This module explores DH pedagogy; while this will have a particular emphasis on teaching in college settings, much of it should easily be translatable to middle/high school and public history settings. The readings and discussion will help you think about both “big picture” questions surrounding DH pedagogy as well as how this works in practice, with two specific examples of DH classroom assignments. The technical activities introduce you to a variety of different DH tools/projects you could incorporate into a classroom; while you are welcome to do them all, there’s enough reading this week that I am only asking you to try 2.
Readings/Discussion
1. read Claire Battershill and Shawna Ross, Using Digital Humanities in the Classroom: A Practical Introduction for Teachers, Lecturers, and Students (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017; updated 2022).
2. read Kalani Craig, et al., “Correcting for Presentism in Student Reading of Historical Accounts Through Digital-History Methodologies,” (2017).
3. read Jessica Marie Otis, “Constructing and Contesting the Past: Teaching in the Age of Wikipedia,” in Digital Pedagogy in Early Modern Studies, New Technologies in Medieval and Renaissance Studies Series, ed. by Andrea Silva and Scott Schofield, New Technologies in Medieval and Renaissance Studies, vol. 10, ed. by William R. Bowen and Raymond G. Siemens (Chicago: Iter and the University of Chicago Press, March 2024): 70-104 (available through the class Slack or Basecamp or the physical copy can be checked out from GMU libraries)
4. OPTIONAL: explore the Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities website
5. write a blog post or use the Slack channel to make note of your thoughts as you read and complete these exercises; depending on how many people are completing this optional module, this may or may not turn into an active discussion (that’s okay).
Technical Activities (choose at least 2)
1. check out Google Maps using this tutorial – how could you use it to help students think spatially about historical events?
2. check out Timeline JS – how would this be useful for helping students construct event-based historical narratives?
3. check out Voyant – how could you use it to help students interpret historical sources in a classroom environment?
4. explore the Wiki Education training modules and make a few edits to Wikipedia – how might editing Wikipedia advance students’ understanding of how historical knowledge is constructed and contested?
5. explore at least two of the Zooniverse humanities/transcription projects – how could you incorporate student participation in such projects into a classroom setting and what would they get out of it?
6. choose one or more commercial AI (LLM) platforms and experiment with it – how could you use it to enhance rather than undermine student learning?