Thursday, March 05, 2009

Past and Upcoming Presentations

I've been fortunate enough to do a number of presentations this academic year, on a variety of topics.

  • I had a great time presenting on teaching with WordPress blogs at WordCampEd DC last November (along with Jeremy Boggs, Automattic's Jane Wells, and CNDLES's Rob Pongsajapan). The morning finished with Jim Groom's call to arms (blogging/EDUPUNK--actually those don't do it justice--it was an inspired call to innovation). I just needed to warm up the crowd, and I think I did my job well. [Seriously, I got lots of good questions about methods used, strategies to get students to actually blog, and problems with "controlling" what students say in these blogs. It was a warm, welcoming crowd and I was humbled to be in conversations with the participants and my fellow presenters. Thanks especially to CHNM's Dave Lester for setting the whole event up.]
  • Then in January, Jeremy Boggs and I presented as part of a large panel of scholar teachers at the American Historical Association national meeting in New York. Our topic was Teaching History in the Digital Age. [My links for the presentation are here and the session was nicely reviewed by history-ing.] Although the conference organizers had placed us in a tiny room (~30 seats), we filled the room and had people sitting on sideboards, the floor, and standing in the hallway. Hmmm, perhaps historians do want to know more about this digital thing. In any case, my presenters were fun, their presentations fascinating, the audience was engaged, and we had a terrific Q&A afterwards. About all you could hope for in an AHA presentation....

I'm also hoping to present on 1) digital history and 2) strategic planning for digital resources and technologies at the AAHC in April and THATCamp II in June, though I'm still waiting to hear about the proposals for those conferences.

Also in April I'll be presenting at HASTAC III at the University of Illinois on "'Uncomfortable, but Not Paralyzed': Challenging Traditional Classroom Boundaries with Undergraduates and Digital History.” Having never done a lightening talk (and being famous for running over) I'd appreciate any strategies readers of this blog have for doing lightening talks (~5-7 minutes).

And in late May, I'll be presenting to Mary Washington alums on Digital History projects as part of Alumni College associated with UMW's Reunion events.

It's a busy fall and spring, but I've been having a great time doing these presentations.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll see you at the Alumni College in May. I'm doing a presentation there regarding the present-day People's Republic of China (and will, incidentally, be introducing a good collection of digital resources on the topic...)

Unknown said...

It is funny to think of "history professor" and "lightning talk" together. :)

Actually, I think the key to a good lightning talk is to rehearse, and if possible, reherarse in front of someone that can give you good feedback.

A talk like that needs to be short, efficient, but memorable in some way so it stands out from the others.

It also helps to end with a URL that leads to info and resources that get after the topic in more depth.

Good luck!

Jeffrey McClurken said...

Jerry,
Are you volunteering to be a rehearsal audience member? :-)