I’d like to propose a general discussion session about teaching online and hybrid classes that are not explicitly about DH but that would be enriched through incorporating DH approaches and methodology. I taught my first fully online class–a GEC survey of American Literature–last summer, and I fell into what is probably a common trap: cramming a fairly traditional f2f course into an online medium. Moreover, I found the students uninterested in learning any new technology to enhance the experience. It was a revelation to learn that these particular students didn’t want to have an innovative experience; they wanted to tick the course off their list of requirements. So how do we use the digital humanities to make online learning something other than the educational equivalent of Jiffy Lube?  My hope for this discussion is a kind of “show and tell” in which participants share strategies and philosophies for enhancing online classes in a variety of disciplines. This can take the form of demonstrating the technologies through which courses were constructed (as well as finished products), along with discussing the pedagogical considerations motivating individual choices. How do we create collaborative and individual assignments that incorporate DH approaches into online and hybrid courses? How do we do so while maintaining a balance between conveying content and teaching the technologies necessary to utilize DH strategies? How do we create “buy in” from students, especially nontraditional or technologically inexperienced ones? As a novice in this area, I have lots of questions and very few answers, but I’m willing to share whatever I can.

I am not proposing a game of Capture the Flag where those of us who teach in the Humanities use strategy and guile to avoid being imprisoned by old methodologies.  Instead, I am proposing a session where we talk about ways to invigorate the curriculum through the visual.  Students today are less inclined to read.  Educators in composition and literature fields of study generally acknowledge that the curriculum satisfies students well when courses use visual and other multimedia in the classroom.  As one model, I will teach a 500-level English class this summer on the Graphic Novel.  The proposed session will be fluid in nature.  I imagine that, after a general introduction, participants will cluster into pairs, small groups, and the like to talk and brainstorm independently.  One thread begun at Ohio State’s recent INNOVATE! conference was growing use of mobile technologies in secondary and higher education classrooms (e.g., Digital Storytelling using the iPhone and iPad).  I expect that participants in the proposed session will:  a) talk about students’ interests and proficiencies with one another; b) share Real World stories, projects and templates; and c) brainstorm new ideas during the day that may potentially update the curriculum in Humanities.  When individuals and small groups reconvene as a large group, I will facilitate sharing the following:  learning and talking points, technologies to explore, and questions for further consideration.  One of the outcomes I anticipate may be creation of a Virtual Network in the Humanities (contact list) or website where people share ideas and discuss ongoing projects, research, emerging technologies and best practices.

This is a discussion session about the use of virtual realities (simulated realities as some call them) in academics – from teaching and meetings to collaborations, and any other ideas and applications.

The Ohio State University already has its own island called Minerva in Second Life for use by faculty and students. You need a Second Life account (free) and a Second Life Viewer program (also free) to access it.

No experience of prior knowledge of Second Life or other virtual worlds is needed to participate in this open discussion.

Topics: using video games to teach, what’s taught in game and out of game, discussions or assignments & online affinity spaces and how to create them.

I am the coordinator for a video game project funded by the NEH. (meet-the-earthworks-builders.posterous.com/) This game will be part of a website that also provides content in the form of simulations and interactives, possibly mini-games and a badging system which is receiving funding from HASTAC (earthworks-badges.posterous.com/). My interest is in creating a self-sustaining learning community through social networking, crowd-sourcing grading among peers, peer teaching, peer mentoring, informal and formal learning environments and game based learning. I am also interested in assessment issues related to crowd-sourcing grading – in the case of my project – crowd-sourcing the award of a badge, and especially embedded assessment – how to tie what a learner does in the game environment that indicates mastery or at least understanding of the learning objectives, thus, eliminating the need to test, but maybe not the need for outside assignments that demonstrate transfer. Figuring out how to best assess this requires a good research study with excellent pre and post tests – another area for discussion. Finally, a general discussion about using games in the classroom could be great. who’s doing it, how, what is a game, what is a simulation, what place do these have in higher ed. I have created a wiki in Carmen: carmenwiki.osu.edu/display/gamingeducation/Home

Lots of you have expressed an interest in talking about DH in the classroom and teaching with digital media. For a straight ‘teaching with digital media’ discussion, there are some other venues on campus (for example, check out Innovate, the DU’s eLearning Events, and the Exploring Learning Technologies Community), so how might we focus the conversation so that it’s relevant to THATCamp and a discussion of what digital humanities means at OSU?

We might begin with some questions in mind. For starters, what is the current state of DH pedagogy at OSU?

• Where does DH currently appear in OSU classrooms?
• What opportunities do students have at OSU outside the classroom to participate in DH research or learn about it?

Broadening the scope, what does the larger world of DH education look like?

• What does DH education look like at other universities?
• What kinds of instruction/experiences produce humanities graduates who are qualified to do DH work?

Plenty of other people are thinking about this stuff as well, and no one has all the answers. Some places to start:

• Bethany Nowviskie’s guest post on the Chronicle’s ProfHacker blog, It Starts on Day One. It’s “a modest proposal for reforming higher education in the humanities and creating a generation of knowledge workers prepared not only to teach, research, and communicate in 21st-century modes, but to govern 21st-century institutions.”
• Digital Humanities Unplugged, an article in Digital Humanities Quarterly about teaching DH without technology
• Katherine Harris’ poster from the Digital Humanities conference last summer at Stanford: Pedagogy & Play: Revising Learning through Digital Humanities. A quick read about the importance of play in teaching.
• There’s already a ton of good information on Tanya Clement’s new site Teaching DH. Check out the reading list for a huge collection of resources related to DH and pedagogy.
• And some syllabi from DH-related courses in the new Digital Humanities Education group on Zotero