Talk Session Proposal by Jennifer Ahern-Dodson and Aria Chernik

Digital pedagogy does not denote merely the practice of “teaching with technology.” Similar to Jesse Stommel’s notion of hybrid pedagogy, we understand digital pedagogy to be an orientation toward sustained, critical reflection on how emergent technology and digital culture fundamentally transform not only where we teach and learn but also the kinds of knowledge we can produce. Digital pedagogy embraces the freeplay and indeterminacy of intellectual rigor and is not defined by the use of discrete classroom practices or digital tools. We propose a session in which participants articulate the affordances of digital pedagogy and knowledge and strategize about how we can productively reach out to colleagues and promote institutional change to embrace and facilitate these affordances.

I am new to THATCamp and new to most of the tools of digital literacies. The impetus for this workshop proposal is specific. This coming fall, as part of NC State’s English department, I will be running a seminar for seniors on the circum-atlantic eighteenth-century world. The course will use the transatlantic slave trade–in particular one incident with a slave ship, the Zong–as a way to open up into a larger discussion of persons and personhood, economics and finance, politics and revolution, all focused through the writing of the period. I would like to teach this class as more of a research lab (rather than a discussion-oriented seminar) with archival research–particularly electronic research–as central to its methods and rhythms. I offer this seminar proposal not because I feel expert at facilitating these topics, but because I am not. I would like to collect discussants to hear about alternative ways to integrate digital research into the course and classroom space. I hope to hear from others about alternatives to the course paper/research paper model, about possibilities of students creating their own annotated electronic editions, ideas for in-class electronic and digital exercises, and more. I hope the discussion will range from the pedagogical and theoretical to the practical (what software may help; how to arrange students in classes and move from paper to computers to verbal discussion). I am also interested in planning ahead about how to pitch the relative degrees of technical knowledge that are required. I have relatively little beyond basic digital and computer knowledge and will assume my students do as well.

Hello everyone,

I would like to propose the follow workshop for THATCamp Digital Knowledge 2014:

From Imagination to Visualization: Getting Comfortable with Data Representations
Angela Zoss, Data Visualization Coordinator, Duke University
Friday, March 28, 2:30-3:30pm

If you’ve been afraid to try data visualization because you don’t have a lot of experience with software or data, this workshop is for you!  Humanities data are notoriously complicated and uncertain, and standard tools don’t always make it easy to produce visualizations that reflect that complexity.  In the first half of the workshop, I’ll go over some examples of and guidelines for and the basic ways that computer programs expect data to be represented.  In the second half of the workshop we’ll walk through an easy data visualization tool, Raw (raw.densitydesign.org/), to learn about a few different types of visualizations and how they might relate to humanities research.  If you bring a laptop, you’ll be able to follow along with the Raw demo.

Thanks in advance for any feedback on the idea, and I look forward to attending on Friday!

Best,
Angela