Distance learning and interschool collaboration in the classics classroom: the example of <i>Antigone</i>

Abstract The implementation of distance learning in Greece during the 2020 to 2021 school years due to the pandemic was a necessary solution for the continuation of education, presenting challenges. It offered new opportunities for the use of technology in the educational process and highlighted the importance of flexibility and adaptability in education. One example of the new possibilities was interschool collaborations and the joint implementation of programmes and activities. Through the platform Webex, used by the Greek educational system, schools from different regions were able to collaborate, exchange ideas and materials, enhance communication, promote the exchange of cultural experiences, and broaden the horizons of students and educators. The interschool programme titled A Thousand and One Interpretations: The Reception of Antigone through Different Forms of Art was designed and implemented through the collaboration of 2 educators and 2 second-year high school classes, one from the Varvakeio Model High School in Athens (a school where pupils are selected through examinations in Greek language and Maths at the age of 12 years) and the other from the 3rd General High School of Serres (a suburban school in Northern Greece). With the main objectives being the creative integration of art into the teaching of a compulsory curriculum subject 1 and collaboration between 2 schools of different types (model and conventional) from different regions, 6 mixed groups (each group included students from both schools) were formed. These groups studied and explored the relationship between Sophocles’s Antigone and contemporary works of art that reinterpret and recreate the ancient tragedy.