Siegfried the Dragonslayer Meets the Web: Using Digital Media for Developing Historical Awareness and Advanced Language and Critical Thinking Skills1

Abstract

This article describes an undergraduate, German‐language course that aimed to improve students' language skills, critical thinking, and declarative knowledge of German history and culture by studying multiple manifestations of the legend of Siegfried the Dragonslayer. The course used web‐based e‐learning tools to address two major learning challenges. Because learning to think and work with chronological data was required, a web‐based timeline building tool, Google Docs Simile, was used to put students in charge of navigating the enormous historical range of the material. The second, related challenge emerged from the geographic, linguistic, and evidentiary diversity of the surviving material, which challenged students to acquire a degree of cultural literacy for an entire region and to apply appropriate interpretive tools to different kinds of evidence. To support this learning outcome, students used blog tool to write a final, collaborative project, in which they designed a simulated alumni tour. The course enhanced students' language skills and built critical historical knowledge essential for understanding German‐speaking lands.