The original Game of Thrones course at Wilfrid Laurier was ML300 (Game of Thrones and Transmedia Medievalism) in winter and intersession 2015. It examined Game of Thrones as a medievalist cultural phenomenon, taking an interdisciplinary approach that included history, literary and film studies, transmedia storytelling, cyberculture, and fan studies.
When the course was converted into the first-year ML102 (Game of Thrones and Medieval Culture), ML402 (Teaching, Learning, and Thinking Through Medieval Studies) was also created to serve as a pedagogical seminar where students from the upper-year course would serve as instructional assistants in the first-year course.
As well as leading weekly discussion groups, the IAs of ML402 attended intensive weekly classes on pedagogy and classroom management. They produced lesson plans and active learning exercises that added immeasurably to the experience of the first-year students and, not unexpectedly, wound up serving as role models for our incoming Medieval Studies majors.
This blog is the pedagogical legacy of the ML402 classes from fall 2015 (the “Bannermen”) and fall 2016 (the “Onion Knights”).
The Digital Citadel 