I apologize for coming to this discussion so late: I would be willing to use pecha kucha style along with, as Ben proposes above, a series of videos that will give more information. I’ll bring the urls to those videos as a handout but also post them on the prezi slide presentation — I THINK I can set prezi to advance automatically at 20 seconds per slide; if not, I’ll use power point.

So you can all have more time, if you need it.

Quick question: are we certain that we will have live internet? It might be wise for us each to have a power point that cans all the clicks you make, just in case the internet doesn’t arrive. I’ve had that happen at too many presentations . . . . — and I think everyone should have their ppt. slides on a flash drive . . .

In my presentation, I am now planning to frontload the class purpose, show some of the resources we used to participate in research and writing, and share some of the problems I encountered, along with some possible ways to overcome those hurdles. Part of what interests me about this topic is much like what Ben says:

I think pushing these sorts of tools in pedagogical settings is at least as valuable for the ways it might prompt students to become more thoughtful and sophisticated users of online resources as it is for the ways it allows us to teach the eighteenth century.

This class wasn’t really about the 18c, but about how to think more closely and critically and holistically about literary texts, research, and argumentation. I believe there are very real ways in which becoming more cognizant of and expert with a variety of digital research tools–even including library catalogues–can help students interact with texts and concepts in more sophisticated and self-aware manner. For instance, knowing how–even the basics of how–a database works and represents is data can change how we conduct searches.

I think I could do this in pecha kucha, but I also don’t want the format to suture over the real physical problems that many of my students encountered when trying to deal with our resources–the encountering of which focuses the ways technology (might) offer unique opportunities to confront some assumptions of transparency in literary interpretation. However, I also don’t want to eat into others’ time. I would be interested in the discussion format, but, like George, I think it is very important to have a resource that allows us to indulge, later and in the privacy of our own homes, in the wealth of experience the roundtable collectively represents.

To be candid, I’m still pondering just what angle to take in this discussion. I’m also presenting on the “Digital Humanities and the Eighteenth Century” panel during the session after this one, and I’m trying to work out the best way to divvy up the material. Both presentations will have to do with the site I’ve been developing, but my thought had been that, for this panel, I’d focus on pedagogical questions and talk about the site as a resource for research in the other.

I was actually about ready to start work on a new screencast about some upcoming developments on the site, and will be happy to provide a link to that here once it’s done. Handling those sorts of “How does this resource work?” questions ahead of time would, I hope, free up time for more discussion, as George suggests.

I wondered if it might be possible to get a little clearer sense of what each of the participants would be discussing. As I’ve said, my thinking about my own piece is still developing, so I’d be glad to hear about the kinds of things others wanted to talk about. One benefit of having the blog, it seems to me, is that we can begin to get a sense of what conversations might emerge, and can tailor things to promote those conversations.

As I’ve been thinking about this panel, I’ve found myself mulling over the varying levels of success (and, um, its opposite) that I’ve had over the semesters in trying to get students engaged in online work. I kind of figured I’d talk very briefly about my interest in getting students to think about questions of bibliography and print history, even at an institution without access to ECCO, et. al. (the things that prompted me to start developing Eighteenth-Century Book Tracker in the first place), and then move on to what’s come to seem to me to be a really fundamental question about these kinds of pedagogical efforts. I’ve been finding that the biggest challenges aren’t technological, but rather social.

We have all sorts of technological options for extending our conversations with and among students beyond the three hours (or so) we spend in the classroom. The greater challenge I’ve found is trying to figure out how to get those conversations woven into the fabric of students’ digital lives once they leave class. That’s something, I’m sorry to say, that I have yet to nail to my satisfaction. Despite what we so often hear about the “digital generation,” my own experience has been that my students, on average, aren’t as tech savvy as people assume they are, and, furthermore, have very little interest in technology qua technology. They know how to use the things that help them do something that they want to do (Facebook, IM…), but aren’t automatically keen to venture much beyond that—and why would they be? In a way, I think pushing these sorts of tools in pedagogical settings is at least as valuable for the ways it might prompt students to become more thoughtful and sophisticated users of online resources as it is for the ways it allows us to teach the eighteenth century.

