Jul 2012
Data Mining in the Trenches: Using Storify to Teach Research
July 30, 2012 | Filed in: Tools
by Tanya Sasser
It's time to confront our bias against open sources and redefine how our students research in digital environments. We should both allow them to use the research sites that are most handy, i.e., those openly available on the internet, and teach them how to effectively mine, evaluate, synthesize, and use the information contained within those sites. Good research is an art form and good researchers use a variety of techniques. The art of research is knowing how and when to use the various tools and techniques in concert. While students rarely approach research as an art, never have the tools of research been more readily available to them. The trick is to teach them how to use those tools with finesse.
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It's time to confront our bias against open sources and redefine how our students research in digital environments. We should both allow them to use the research sites that are most handy, i.e., those openly available on the internet, and teach them how to effectively mine, evaluate, synthesize, and use the information contained within those sites. Good research is an art form and good researchers use a variety of techniques. The art of research is knowing how and when to use the various tools and techniques in concert. While students rarely approach research as an art, never have the tools of research been more readily available to them. The trick is to teach them how to use those tools with finesse.
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Broadcast Education: a Response to Coursera
July 26, 2012 | Filed in: Open Education
by Sean Michael Morris
Coursera is silly. Educational technology news has been all a-flutter over the last few months about the work that Coursera is doing to bring higher education into the open. But I tell you what: I signed up for one of their classes -- a course on Science Fiction and Fantasy from the University of Michigan -- only to discover something really startling. Really: startling.
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Coursera is silly. Educational technology news has been all a-flutter over the last few months about the work that Coursera is doing to bring higher education into the open. But I tell you what: I signed up for one of their classes -- a course on Science Fiction and Fantasy from the University of Michigan -- only to discover something really startling. Really: startling.
Read More...#digped Storify: Making Collaboration Visible
July 25, 2012 | Filed in: #digped
by Robin Wharton
This past Friday, July 20th, the Hybrid Pedagogy #digped discussion on Twitter extended the conversation we began with our crowdsourced article Digital Humanities Made Me a Better Pedagogue. In that article, we explain why we're organizing a THATCamp Hybrid Pedagogy in order to "tap the disruptive, deformed, insubordinate energy" we see infusing the collaborative praxis of digital pedagogy and the digital humanities. The #digped discussion "Collaborative Teaching, Shared Pedagogies" was motivated by our desire to include the wider Hybrid Pedagogy collective in a conversation about some of the scholarly work informing that piece.
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This past Friday, July 20th, the Hybrid Pedagogy #digped discussion on Twitter extended the conversation we began with our crowdsourced article Digital Humanities Made Me a Better Pedagogue. In that article, we explain why we're organizing a THATCamp Hybrid Pedagogy in order to "tap the disruptive, deformed, insubordinate energy" we see infusing the collaborative praxis of digital pedagogy and the digital humanities. The #digped discussion "Collaborative Teaching, Shared Pedagogies" was motivated by our desire to include the wider Hybrid Pedagogy collective in a conversation about some of the scholarly work informing that piece.
Read More...The March of the MOOCs: Monstrous Open Online Courses
July 23, 2012 | Filed in: Open Education
by Jesse Stommel
MOOCs are a red herring. The MOOC didn’t appear last week, out of a void, vacuum-packed. The MOOC has been around for years, biding its time. Still, the recent furor about MOOCs, which some have called “hysteria,” opens important questions about higher education, digital pedagogy, and online learning. The MOOCs themselves aren’t what’s really at stake. In spite of the confused murmurs in the media, MOOCs won’t actually chomp everything in their path. And they aren’t an easy solution to higher education’s financial crisis. In fact, a MOOC isn’t anything at all, just a methodological approach, with no inherent value except insofar as it’s used.
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MOOCs are a red herring. The MOOC didn’t appear last week, out of a void, vacuum-packed. The MOOC has been around for years, biding its time. Still, the recent furor about MOOCs, which some have called “hysteria,” opens important questions about higher education, digital pedagogy, and online learning. The MOOCs themselves aren’t what’s really at stake. In spite of the confused murmurs in the media, MOOCs won’t actually chomp everything in their path. And they aren’t an easy solution to higher education’s financial crisis. In fact, a MOOC isn’t anything at all, just a methodological approach, with no inherent value except insofar as it’s used.
Read More...Collaborative Teaching, Shared Pedagogies: a #digped Discussion
July 18, 2012 | Filed in: #digped
by Jesse Stommel
Why should we collaborate in the classroom (or online learning space)? What strategies can we devise to disrupt the convention of one teacher, one class? What work needs to be done at an institutional level to facilitate this? How can collaborations between teachers work to encourage (or in concert with) collaborations between students, or between teacher and student? This Friday, July 20 from 1:00 - 2:00pm Eastern (10:00 - 11:00am Pacific), Hybrid Pedagogy will host a Twitter discussion under the hashtag #digped focused on collaborative teaching and shared pedagogies. In “Digital Humanities Made Me a Better Pedagogue: a Crowdsourced Article,” we assembled ideas on the subject from a team of authors, who surveyed the thinking of a much larger group via hyperlinks, crowdsourcing on Twitter, and workshopping at several THATCamp un-conferences.
