How does DH extend my final project?

Prepare a clear statement on how your project grows out of the concerns, readings, and topics of this class–this is the why DH question! How does framing this project as a Digital Humanities project matter? Does it change the methodology? Framing questions? Does it alter your engagement with certain literature? Does it open new avenues for data collection and interpretation? etc…

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The progression of the semester has largely contributed to the shape my final project is beginning to take in not only the scholarship studied, but also the discussions we've cultivated within the classroom as well the pedagogical presentations we've done in front of each other. In understanding the main focus of DH as keeping the human central in our inquiry, I've found that returning to this concept has helped to orient me in ways that allow me to stay focused on my goals the I've proposed in my research design model as well as my conceptual framework. 

To begin, even the focus of my question has shifted from looking at the technology of SMS spaces and Emoji's to focusing on how such technologies can help our CLASP students. Through this course I have learned that a common misconception of DH is the view that technology must be the central focus. We've learned about this through our readings within the Debates in the Digital Humanities anthology with Steven Ramsay's argument that Digital Humanists must "do" or "create". However, as Tom Scheinfeldt and others have mentioned, we don't necessarily have to "do" to be digital humanist. What's important is that we are critical in our use of technology, consistently critiquing and examining the effect it has on us as humans. In extending these notions further in the construction of our DH 101 syllabi, I continued to cultivate this pedagogy that the technology is second to the critical thinking and engagement students must participate in as users of technology. 

In focusing on the first year writing class, I've found Olin Bjork's article "Digital Humanities and the First Year Writing Course" to be exceptionally helpful as I begin to consider what it means to be literate in the 21st century, and how technology and its use plays a critical role in shaping our understanding of literacy. I found a plethora of materials in the Digital Humanities Pedagogy collection to be valuable as I consider the pedagogical applications of using Emoji's in the composition classroom. Kuhn and Callahan's Undergraduate Digital Literacy article in Hacking the Academy has also helped to shape my perception of the ethical obligations we have towards infusing technology and the critique of such technology in ways that allow students to make meanings. 

As I move towards the methodology of my final project, I have found the an introduction to digital tools through the DiRt Bamboo archive has really helped shape my perception of my project from the "big picture" perspective. Using tools like Project "R" to showcase visual representations of the qualitative survey data mirrors the implications of visual communicative practice in SMS spaces, which to me really brings my project full circle. The conversations this semester in class have also asked me to really consider end users and access as it pertains to not only my students, but also my colleagues and how I showcase myself as a digital humanist within the English Department. Unless I'm housed in DTC, my colleagues won't be following me as I begin to talk about hardware, and coding, and other technical technology terminology. Therefore, using tools that make the data accessible is especially important to me, and I don't think I would have had access to these free resources for my project without this DH course. DH has also allowed me to view my final project as a hybrid discourse that infuses both the visual with the written. In looking at the implications of Emoji's in composition and rhetoric, and more specifically the first year writing course, I'm thinking critically about multimodality, and how a hybrid composition can help to be more inclusive of different cultural populations of students. Without the literature, projects, and prompts this semester getting us to understand the tangible currency DH has as a interdisciplinary field, I believe that I would really view my project in a way that made a case for technology under a framework of literacy, where I think the "why" does in is that I am keeping my students central in this project, and I am looking at technology in such a way that I hope it helps them become better compositionists. I don't think I would have came to that central goal without the scholarship and practice, and tools that DH has introduced me to.

Hacking Teaching: Infusing Multimodal Projects into the EN101 Portfolio

Lucy's Hacking Presentation

Mark Sample and Kelly Schrum’s chapter, “What’s Wrong with Writing Essays”: A student response

