Menno van Zaanen (South African Centre for Digital Language Resources), Anelda van der Walt (Talarify), and Juan Steyn (South African Centre for Digital Language Resources) “SADiLaR: Bringing Digital Skills and Resources to Humanities and Social Sciences”

View presentation: https://echo360.ca/media/c4d015a2-e7b2-4bb1-9e7f-f788247cd2a3/public

View transcript/additional materials: https://dhsi.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7317/2023/03/DHSI_transcript-Menno-van-Zaanen.pdf

Abstract: In South Africa, the field of Digital Humanities (DH) is still in its infancy. Even though Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) scholars are interested in this area and some initiatives have been established, many researchers and students still simply do not know where to start. This could be attributed to limited prior exposure to relevant concepts, methodologies, and tools as well as the lack of an active local community of practice. The South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR), funded by the South African department of Science and Innovation, aims to tackle this problem through two programmes. The first is a specialised digitization initiative, which aims to develop digital linguistic resources for each of the eleven official languages in South Africa. The second does not exclusively focus on linguistics but rather on growing more general DH capacity. It aims to build research capacity by enhancing the use of digital resources and computational methodologies and supporting the growth of a community of practice in the HSS fields. This paper will specifically focus on the following aspects that underpin SADiLaR’s programmes: (1) developing learning resources based on locally relevant use cases; (2) the sharing of knowledge in a multi-lingual, multi-cultural context; (3) developing a champions programme aimed at empowering mentors and mentees and growing embedded leaders at institutions across the country; (4) dedicated opportunities for researchers from HSS to engage in interdisciplinary conversation and collaboration; and (5) adopting and adapting best practices from existing regional and global initiatives.

Melinda Cohoon (U Washington) “Critical Digital Pedagogy and Mentorship: A Syllabus for ‘The Digital Middle East'”

View presentation: https://echo360.ca/media/21dd123a-5b66-492b-9035-5df43692da69/public

View transcript/additional materials: https://dhsi.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7317/2023/03/Cohoon_Critical-Digital-Pedagogy-and-Mentorship-a-Syllabus-for-the-Digital-Middle-East-Melinda-Marie-Cohoon.docx.pdf

Abstract: Video games and social media are increasingly part of everyday life, impacting our shared social norms and values across the world. The syllabus entitled “The Digital Middle East: Social Media and Gaming in Iran, Turkey, and Arab Countries” explores the socio-cultural relevance and use of social media and video games in the Middle East. It is designed for students to learn about the role of social media in Arab countries, Iran, and Turkey, with specific emphasis on the Arab Spring, Gezi Park Protests, and the 2009 Green Revolution in Iran. Additionally, students will explore online communities and the construction of national identities through video games. By examining Middle Eastern digital social phenomenon, my goal is for students to envision an embodied yet online form of engagement in the making of Middle Eastern communities. To achieve this goal, I desire to discuss the syllabus with the Open/Social/Digital Humanities Pedagogy, Training, and Mentorship community, and how I may employ tutorials, labs in the form of gaming and social media, blog creation etc. in the classroom. My aim is to center affect, emotion, and sentiment for both the subject matter and the students’ experience (Ahmed 2004; Barad 2007; Stewart 2007; Stewart and Berlant 2019). As such, a student may walk away with a better understanding of complex human interaction through online and offline spaces. To accomplish this objective, I will implement critical digital pedagogy as a method to marry practice with theory, critically think about institutions and social barriers, and holistically weigh society, ideology, technology, and politics (Friend, Stommel, and Morris 2020).

Clare Hancock (Texas A&M) “Digital Breakouts: Utilization of the Google Suite for First-Year English Composition Courses”

View presentation: https://echo360.ca/media/bb2df2e3-b759-4488-86ee-2531ef910e57/public

Abstract: This “digital breakout” (DB) is a supplemental pedagogical tool for First-Year English Composition classes, as it aims to unite digital resources (the Google Suite, that most students tend to use on their own) with a “learning by project” approach. Parts of the Google Suite that are utilized within the DB are Google Sites, Google Docs, Google Slides, and Google Forms. The DB will particularly cover a more solid topic, citation styles, and students will be able to both learn and apply their new knowledge in order to “escape” the activity. This DB is intended to be an informal assessment through supplemental learning, but it can be modified to be more of an assessment if that is what the teacher or curriculum it serves needs it for. However, that is not necessarily conducive to the pedagogical thought that guided its creation. This project was designed and built with a wish to better involve students in their own learning and contribute to a possible open-classroom concept. First-Year Composition (FYC) courses, unfortunately, have a negative connotation attached to them, particularly relating to a “remedial” mentality. While this DB cannot tackle this mentality all on its own, it is part of a bigger endeavor to reshape the reasoning behind FYC courses. Its emphasis on citation styles is part of the bigger picture: that FYC courses are important, as they acquaint new students with university-level writing and help define what “academic writing” can look like.

