar. No discussion with or picking the brains of classmates but the undivided attention of a personal, if somewhat remote, tutor. (I still smile at the recollection of an email message from a new school-age student who enquired as to whether I was a real person or simply a machine!). Quite apart from the Latin, learning in this way gives excellent practice in being organised and self-reliant.

I have also been involved in the creation of the eLearning resource as language adviser to Granada. This has been an interesting experience, involving not only quality control over spoken Latin (coaching and monitoring actors) but also creating audio voice-overs for many of the narrations. Beyond the pilot materials for Books I and II, I have also recorded the text and wordlist for the remainder of the course for use on the CSCP website. All very interesting and immensely rewarding!
Some final thoughts

ELearning is emphatically not a substitute for a live teacher and learning Latin in the classroom with a good teacher will continue to be the best way. For many students, however, this is simply not an option and we are trying to make the eLearning experience as real and valuable as possible. One technique being developed to try to bridge the gap is the use of videoconferencing which allows for real time interaction between teacher and students (see the article mentioned below).

One final thought, from a personal perspective as a registered blind person, is that materials of this kind could make Latin (and other subjects) more readily accessible to those with partial or no sight by using screen-readers and other software (see my article elsewhere in this manual).

So where is Latin going and will these new resources help in its promotion and survival? Only time will tell, but e-Latin is already bringing the language within reach of many who would otherwise not be able to study it.
Abbreviations & definitions
CLC     Cambridge Latin Course
COLP   Cambridge Online Latin Project
CSCP   Cambridge School Classics Project
CUP    Cambridge University Press
IL       Independent Learner
JCT     The Journal of Classics Teaching
E-tutor         
A specialist Latin teacher whose role is to mark and return work sent electronically, and to provide support and advice to students, whether as part of a school group or working independently.
E-marker      
As the name suggests, someone who simply checks and returns work without additional comment or advice. E-markers may be teachers or university students.
Independent Learner
Someone who has enrolled as a private individual working from home and not as part of a school group.
Partnership School   
A school which has enrolled a group of students with COLP in order to obtain support at one of several levels (see CSCP website for details).
Some references
The Interim report on COLP and other materials on Latin and the Roman World can be found on the CSCP website at http://www.cambridgescp.com
Will Griffiths: Introducing Latin into Schools (JCT 3/1 p20)
Panos Seranis: E-tutoring of Independent Learners of Latin - Views and Reflections (JCT 3/2 p11)
Gill Mead: Video Conferencing Latin (JCT 3/2 p14)
Will Griffiths: Cambridge School Classics Project - ICT Developments (JCT 3/2 p26)