Report from Rachel Kasbohm:

UCL Centre for Digital Humanities, in partnership with the Higher Education Academy, hosted a FREE ‘unconference’* focusing on bringing together the e-learning and digital humanities communities to discuss the development of ‘Digital Pedagogies’ in University teaching last Thursday.

With nearly 20 proposed sessions, about 8 proposals had to be put on the ‘back burner’ for the time being. The voted in proposals were placed throughout the day, and delegates got to construct their own experience.

Regrettably, I couldn’t have sat in on all the sessions, but the sessions that were chosen received great feedback. Twitter proved to be an excellent communication between delegates in sessions together, as well as those in different ones and who couldn’t attend on the day.

The brief wrap-up session was the first time that delegates were together since the morning to discuss their experiences, ideas and outcomes of the day. Great feedback about the ‘unconference’ structure proved that perhaps the traditional conference structure doesn’t always provide a space for innovation and discussion. Indeed, one delegate stated that her only regret of the day was that she wasn’t able to attend all the sessions!

Below are links to material of both the sessions that took place and those that didn’t:

• Peter Bryant’s ‘E-Learning Potential‘
• James Baker’s notes from his ‘DH in the Classroom’ session
• Julie Watson’s ‘Digital Literacies Toolkit’
• Rocío Díaz Bravo’s and Matteo Fumagalli’s ‘The Potential of Second Life for Student Learning’
• Jenny Bunn’s ‘CURATE GAME’ (Information and Material for those who want to try it out)
• Pat Lockley’s ‘Visualisations 101’
• Simon Mahony, Uli and Davor’s Open Educational Resources: using, re-using, re-mixing and re-purposing content (this too)

Even more delegate blogs of the day!

• James Baker’s ‘DH in the classroom, or “We successfully made nothing!”: thoughts on Digital Pedagogies THATCamp 2013‘

Do you have a blog post, session proposals or even more information? Please comment below to share!

• Complete list of proposed sessions
• Digital Pedagogies website
• List of registered delegates

Thank you again from all of us at UCL Centre for Digital Humanities and Higher Education Academy!

Melissa Terras and Claire Ross will be speaking on a panel, along with Anthony Finkelstein (Dean of Engineering), at the UCL Staff Research Conference on Thursday 20th June. Please see further details about the conference below:

UCL Research Staff Conference
20 June 2013, at the Wellcome Collection Conference Centre; the event is free to all UCL researchers

Futures for You is the theme of the UCL Research Staff Conference. Includes keynote speakers, such as Professor David Price Vice-Provost (Research) on Research Ethics and Integrity, as well as breakout sessions on topics such as Fellowships.

Digital Pedagogies: E-Learning and Digital Humanities Unconference
13 June 2013

Call for Session Proposals

UCL Centre for Digital Humanities, in partnership with the Higher Education Academy, will be hosting a FREE ‘unconference’* focusing on bringing together the e-learning and digital humanities communities to discuss the development of ‘Digital Pedagogies’ in University teaching. We want to hear your ideas for sessions!

* An ‘unconference’ structure is delegate-driven with the agenda created by the attendees on the day. There is an open call for presentations on the topic of enhancing and developing digital pedagogies in your field of research.

About ‘Digital Pedagogies Unconference’
‘Digital Pedagogies’ are innovative methods of teaching – using ICT tools to facilitate and foster a high quality digital learning space. There are big questions around how teaching techniques can be modified and digital enhanced to meet the needs of 21st century virtual learning. The objective of this unconference will be firstly to bring together these e-learning and digital humanities communities with what are often similar research objectives, and secondly provide a space to speak about current digital teaching techniques, defining areas for improvement and enhancement.

What do I propose?
There are roughly four things people do in sessions: Talk, Make, Teach, and Play. Sometimes one session contains elements of all these, but it’s also a fair taxonomy for sessions. In a Talk session proposal, you offer to lead a group discussion on a topic or question of interest to you. In a Make session proposal, you offer to lead a small group in a hands-on collaborative working session with the aim of producing a draft document or piece of software. In a Teach session, you offer to teach a skill, either a “hard” skill or a “soft” skill. In a Play session, anything goes — you suggest literally playing a game, or you suggest some quality group playtime with one or more technologies, or what you will. Of course, these are just guides – we are open to new ideas, new ways of interaction and methods of making this unconference insightful and fun!

How do I propose a session?
There are two ways of proposing a session:
(1) through the THATCAMP Digital Pedagogies site at http://digitalpedagogies2013.thatcamp.org/registerproposal/ or
(2) by emailing Rachel at
rachel.kasbohm.11@ucl.ac.uk with a brief proposal.

*Remember* that you will be expected to facilitate the sessions you propose, so that if you propose a hacking session, you should have the germ of a project to work on; if you propose a workshop, you should be prepared to teach it or find a teacher; if you propose a discussion of the Digital Public Library of America, you should be prepared to summarize what that is, begin the discussion, keep the discussion going, and end the discussion.

To register as a delegate: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2013/13_June_digital_pedagogies_UCL

More information: Please visit http://digitalpedagogies2013.thatcamp.org/

Questions, comments or concerns? Contact Rachel at
rachel.kasbohm.11@ucl.ac.uk

Thursday, 13 June 2013

UCL Centre for Digital Humanities, in partnership with the Higher Education Academy, will be hosting a FREE ‘unconference’* focusing on bringing together the e-learning and digital humanities communities to discuss the development of ‘Digital Pedagogies’ in University teaching.

