Down the Hall

So... this is opening down the hall from the history offices.  Very cool.

Connecting the dots between liberal arts and careers

It may be to the outsider that some of the things on appearing on the blog don't add up - what's up with a history department and GIS, THATCamp, Escape Rooms, Game Design, and other stuff.  Yes, we still teach history. Students read books and write papers.  That's not going away.  In fact, the bulk of what we do falls into those categories.  The ability to deeply read a text, write a clear paper, and use content knowledge to place events in context has never been more important.

However, we're also adding some spice to how things have been done in a history class.  Some of it, frankly, is experimentation with the goal of having fun.  Why not?  Fun is a powerful thing when it comes to learning.

 But as you can tell from other postings, we're giving serious thought to the relationship between the liberal arts and careers.  For starters, reading, writing, and content are important for life and work, but we also live in an age when things are changing rapidly and much of that change is driven by technology and data.  For those of you who graduated pre-internet, think about how much our work, entertainment, and lives have changed.  Frankly, there are now many careers that didn't exist 20 years ago and who knows what will exist 20 years from now.

There is a lot being written about this topic.  We're urged to "adapt and survive" and to "race with the machine."

Fair enough.  How?

This brings us back to the innovations we've been introducing to history classes.  There is one word you need on your resume today, and that is digital and so you see our work in digital history.  This is why we're working in GIS, website creation, podcast, and such.  Students should have digital on their resumes in a concrete and professional way.

We're also giving some serious thought to how design fits into this - hence the game design and gamification.

We've been working with Bill Bechdel of XPhobia and Jennifer Pulver of SBU's events office to create an escape room summer camp.  Don't know what an escape room is?  Check out the Olean Times Herald story on Bill's room.  According to Bill, “It’s like stepping into a movie — you’re a part of the action,” he said. “My idea is to bring as much immersion to this as possible.”  For participants, it is an authentic, immersive experience.  

For educators, it's a chance to blend content with design in the curriculum.  It's a chance for educators and students alike to learn.  The next step is to take the ideas we develop with the escape room camp and bring them into classes.  That, it seems, is the key to adapting - and having fun.

THATCamp Bonas 16

We're hosting a THATCamp on Oct 25.  This is an outgrowth of the digital and public history projects we've been working on with Dennis Frank and the folks at the Friedsam Memorial Library.  The web page up that we'll be adding more information as we go along.  You can register for it here.

Because Dennis and I are involved and because we've been exploring gamification and game design in the classroom, we're kicking things off with a talk by Brian Mayer who is an educational game designer.  You can see his work here.

A THATCamp is an unconference.   The rules of an unconference are (1) have fun, (2) be productive, and (3) stay collegial.  The rules explained:

Unconferences are about you, the participants, proposing sessions that you explore with fellow participants with similar interest.  All disciplines are welcome.  Technology is broadly defined.

For the Liberal Arts, All is not Lost in the Digital Age

Although I risk turning the blog into a place to rant about the crisis in the humanities, I am deeply interested in how fields like history fit into the 21st century.  Since it is summer and I don't have new stories about what our great students are doing I'll post this column in the Miami Herald "For the Liberal Arts, All is not Lost in the Digital Age." The author makes some good points.

Taken from the article:

"“Liberal arts majors who want to be in the tech field have to educate themselves in the basic concepts, and if they can prove they understand it well enough, they become invaluable,” Nickel said. When he looks at résumés, he doesn’t immediately dismiss one that leads with a liberal arts degree. After all, he said, developers may create a product, but it takes a smooth talker in the board room to convince investors to buy.

There has been a bit of a backlash to the STEM push, with a string of stories in mainstream media and business publications praising the virtues and versatility of those liberal arts majors, particularly the ones willing to learn the language of computing."

I am not part of the STEM backlash, such as it is.  STEM is hugely important but it isn't the whole story.  For those of in fields like history, the digital age could actually be an opportunity providing we are willing to experiment and adapt - not always the easiest thing to do but it can be fun.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article29241376.html#storylink=cpy

Minecraft in the Classroom & ComputerCraftEdu

The blog has been pretty quite this summer, mostly because it is summer.  In some ways its downtime and in other ways it is time to do the the behind the scenes stuff that makes a university work.  I just finished with page proofs - important but not very interesting to anyone but me and my publisher.  I'm also planning for the fall.  As many know, I've been looking for ways spruce up the Public History class; to that end I've been looking at Minecraft.  This isn't as crazy as it sounds.  Minecraft has launched an educational arm and is showing up in the K-12 system.  Check out "Using Minecraft as a Learning Tool" for more on that.  The video is from the Minecraftedu YouTube channel.  I also need to thank various people who have been sending me articles about this.  Pretty cool.

Press Start to Begin

For those of you wondering just what we've got cooking for next fall with the games and the Civil War collection, check out Gianna May's article for the AHA Press Start to Begin.

Mapping Occupation

Mapping Occupation shows the U.S. Army in the South During Reconstruction.  It is a cool demonstration of what historians can do now.  Check it out.

Creativity

There is a lot of talk these days about creativity and the pace of change in the workplace.  Yes, it is daunting and disruptive but as historians we know about change.

Seeking Creative Candidates

You should also check out Walter Isaacson's essay "What We can Learn from Innovators."  He has some interesting things to say about how innovation comes about and the spark that comes when technology and humanities come together.

Tuning into the Digital Age

Visualization of a Map of the Internet thanks to Wikipedia.

One discussion thread at the recent AHA meeting was the how should the history major adapt to the digital age.  Increasingly I've preferred "Information Age" rather than digital age or computer age because, for me, it evokes other pivotal transitions such as the industrial revolution.  W. Caleb McDaniel's piece "The History Major in the Digital Age" offers a nice discussion of why historians need to grapple with the digital age in the classroom and beyond.