Learning Old English in the Digital Age

Today I did a bit of research to see if I can find an online Old English/Anglo-Saxon study group and found a nice site about the Old English language which featured some very useful online exercises in what it calls the Workout Room. The website is an accompaniment to Peter S. Baker's Introduction to Old English. I really like the online exercises which test word form recognition, and thought that the book might be worth purchasing from Amazon.

The book I'm currently using is Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson's A Guide to Old English, which was an assigned book from my Old English undergrad course. It was pretty dense then and it is still dense now, but at least I have the leisure to study the paradigms at my own pace. In class, we were forced to jump into translations without learning very much about structure and grammar, as it is customarily done with modern day languages as French and German. For the most part, I looked up practically every word in the texts since I was hesitant to guess at them and wanted the certainty of knowing that I was not misinterpreting anything. As you can imagine, this was very tedious. I felt that it would have been easier if the paradigms were taught, but I suspect that we wouldn't have been able to cover as many texts if that had been the case.

I also found an iPhone app called Old English from Liberation Philology. I haven't tried it yet, since I just downloaded it today, but I hope that it will help me to remember the paradigms. Since I spend most of my time travelling to work, I thought I could use it during my commute. As an aside, Liberation Philology seem to have other fantastic apps for those who love languages. The other medieval apps they have include Old Norse, Gothic and Old Occitan - wow! Latin, French and German are already on my wishlist.

I'm also thinking that maybe becoming a docent in medieval art would be enough for me. As much as I would love the satisfaction of having a Ph.D after my name and the recognition of achievement that goes with it, at the age of 40, I'm not sure if going back to school would be a wise financial move for me. I've been reading blogs and commentaries about the difficulties of finding a teaching position, as well as how those who are actually able to secure a teaching position have little time for research since their time is consumed by teaching, grading, advising students and other administrative tasks. Right now, I have the freedom to choose what I would like to study at the pace I am comfortable with. I just have to keep focused.