Corredor Creates Virtual Tour for LS 307 Reading
Continuing our series on RS faculty and the transition to remote teaching, today we share an innovative project developed by Boris Corredor, lecturer in Spanish. Corredor has created a virtual ‘tour’ of Mexico to supplement readings for his LS 307 class. He describes the project:
I have developed an interactive virtual exercise for my LS 307 class that is working really well, as it has motivated students to engage more actively with literature as well as Mexico’s rich culture. The main purpose of this exercise is to help students develop an in-depth understanding of a short story by Italo Calvino translated into Spanish. “Sol jaguar” follows a middle-aged Italian couple on vacation in Mexico. The trip serves as a framework for the couple to reflect on their life but also on Mexican history and culture.
I created a virtual tour for the students to follow the characters’ trajectories throughout the journey. Using Aeon time-line software, we divided the story into time-space sequences and put the events in chronological order (which is not the order in which the narrative unfolds).
After completing that stage, we implemented google earth into the timeline, in order to add a virtual aspect to the tour. We visually follow the couple’s journey, starting in Italy, traveling to Mexico City, and then visiting the paradigmatic Mexican village of Tepoztlán. Here we visit a sixteenth-century monastery and then follow the couple to a traditional local restaurant, where we imagine a delicious meal of “chiles en nogada”, a sophisticated dish conceived by nuns in the sixteenth century. The trip then takes us to Oaxaca where we stay at the Camino Real hotel. The building, originally a convent, boasts beautiful architecture and old paintings. The tour continues to Monte Albán, impressive Zapotec ruins at the outskirts of Oaxaca.
My plan is to continue developing the virtual tour in order to encompass all the locations in the story. I hope that by studying the story in this way, my students will have a deeper understanding and appreciation of Mexican culture and history.
Here is the work-in-progress link to the tour. When you open the link click on “Present” to start the tour
Lastly, I want to mention that this is part of a larger project I am developing thanks to the kind support of a Geddes-mini grant.