ThatCamp Philadelphia: Digital Humanities In The Classroom

The first session I attended at ThatCamp Philadelphia was on the digital humanities in the classroom. This was a great session that gave me a few ideas for my own classes.

  • Is WordPress good for archival or manuscript work? Maybe Omeka is better for that? There seem to be pretty significant differences between the hosted and non-hosted versions.
  • Someone mentioned making three minute “Ken Burns-y” videos with students.
  • Student created digital editions are a good thing to have on a CV. Could help with getting teaching or alt-ac job.
  • Loved the idea about students making timelines. We are trying that in my Shakespeare course with Dipity.
  • What do students need to learn besides WordPress to be effective and/or employable?
  • Suggestion to learn HTML and CSS.
  • Students should have project to create a website for future web presence.
  • I want to have students create websites to put online portfolios up, which could kickstart them to consider their web presence.
  • Putting work online forces students to consider audience.
  • Discussion of rewards during project as it goes instead of at end. I love this idea.
  • Student Writing Assessment: Did this project achieve what you set out to do?
  • Some discussion of Wikipedia projects, which I have done with mixed results in the past.
  • I brought up the shared Google Docs I use with my Literature classes.
  • How to deal with student concerns about online privacy.
  • Deal with privacy issues at beginning of project...make sure it is clear project will be public...should put this in syllabus
  • Students should consider general online presence and that future jobs will have some sort of online component.
  • Students should, with that said, be permitted to post anonymously. However, should also consider anonymous posting in regards to future CV/job stuff.
  • Good idea to have students search themselves online to see what their web presence is currently.