Hannah L. Jacobs (Duke U) and Beth Fischer (Williams C) “A Repository of Shared Pedagogical Practices: Assignments in Visualizing Objects, Places, and Spaces: A Digital Project Handbook”

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View transcript/additional materials: https://dhsi.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7317/2023/03/2021_DHSI_Handbook-Hannah-Jacobs.pdf

Abstract: Why might instructors incorporate digital humanities assignments into their teaching? What can students learn by creating a digital project? And how does an instructor create and facilitate such an assignment? With Visualizing Objects, Places, and Spaces: A Digital Project Handbook (https://handbook.pubpub.org/), instructors new to digital humanities or seeking new ideas for their digital pedagogy can learn how others have structured and delivered digital assignments. The Handbook is an open online resource providing guidance for anyone starting or working on their own digital projects. Structured around project stages and digital methods, the Handbook incorporates examples of research and teaching submitted by scholars and practitioners from around the world. Information accompanying these examples provides insights into digital teaching and research processes to help readers develop their own roadmaps for creating teaching assignments and research projects. Assignments shared in the Handbook range from semester-long to single class meetings and include objectives like developing spatial thinking, performing historical analysis, and strengthening writing skills for public audiences. Each assignment is accompanied by instructors’ reflections on their pedagogical process and the resources needed to carry out their assignment. Assignments are also incorporated into the larger Handbook structure, being linked thematically to project types such as Archival, Dimensional, Temporal, and Spatial, providing case studies for scholars and practitioners exploring digital research and teaching methods. In this presentation, co-editors Beth Fischer and Hannah L. Jacobs will offer an overview of the Handbook, discuss example assignments, and share insights that instructors have imparted with their Assignments.

Mary Elizabeth Leighton (U Victoria), Andrea Korda (U Alberta), Vanessa Warne (U Manitoba), Katy DeCoste (U Victoria), Madison George-Berlet (U Victoria), Maryssa Grayer (U Victoria), Anne Hung (U Victoria), Jessie Krahn (U Manitoba), Natalie LoVetri (U Manitoba), Anne Mirejovsky (U Alberta), Ruth Ormiston (U Victoria), Allegra Stevenson-Kaplan (U Victoria), and Jamie Zabel (U Victoria) “Crafting Communities: Making and Mentoring on an OER Project”

View presentation: https://echo360.ca/media/89a67190-b293-4884-8ed9-5226f932c7fb/public

Abstract: This session will focus on the collaborative process of making three OERs by a team of nine research assistants (BA, MA, and PhD students), three faculty mentors, and three librarians across three institutions in different provinces. After an opening presentation that provides an overview of the project (Crafting Communities: A Series of Victorian Object Lessons & Scholarly Exchanges in Covid Times), short presentations by student RAs will introduce each OER; explain the team-building, training, and mentoring processes we implemented to develop that OER; and reflect on which processes worked most effectively. This session includes discussion of proposed best practices for ensuring that student participants in an outreach project gain not only knowledge of a specific field but also marketable skills that are well-documented by a project portfolio.

Daniel Miller (Bishop’s U) “‘Augmented Lecturing’: A Multimodal Method for Increasing Engagement, Heightening Memory and Amplifying Affect in the Humanities”

View presentation: https://echo360.ca/media/54babebf-5303-4c33-a673-0512f6bbc143/public

View transcript/additional materials: https://dhsi.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7317/2023/03/Augmented-Lecturing.-A-Multimodal-Method-for-Increasing-Engagement-Heightening-Memory-and-Amplifying-Affect-in-the-Humanities-Dr.-Daniel-Miller-Bishops-University-transc.pdf

Abstract: “Augmented Lecturing”, a designation that I have recently introduced into the field of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (see: https://doi.org/10.46290/cjok000010), is a pedagogical method that functions through an interspersing of speech (conventional lecturing) and relatively brief audio-visual excerpts. Since the advent of platforms such as YouTube, instructors have been able to easily access and employ video/audio material. This, however, is generally found on websites that must first be opened, after which the media housed on them must be activated and managed by the instructor. All of this takes time and is distracting for students. In Augmented Lecturing, 1) material extraneous to the instructor’s specific didactic point is removed from an excerpt through the use of readily available editing applications (for reasons of professionalism, the original meaning is, of course, maintained in the edited version); and 2) video/audio excerpts are embedded within the presentation program (e.g., PowerPoint, Keynote), thus eliminating any pause in the shift between verbal and video/audio modalities. There is thus a constant forward momentum in the lecture, meaning that student attention is more likely to be maintained. Furthermore, with one modality amplified and reinforced by the other there is a contextualization of information within a more far-reaching scaffolding. Augmented Lecturing operationalizes Richard Mayer’s cognitive theory of multimedia learning in a form that has not heretofore been employed in academia. The method can help to generate greater enthusiasm in the humanities by grounding lectures in the “real world” and making them significantly more relatable for today’s students. It can show students that the humanities are not confined to the ivory tower—they are all around us, they have a crucial place in our lives, they inform the human condition. Finally—and very significantly, given current pedagogical circumstances—the method functions effectively online as well as in the classroom.