This panel features three minute expositions on innovative projects and cool ideas for using digital methods in teaching and learning in the classroom and beyond. People interested in being panelists should contact zjackson@historians.org to register, and audience members will be invited to join the lightning round during the session.

Session Information

AHA Session 170

Date: Saturday, January 5, 2019
Time: 10:30 AM-12:00 PM
Location: Williford A (Hilton Chicago, Third Floor)
Chair: Ellen Holmes Pearson, University of North Carolina Asheville

Participants

Net.Create: Using Network Analysis to Support Digital Humanities in Large History Classrooms

Kalani Craig, PhD (Indiana University Bloomington)

My research team and I have recently gotten an NSF grant to explore how network analysis activities can help students improve their history reading comprehension. Students often lack the framework into which they can put historical details like names, dates, and faces, so we developed Net.Create to help them develop both framework and detail recall at the same time.

Clio and WWI Memorials in NYC

Andrew H. Lee (New York University)

The fall of 2017 I sent undergraduates went out in New York City to document the ways in which New York City memorialized WWI using the free app Clio. It was coincidently the semester immediately after the City created a blue ribbon panel to exam monuments in the city. Designed as an experiment in combining digital history, public history, and as a writing and citation exercise, it was successful as we all learned from the experience.

Flipping the Classroom With DH: An Experiment in Repackaging US History

Karen Sieber

In an effort to help students better understand, organize and connect the history from their “United States Since 1865” survey course, I flipped the classroom and brought in digital humanities tools for students to create a virtual course hub where they could repackage the lecture and reading material in a way that was helpful to them. Not only did students engage more with the material, resulting in higher grades, but it also streamlined my lesson plans and improved student feedback ratings.

Using an Interactive Syllabus Before the First Day of Class

Lindsey Passenger Wieck, Ph.D. (St. Mary's University)

I tried out using interactive syllabi this fall (Qualtrics template inspired by Guy McHendry). Formatted as a content-rich survey, students completed it with the goal of engaging them with the syllabus in advance. It allowed me to address their questions the first day of class, as well as learning more about them, their challenges, and their learning styles. In this lightning talk, I’ll discuss the survey, the outcomes, student feedback, and what I’d change in the future.