George Whitefield
Nov 11, 2022: Pepperdine/Seaver College: Back to the Past: Dr. Lisa Smith and the Genesis Lab Innovate New Virtual Reality Assignment
Dr. Lisa Smith does things differently. Whether it's her final exam, which calls on students to create a playlist of contemporary music related to a novel, or an assignment that pushes the course content outside of the classroom, Seaver College’s assistant professor of teaching of English does not go by the book.
“A lot of students dislike taking a 300 level literature class,” Smith admits. “Many of them haven’t had literature since high school. So I try to do things that are fun and different.”
Driven by this challenge to innovate, Smith collaborated with Payson Library’s Genesis Lab to create an immersive assignment for her ENG 380 class entitled, Passion and the Pen: Documents of the First Great Awakening. Given the dense and focused nature of this topic, Smith sought to incorporate new and exciting technology into her curriculum. Thus, she came up with an idea to seize her students’ attention – a virtual reality experience of George Whitefield’s Great Awakening speaking tour.
Dr. Lisa Smith does things differently. Whether it's her final exam, which calls on students to create a playlist of contemporary music related to a novel, or an assignment that pushes the course content outside of the classroom, Seaver College’s assistant professor of teaching of English does not go by the book.
“A lot of students dislike taking a 300 level literature class,” Smith admits. “Many of them haven’t had literature since high school. So I try to do things that are fun and different.”
Driven by this challenge to innovate, Smith collaborated with Payson Library’s Genesis Lab to create an immersive assignment for her ENG 380 class entitled, Passion and the Pen: Documents of the First Great Awakening. Given the dense and focused nature of this topic, Smith sought to incorporate new and exciting technology into her curriculum. Thus, she came up with an idea to seize her students’ attention – a virtual reality experience of George Whitefield’s Great Awakening speaking tour.
Whitefield was a staunch Calvinist. His central theme -- what must I do to be saved? -- was not new. His preaching style was. Ministers traditionally wrote sermons in longhand and read the text out loud in a dull monotone. The effect was often soporific. Drawing on his youthful foray into drama, Whitefield memorized his sermons, spoke without notes, varied the timbre of his voice and gestured with abandon. He drew freely on his own emotions, crying out, "My Master! My Lord!" It was said that he could utter the word "Mesopotamia" so that the entire crowd wept. The effect was electric. Crowds responded with outpourings of emotion. People cried, sobbed, shrieked, swooned and fainted. All of New England, it seemed, was seized by a spiritual convulsion.