Dear Professor Sample and Schrum,
 I want to respond to your essay titled "What's Wrong with Writing Essays: A Conversation" in Hacking the Academy by addressing each author separately in order of their contribution and then end by addressing the arguments collectively. I hope that's cool.
             Dr. Sample,
     I really like how you diss the standardized test. I always came to standardized tests with a lot of anxiety and I'm glad that my teachers think they're bullshit too. I found it interesting that you say "I don't believe my mission as a professor is to turn my students into miniature versions of myself" (87). My response to that would be, what if I want to be like you? What if I hope to someday produce a "thesis" or a "dissertation"? I guess the bigger issue here is what level course is this argument addressing? Does that matter? I think it does. The higher I climb into my major the more critical I become of how what I'm asked to do will contribute to preparing me for graduate school or life outside of college. I totally see where you're coming from with this whole argument of "why must writing, especially writing that captures critical thinking, be composed of words?" (87). But I think that you need to check yourself when you start to diss the type of work that comes with being a professor, or at least getting there. If your argument holds true, can't a dissertation be composed of something other than words? You set up a stereotype in the beginning of your argument that nods towards the thesis or dissertation being something only comprised of words, and I think you would have more cred in this whole issue if you came back to that discussion with your argument of how these documents in particular can transcend the notion of text-only. I'm just sayin.
               Dr. Schrum,
      Your digital story telling assignment for your graduate students sounds super cool, and I wonder how that might be adapted in an undergraduate course for me, or if it even would be at all. Why five photos? Is it because you're following a particular narrative arc that firsts identifies a problem/establishes a setting, provides 2 details that propel a forward motion, has a climax, and then a resolution? If you argue against standardization that seems pretty standard to me. I do really like how putting the photos out of order changes the story, and it totally blew my mind in your goldfish example. Putting things out of order encourages students to look at things in a different way. Super awesome. How would animation in the images (like GIFs) mess with the story? I use GIF's all the time outside of the classroom to communicate with my friends, so I would be someone who might want to play around with that. I also like that you ask students to give credit to where the images are coming from, because thinking about how I use GIF's recreationally, I have no idea where they were created. I really like how there's some method to the madness in the project (not that your story is crazy!). This is clearly demonstrated in your discussion where you say "the process was intentionally scaffolded to emphasize experimentation, reflection, peer feedback, and iterative learning" (94). Sometimes it's helpful for us as students to understand the process for projects, but it's also helpful to hear about the goals and outcomes, and I wish you would have included a discussion about that and how it may be different from a traditional textual story. But anyway, it's still cool. I also like that you are asking your students to do a relatively low stakes project with technology. I know that you've thought about this because you say "why digital storytelling?...because it is accessible, relatively easy to teach basic technical skills, and a useful practical skill. It allows students to engage with visual and multimedia sources while researching a topic and crafting thoughtful arguments; it also creates an end product that ca be shared and revised" (96). As a student, I like knowing that this project will have benefits for me beyond the grade I earn for it in this class. Also, when I'm asked to use a particularly difficult technology as a tool without much experience, I kind of shut down and get super stressed out, so I'm happy that the technology isn't the focus, but rather the story.

In short, I really like that you're both making these arguments with us (the students) in mind. It really seems like you care about us and what literacy means in reference to being able to compose within the 21st century, and that really matters to me. I use technology so much outside of the classroom, and I think it's cool that you're asking us to incorporate that knowledge and skills into ways that are more critical and more in-depth. I don't like being uncomfortable at first (and I especially don't EVER want to feel paralyzed), but usually when I look back on projects or assignments that made me uncomfortable, I find that I'm not uncomfortable anymore and that I'm usually pretty proud of what I produced. In navigating places of tension and sticking it out, we have an opportunity to grow and get something out of it. Besides, who wants to ALWAYS be comfortable and boring? Not me.

Sincerely,

An undergraduate student.

DTC 101 Assignment 3 Updated and Revised

For my revisions of my third assignment, I focused on formatting the reflective letter elements of my social media critique assignment. Because the project is collaborative, I wanted students to not only reflect on their collaborative process, but also return to their group contract so that they could come full circle in reflecting upon what they had agreed on, and what actually happened as the unit progressed.

Initially I had the assignment be their 15th blog post. However, upon considering the feedback I received in class during my presentation, I decided to make the reflective letter a bit more private, so that group members wouldn't be able to see how their peers were evaluating their contributions and collaborative effort. I've structured the reflective letter in such a way that it is a revised version of the initial assignment while also adding a evaluative survey for each group member to fill out, again bringing them back to the obligations laid out on the contact as well as the important foci for collaborative projects. 

Because I can't upload my assignments to my blog as Word Documents, I've done a screen shot of new additions as well as revised portions of my unit. The revised portions are highlighted in yellow. Thanks for looking and please, any constructive feedback is always appreciated :)

Revised requirement components on Unit 3 Assignment Sheet:

I've also added in two chapters from Hacking the Academy into this unit to engage students with thinking more critically about how the social media sites that they are critiquing engage within the academy:

In addition I've created a separate requirement sheet for the Reflective component of the unit:

Lastly the Evaluative Survey that students need to complete for each group member. The survey questions have been copied on the sheet 4 times so that the student can give each group member ratings on the same document. For the sake of brevity on this blog post I'm only going to screen shot the first page: