Inspired by Teaching

I am an advocate of the flipped classroom for the humanities. In the first years of teaching an undergraduate art history course, I repeated the instruction styles of my professors. I thought I had to lecture and produce a slide show for 3 hours every week. My students would passively take notes on the 100s of facts thrown at them, and dutifully regurgitate the information on the exam. But, this song and dance never felt like I was changing their lives. I am so passionate about the field and yet, my students shuffled into class and sunk into their chairs each week. Was I boring them to death? Was I not a good instructor? It was not until the 5th year that I realized my students were withering under cognitive overload -- and I was the cause of it.

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The remedy for that course was for students to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art and to choose an artwork from the Greco-Roman galleries. They were required to research the object and create a digital diorama with their chosen art piece situated with the ancient Grecian or Roman environment. My favorite presentation came from a student who chose the ancient Greek bronze horse armor. He found an illustration of a Greek battle and photoshopped all of the bronze armor pieces on to the main horse. From behind the glass encasement, the students brought these artworks to life!

 

That course completely changed my teaching perspective. We, in the humanities, owe it to our students, and ourselves, to give them an active role in their learning through a creative digital outlet. The twenty-first century student has instant access to the world's knowledge in their pockets and we must tap into these tools to provide instruction that goes beyond the yesteryear of lecture-slideshow presentations. 

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Sondra Phifer

Founder & Creator