Growing the New Technopolis

What could you use powerful computers to do in the humanities fields? That’s exactly what the National Endowment for the Humanities wants to know. They’ve recently announced some great-looking opportunities to explore such possibilities. And if you’re worried about writing a grant for a supercomputing endeavor, how about this:

We don’t expect that you’ve necessarily worked out all the details — you may simply be at a stage where basic research and experimentation is in order. We will work with you to help find the most suitable NEH grant opportunity and make suggestions on how to turn your draft into a full-blown proposal.

If I only had something that needed super-computing…

The Corporation for National and Community Service is trying to get rid of $2.3M!

The details are here. Due date is May 7, 2008.

I just came across a Flash-based tool called PrimaryAccess, a slideshow application similar to VoiceThread. According to its website, “PrimaryAccess is a web-based tool that offers teachers and students frictionless access to digital images and materials that enable them to construct compelling personal narratives.” It was developed by Bill Ferster at the Virginia Center for Digital History. You can watch an introduction to it here.

There are a few things I really like about it:
- Unlike VoiceThread or Microsoft’s Photo Story, it’s open source.
- It provides a good introduction for students to the idea of using primary (media) documents for scholarship. Students use historical photos from a database that are already annotated with APA citation.
- It has an integrated “idea map” for planning movies. Mind-mapping is a new passion of mine. Non-linear approaches to project-planning offer students a flexible tool for getting their ideas together (vs traditional outlining or storyboarding, say).

In Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture, Henry Jenkins et al say:

…we do not want to see media literacy treated as an add-on subject. Rather, we should see it as a paradigm shift, one which, like multiculturalism or globalization, reshapes how we teach every existing subject. Media change is impacting every aspect of our contemporary experience and as a consequence, every school discipline needs to take responsibility for helping students to master the skills and knowledge they need to function in a hypermediated environment.

PrimaryAccess seems to hold great potential for working towards that goal in history curricula. What better way to learn history than contextualized through the primary photographical documents of an era?

Mike

Direct from the folks at Edublogs:

“We’ve got some pretty big news this week, something we’ve been working on for quite a while and something we think you will love. It’s now simple to create blogs for all your students (or colleagues) without having to leave the comfort of your own blog! All you have to do is visit the ‘Users’ tab in your admin area, pop in a username, email address and blog title and the system will automatically create a blog (you can create up to 15 at once) and email the login details to the new user.”

http://edublogs.org/2008/03/11/simply-create-blogs-and-usernames-for-your-students/

It’s been far too long since either Bob or I has posted anything here at the New Technopolois blog. But don’t let that fool you! We’ve each been busy in our own ways, cultivating interest among our respective institutions and elsewhere for a committed approach to technology integration in an academic-scholarly/service-learning context. Bob’s been doing some great work with the Digital Media Sandbox Consortium, a multi-state collective driven by his campus (TSU) that looks to create a NCAA-style digital media tournament for students at the higher ed level. See www.tnsandbox.com for more on this project.

Meanwhile, I finally finished my master’s degree in information science in December and have been keeping very busy with my work responsibilities here at Carolina Law, where I’ve served since Jan. ‘07 as the assistant dean for IT. But along with that, I’ve been spearheading the iTunes U project for Carolina and am now, along with Bob and another UNC colleague, participating in this year’s Carolina Challenge. The CC is an entrepreneurial competition for UNC students, faculty, and staff with a business track and a social/non-profit track. We’ll be competing in the latter with our DMAC (Digital Media Arts Co-op) serving as the model for that. More news to follow…

I stumbled upon this series of great video tutorials on blogging. I hate to admit that they use Blogger, not WordPress, as their example platform, but there’s lots of good stuff here. This link may only be available through the end of the month, so hurry to check it out. At the bottom of the page, there are a couple tutorials specifically geared towards educators.

Blogging Workshop – Movies

It’s been a long hot summer indeed. Too long between posts for this old dog, but following a nice retreat to DC for the Campus Technology Conference (where Bob and I first started to solidify our ideas last year in Boston), I’m headed into the fall academic semester with renewed focus. Bob and I continue to stir the pot through various contacts near and far, and the tri-state digital media “sandbox” consortium (TN, NC, VA) appears to be shaping up quite nicely. More news as it happens, but meanwhile, the MacArthur Foundation continues its focus on digital learning with their second major grant competition…
http://www.dmlcompetition.net/

The time is now to write your congressional representative and ask him/her to support the new ATTAIN bill. Quoting from the EdTech Action Network’s site (which is worth bookmarking):

“The Achievement Through Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) Act was introduced on May 23rd by Representatives Roybal-Allard, Hinojosa, Biggert and Kind.  This bipartisan bill revamps the No Child Left Behind Act’s (NCLB) Enhancing Education Through Technology program (EETT), and would target federal education technology resources towards technology professional development, systemic reform initiatives with strong technology components, and, most importantly, schools failing to attain proficiency in core curricular subjects.”

Please visit http://www.edtechactionnetwork.org/index.html soon to make your voice heard!

A very thoughtful article in T.H.E Journal on improving the quality and accessibility of educational podcasting.

http://www.thejournal.com/articles/20818 

Some wonderful work being done halfway between our respective institutions, down in beautiful Asheville, NC. The Media Arts Project has developed a conceptual plan for building what it calls “creative clusters” by way of A Community-Based Media Development Center. (this links to a PDF)

This idea is not unlike the one we’re putting forward: the creation of what we’re calling DMACs, or digital media arts centers, in historically underprivileged neighborhoods. The DMAC model could serve as a powerful multidisciplinary service-learning project that results in all kinds of action research, civic engagement, and social entrepreneurship. The key is to build strong partnerships at the local, state, and even national level to foster such projects along and grow the model out.

I can’t believe I hadn’t come across his work until earlier this week, but Henry Jenkins is someone who is way out in front on the whole digital literacy advocacy front. He’s currently the Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and the Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities. Yeah, basically a super genius. Seriously, his work is well worth your time, and his very active blog is a fine place to start.