‘Digital Pedagogies’ are innovative methods of teaching – using ICT tools to facilitate and foster a high quality digital learning space. There are big questions around how teaching techniques can be modified and digital enhanced to meet the needs of 21st century virtual learning. The objective of this unconference will be firstly to bring together these e-learning and digital humanities communities with what are often similar research objectives, and secondly provide a space to speak about current digital teaching techniques, defining areas for improvement and enhancement.

Times, keynote speaker(s) and exact locations to be confirmed soon.

Registration is FREE and open to all!

Please register at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2013/13_June_digital_pedagogies_UCL

Questions? Please contact Rachel Kasbohm at rachel.kasbohm.11@ucl.ac.uk

* An ‘unconference’ structure is delegate-driven with the agenda created by the attendees on the day. There is an open call for presentations on the topic of enhancing and developing digital pedagogies in your field of research, but spaces are limited so early attendance on the day is recommended.

Registration is now open for a workshop, hosted by UCLDH, on 31st January 2013 beginning at 1:30pm

About: ‘Digital Partnerships’ will focus on how museums and universities can work together when it comes to digital innovation. A drinks reception will be hosted afterwards at the Grant Museum of Zoology nearby.

It will explore digital innovation and the relationships between museums, universities and their users. Digital innovation means that museums now find themselves in a new environment in which visitors can interact to create, curate, organise and share their own experiences. Leading to big questions around how we research and understand digital innovation in a cultural context. This event will bring researchers and museum professionals together to consider innovative practices, and develop new research ideas.

Speakers: Matthew Cock, Head of Web at the British Museum; Jane MacDonald, ToTEM Project Administrator at Edinburgh College of Art; John Hindmarch, PhD student at UCL; and Jack Ashby, Manager at the Grant.

Full program viewable at the Eventbrite site below.

Email Rachel directly with any questions at rachel.kasbohm.11@ucl.ac.uk.

Register FREE at http://digital-partnerships.eventbrite.co.uk/

Registration is now open for this event, which features UCLDH Co-Director, Melissa Terras.

Full post by Lorna Richardson, on the UCLDIS Student Blog.

UCLDH are pleased to be organising a free, one day symposium at UCL in conjunction with 4Humanities, Arts Emergency, and UCL Department of Information Studies.

Government and private support for the Arts and Humanities—for research, teaching, preservation, and creative renewal in such fields as literature, history, languages, philosophy, classics, art history, and cultural studies – is in decline. What can we do to demonstrate that the Arts and Humanities matter?

This free, one day symposium, on 18th September 2012 at UCL, will feature leading figures in understanding, demonstrating, and advocating for the Arts and Humanities. The symposium will also mark the launch of the 4Humanities@UCL chapter.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Professor Alan Liu, University of California Santa Barbara, and 4Humanities founder
• Dr Rüdiger Klein, European Alliance for the Social Sciences and Humanities
• Amy Westwell and Oliver Milne, The Free Hetherington Campaign
• Neil Griffiths, Arts Emergency
• Dr Anna Upchurch, University of Leeds, and Dr Eleonora Belfiore, University of Warwick
• Professor Andrew Prescott, King’s College London.

More information will be posted soon at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ah/4humanities/18thSeptember. The symposium is free to attend, and all with an interest in this area are welcome, although please do register in advance at http://showingtheartsandhumanitiesmatter.eventbrite.com.

4Humanities@UCL is supported by UCL Enterprise, as part of the Knowledge Transfer and Enterprise Scheme at UCL in 2012.

The CHIPS project on popular music performance with technology (see previous post) is underway.  There is online discussion of the issues getting started here and registration is now open (there is no charge for the event) for the symposium on 7th-8th June.  We have a programme of great speakers lined up.  If you are interested in coming, please register asap as places are limited by the venue capacity.

On 5 December I gave a presentation at the National Committee for Information Resources on Asia conference at the British Library.

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) set up a Fast Track for ccTLDs (country code Top Level Domains) in November 2009.

These include IDNs (Internationalized Domain Names), Internet addresses in non-Latin scripts, e.g. http://실례.테스트.

The ICANN board voted for IDNs (Internationalized Domain Names) in June 2011. There will be a big bang of gTLDs (generic Top Level Domains) in late 2012 or early 2013. Applications for this first round need to be made officially by April 12 2012 (but more safely by March 29).

Why is UCL interested?

• Put UCL and SOAS together and you have the world’s leading centre of linguistic expertise.
• The New gTLD Programme will be a catalyst for the development of the Internet.
• There are legal implications e.g. trademarks.
• There are opportunities for new businesses both legal and otherwise!
  • New gTLD program on: www.icann.org
  • The Applicant Guidebook: newgtlds.icann.org

Further information

The DHOER project was represented at OER11 (the annual Open Educational Resources conference) held at Manchester by Simon Mahony and Ulrich Tiedau with a presentation titled: Open Educational Resources in Digital Humanities. This talk highlighted the UCLDH take on digital humanities and the rationale for what we do. This was followed by some examples of the teaching materials that we plan to release and a discussion of the many benefits to be gained from doing so.

This three day event at the Manchester Conference Centre, with an international array of speakers, showcased innovative projects and thinking in three main strands: strategy and sustainability; academic practice and scholarship; collaboration and communities. As always, this proved a great opportunity for networking and exchanging ideas with other practitioners in this growing field.

It was very pleasing to hear from the organisers that they considered that DHOER had the best logo and graphics (with thanks to Rudolf Ammann!).