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Why should we collaborate in the classroom (or online learning space)? What strategies can we devise to disrupt the convention of one teacher, one class? What work needs to be done at an institutional level to facilitate this? How can collaborations between teachers work to encourage (or in concert with) collaborations between students, or between teacher and student? This Friday, July 20 from 1:00 - 2:00pm Eastern (10:00 - 11:00am Pacific), Hybrid Pedagogy will host a Twitter discussion under the hashtag #digped focused on collaborative teaching and shared pedagogies. In “Digital Humanities Made Me a Better Pedagogue: a Crowdsourced Article,” we assembled ideas on the subject from a team of authors, who surveyed the thinking of a much larger group via hyperlinks, crowdsourcing on Twitter, and workshopping at several THATCamp un-conferences.
Read More...Digital Humanities Made Me a Better Pedagogue: a Crowdsourced Article
July 10, 2012 | Filed in: Digital Pedagogy
by Leeann Hunter, Pete Rorabaugh, Jesse Stommel, Robin Wharton, & Roger Whitson
Pedagogy is inherently collaborative. Our work as teachers doesn’t (or shouldn’t) happen in a vacuum. In “Hybridity, pt. 3: What Does Hybrid Pedagogy Do?,” Pete and Jesse write, “Teaching is a practice. Good teaching is an engaged, reflective, and generous practice. Pedagogy is not just talking and thinking about teaching. Pedagogy is the place where philosophy and practice meet (aka “praxis”). It’s vibrant and embodied, meditative and productive.” There is an important distinction here between teaching and pedagogy, between work that is productive and work that is productive and also reflective.
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Pedagogy is inherently collaborative. Our work as teachers doesn’t (or shouldn’t) happen in a vacuum. In “Hybridity, pt. 3: What Does Hybrid Pedagogy Do?,” Pete and Jesse write, “Teaching is a practice. Good teaching is an engaged, reflective, and generous practice. Pedagogy is not just talking and thinking about teaching. Pedagogy is the place where philosophy and practice meet (aka “praxis”). It’s vibrant and embodied, meditative and productive.” There is an important distinction here between teaching and pedagogy, between work that is productive and work that is productive and also reflective.
Read More...#digped Storify: the Digital Divide, from Chalk to Twitter
July 09, 2012 | Filed in: #digped
by Sean Michael Morris
On Friday, July 6, Hybrid Pedagogy hosted a discussion on Twitter focused on the idea of the digital divide. We set out to determine if this divide is real, in what ways it's real, and how it might be related to other "divides" (e.g., social, economic, etc.). Into the heart of our discussion fell two key factors: access and relevance; that is, access to technology and information, and the relevance of that technology and information to our students. The discussion was inspired, in part, by Lee Skallerup Bassette's article "It's About Class: Interrogating the Digital Divide" which raised clear questions about not only how to bridge the digital divide, but also whether it's appropriate to try.
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On Friday, July 6, Hybrid Pedagogy hosted a discussion on Twitter focused on the idea of the digital divide. We set out to determine if this divide is real, in what ways it's real, and how it might be related to other "divides" (e.g., social, economic, etc.). Into the heart of our discussion fell two key factors: access and relevance; that is, access to technology and information, and the relevance of that technology and information to our students. The discussion was inspired, in part, by Lee Skallerup Bassette's article "It's About Class: Interrogating the Digital Divide" which raised clear questions about not only how to bridge the digital divide, but also whether it's appropriate to try.
Read More...Digital Division: a #digped Discussion
July 03, 2012 | Filed in: #digped
by Sean Michael Morris
As teachers and students, we are faced every day with a multiplicity of technological options, both in terms of teaching and learning, and also personally and professionally. How do we want to engage with the world -- through Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr? And how do we want to learn and guide learning -- using an LMS, Wordpress, Udacity, MOOCs? These are the questions we can ask when we have a wired classroom, a smartphone, ready internet access, and a working knowledge of the tools these technologies provide.
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As teachers and students, we are faced every day with a multiplicity of technological options, both in terms of teaching and learning, and also personally and professionally. How do we want to engage with the world -- through Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr? And how do we want to learn and guide learning -- using an LMS, Wordpress, Udacity, MOOCs? These are the questions we can ask when we have a wired classroom, a smartphone, ready internet access, and a working knowledge of the tools these technologies provide.
Read More...It’s About Class: Interrogating the Digital Divide
July 02, 2012 | Filed in: Digital Pedagogy
by Lee Skallerup Bessette
I live and work in one of America’s poorest regions, Appalachia -- specifically eastern Kentucky. Businesses and municipalities don’t have a strong web presence (if any at all), Google Maps is essentially useless for getting anywhere, and the social network is still, largely, the local Churches and quilting bees. Howard Rheingold, in his book Net Smart, writes about how it is possible now to ask a question and get an answer on your phone anywhere. I hasten to add, as long as it’s not here, where even cell phone coverage is spotty at best.
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I live and work in one of America’s poorest regions, Appalachia -- specifically eastern Kentucky. Businesses and municipalities don’t have a strong web presence (if any at all), Google Maps is essentially useless for getting anywhere, and the social network is still, largely, the local Churches and quilting bees. Howard Rheingold, in his book Net Smart, writes about how it is possible now to ask a question and get an answer on your phone anywhere. I hasten to add, as long as it’s not here, where even cell phone coverage is spotty at best.
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