As I say, I’m still working out the details in my own mind, and I hope this doesn’t sound like too contrary a note for a panel like this one. I’d love to hear about the directions others are thinking of pursuing, because I think these panels are going to make for some fruitful discussions.

My thoughts about these roundtables are influenced by one audience member’s reaction to a roundtable I participated in last year. Two of of the presenters discussed and demonstrated digital tools for pedagogy, and in the discussion that followed we (the roundtable participants) debated their value and potential drawbacks.

In the last 5 minutes, one audience member said, “I have a lot of questions, and would like to learn more about how these tools work, but we don’t have enough time remaining.”

So I’ve wanted to come up with some way to have a successful, engaging roundtable and also let audience members leave with a better idea of how they could start using some of the tools and methods presented.

So my strongest desire is not necessarily that all presentation stick to the pecha kucha form, but that we come up with a way for audience members to gain entrance to the world of (what we’re calling) “The Digital Eighteenth Century 2.0.” If something other than using pecha kucha will work for accomplishing this, that’s fine with me.

As we all know, the discussion in sessions like this often “run long or go off on a tangent,” to quote Adrianne, and this will frustrate an audience member who would like to learn more about Google Earth but finds that the bulk of the discussion ends up being about Wikipedia.

Is it possible to avoid such a situation? How? Should we just acknowledge that this might happen and not try to come up with a strategy for avoiding it?

As for using this web site, it’s our goal that we might get closer to use EighteenthCentury.org as a place to share supplementary materials:

Audio files
Video files
Screencasts
Tutorials that demonstrate the basics of how certain tools work
Links and references for further reading

For an example of what a step-by-step tutorial aimed at beginners might look like, consider a ProfHacker post I wrote called “Using Wordle in the Classroom (1 of 2),” in which I demonstrate how word clouds reveal important information about diction in two poems from our period. (I still have to write part 2! Hopefully soon.) Another example of a step-by-step tutorial, which I use with my students, is “Social Bookmarking 101“

Screencasts are also quite useful. Consider these short videos I created for my students using Jing, an inexpensive and very easy tool for such purposes: “How to use this website.” (Of course, there are more sophisticated (and more expensive, and somewhat more time consuming) ways to do screencasts: see, for example, “Screencasting 101.”

As I wrote last July at The Long 18th, we have the materials and we have the tools, but we’re just not using them as we could. In part, I think, many people just don’t know what’s possible (or they don’t know how) but would be willing to learn.

I think it would be interesting if we each put together a longer, more formal presentation and posted that here (we could include all of the information we aren’t going to have time to mention at the panel). We could also have links to our references. Having additional information would make the site a necessary resource, rather than just a repeat of the panel.

I think that recording the presentation would be an excellent idea. Depending on the type of presentations, we might want to do a screencast, with screencapture and voice recording. The screen may be much more important than our bodies and videorecording tends to obscure what is on a screen.

The question I’m most curious about is the one regarding the interplay between the audience and the presenter. I can imagine, for example, running a Q&A about Wikipedia. Oftentimes academics are very resistant to Wikipedia – one of the best ways to address their concerns to put them directly on the table. I like the idea of getting people to participate directly in the conversation (as this is part of the wiki ethos), but discussions have a tendency to run long or go off on a tangent. I’m pretty familiar with the concerns that academics have about Wikipedia, so I feel like I could address them in a presentation, but that is not as engaging. I feel like some combination of the two is best.

I’m certainly willing to help out with organizing a Digital Humanities caucus.

I’m very excited at the prospect of participating in this and seeing what other people are doing!

Adrianne

I would be happy –thrilled even– to share my resources on eighteenthcentury.org. I would think that what gets shared here would be left to the presenters, but I see these panels as a chance to get some really lively discussion and exchange on this site. I would also think that with all the presenters’ consent, we should videotape the sessions and make them available on this website. I would be happy to help with the technical side of doing that, if I can be of service.

Also, I think that continuity between the two sessions is important. I wonder if we could post a lot from the first session on this site and refer folks to it? Or perhaps set up a google wave? Or perhaps tweeting will take care of it?

I am really looking forward to this!
Molly