Electronic Lectures Without PowerPoint

Are class lectures moving toward being done electronically? Or will the traditional whiteboard continue to be used? If they are electronic, does that mean that PowerPoint necessarily has to dominate? Or are there alternatives?

One alternative is to use HTML5 coupled with JavaScript. This provides several advantages:

  • The teacher can scroll smoothly through concepts, rather than having to show them on discrete slides.
  • The contents of the lecture are in an open easy-to-read format, that will be easily viewable for decades to come. (Without relying on proprietary software.)
  • Lectures can be posted online with no problem.
  • JavaScript applets can be inserted easily. These can perform small interactive demos, which could be easily traded among teachers throughout the world.

Are there other possibilities?

Geographic Information Systems and the Digital Humanites

I am a 20th and 21st century Americanist and research in the area of transnational American studies. I am currently pursuing a project that will think of ways in which we can incorporate GIS and GPS technologies in the Digital Humanities. Since the basic thrust of transnational studies is to question and erode national boundaries and nation-based paradigms of comprehension, I think there is a productive overlap between transnational theory and these new technologies that enable us to circumvent and remap nation-based imaginaries. I am interested in sharing ideas about the ways by which we can incorporate GIS and GPS technologies in the DH and in transnational studies. In what ways can we use technologies such as Google Earth to enhance DH? What software should we be familiar with? Do we need to be vigilant about corporate interests when we utilize GIS and GPS  technologies?

Pre-camping Brewery Tour

As many of you may know, Portland is well-knows for its vibrant craft beer and microbrewery culture. If you’re getting into town Thursday or Friday, consider joining Brewvana’s Friday Behind the Scenes bus tour. The tour runs from 1-5 pm, and the price includes lunch, and tastings at all four stops on the tour. The bus picks up registered passengers at a number of spots around downtown. Jesse and I will both be on the tour and hope to see some fellow THATCamp Hybrid Pedagogy campers along for the ride!

Participating Virtually? Want to propose a session?

In keeping with the theme of THATCamp Hybrid Pedagogy, our goal is to open our un-conference to the broadest possible spectrum of blended and virtual participation. For those of you who cannot be here in person, but would be interested in leading a hybrid session, we invite you to propose one in the comments to this post. In your proposal, be sure to include your preference for Saturday morning or afternoon, or Sunday morning. Let us know if you’d like your session to include a blended conversation among online and on-ground participants, or if you’d prefer to facilitate a purely “virtual” session. Sessions can make use of any combination of Twitter, Google Docs, Google Hangout, Skype, etc., as platforms for participation. If you create a session, make sure you’re prepared to “host” it in whatever way necessary.

Depending on how many proposals we get for blended sessions, we will try to allow time on Saturday morning during scheduling for blended session proposers to “pitch” their proposals to the group via Google Hangout or Skype (or something similar). So, if you’re proposing a blended session, be sure to let us know whether you’ll be available between 10:00 – 11:00 am PDT on Saturday.

General Discussion Session Proposal: Digital Humanities in a Community College Literature Class

I am currently working on a project entitled “Bringing Digital Humanities to the Community College and Vice Versa” and am teaching a Women Writers class (ENG260) at Lane Community College in Eugene this fall. It meets on MW in a traditional classroom and on Friday for one hour in a wired classroom. I’ve taught online for years, and am integrating blogs into my course as I have before. I am interested in sharing ideas with other CC faculty or all faculty teaching 100-200-level literature (or other humanities) classes ,to see what has worked for them before, what they’re doing now, and to share my own ideas about what digital humanities can look like at the freshman and sophomore level, especially for classes with hugely divergent preparedness in digital literacies and other literacies.

Digital storytelling? Oral history projects? Tiki-toki timelines? Online Sherlock Journals? Blogging, wikis, social media, text annotation without TEI skills? What’s possible? What are others doing?

THATCamp Hybrid Pedagogy

THATCamp Hybrid Pedagogy will be held in Portland, OR at Marylhurst University on October 20 and 21. The event is being organized by the English & Digital Humanities program and Center for Learning & Teaching at Marylhurst and the editors of Hybrid Pedagogy: A Digital Journal on Teaching & Technology.

THATCamp Hybrid Pedagogy will bring together teachers, librarians, technologists, and students to discuss points of intersection between the digital humanities, digital pedagogy, online learning, teaching with social media, and open education.

Hybrid pedagogy does not just describe an easy mixing of on-ground and online learning, but is about bringing the sorts of learning that happen in a physical place and the sorts of learning that happen in a virtual place into a more engaged and dynamic conversation.

What is THATCamp? For more about THATCamp Hybrid Pedagogy and the unconference format, go to our About page. Also, read about other THATCamps at thatcamp.org.

Registration is now open.

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