Stanford Launches Literature and Social Online Learning Class
Stanford University has wrapped its
inaugural session of Literature
and Social Online Learning, a new, interdisciplinary class that brings
together students from computer science and the humanities to collaborate on
literature technology projects.
Students in the course work individually and in interdisciplinary teams to
"study, develop and test new digital methods, games, apps, interactive social
media uses to innovate how the humanities can engage and educate students and
the public today," according to the course description on Stanford's site. The
course aims to help students learn to communicate across disciplines, rethink
literature education and develop new ideas for using technology in the
classroom.
The course also introduces project-based learning — where students work to
solve a problem or build a product — to the humanities. While project-based
learning is common in computer science classes, it's unusual in the humanities,
but "students found the model motivating and exciting," according to a news
release from Stanford.
Some of the literature technology projects developed through the course
include:
- A series of e-books pairing poems with accompanying audio tracks read by
the poets;
- Cureador, a tool for sharing
book recommendations with friends and family;
- ParallelLit, a tool for
comparing literary translations side-by-side;
- BookTracks, a forum for creating soundtracks to novels;
- Think'der, a mobile encyclopedia of thinkers and theorists, inspired by
Tinder, a popular dating app;
- (RE)write project, an
online collaborative reimagining of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice,
currently offering six alternative storylines; and
- Kvizsterical, an online
collection of engaging literary quizzes, with topics ranging from literary
monsters to authors snubbed for the Nobel Prize.
The course was developed by Petra Dierkes-Thrun, a lecturer in Stanford's
comparative literature department, and Sebastian Thrun, a research professor in
the Stanford computer science department and CEO of Udacity.
Further information about the course can be found on Stanford's
site.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].