tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-103037652024-02-20T15:10:47.804-05:00Techist: A Blog about Technology, History and TeachingJeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-19449371759492879152014-03-30T13:58:00.003-04:002014-03-30T13:58:49.671-04:00Moving on overAfter nine years on Blogger, I've ported all my posts to <a href="http://techist.mcclurken.org/">http://techist.mcclurken.org/</a>. I moved because I'm working to consolidate my digital identity (as part of UMW's <a href="http://umwdomains.com/" target="_blank">Domain of One's Own</a> project) and because almost all of my blogging in the classroom has been oriented around WordPress.<br />
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So, if you're still following me here, please switch your feed to the new site (<a href="http://techist.mcclurken.org/feed">http://techist.mcclurken.org/feed</a>). [And look for a new post there with some news in the near future.]Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-37359437726894832842013-11-15T22:04:00.000-05:002013-11-15T22:04:15.896-05:00My Contribution to the James Farmer Lecture Hall DedicationI was honored to be asked to be part of the dedication of the large lecture room in Monroe Hall at UMW in honor of Civil Rights icon James Farmer, who taught in that room for nearly 15 years. Here is the text of my remarks with some of the clips I shared with the audience.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">James
Farmer Lecture Hall Dedication, November 15, 2013</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<br />
Thank you all for coming. It is indeed an honor for me to be here today, to be part of this ceremony. And it’s certainly appropriate for me, as chair of UMW’s department of History and American Studies, the department that James Farmer taught in for many years, to say a few words here today.<br />
<br />
But I have another perspective on Dr. Farmer as well.
Twenty years ago this fall, I was starting my senior year at Mary Washington College, and, once a week, for nearly three hours, I had the privilege of sitting in this very room, listening to James Farmer tell nearly 100 of us about the Civil Rights movement and about his role in it as part of his <i>Introduction to Civil Rights</i> course. As a history major I had heard about the movement in several of my classes, but there was something fundamentally different in hearing those stories come to life from someone who had been there, someone who had physically and emotionally suffered for the cause in which he believed.<br />
<br />
As a history major who had every plan of going on to graduate school to become a professor, a scholar, an historian, a teacher there was something deeply powerful about hearing from a living legend who was simultaneously, clearly human as well.
He was self-deprecating and open about his personal struggles: discussing, for example, how he dealt with his jealousy of “Martin’s” fame (that first-name reference itself a casual, not ostentatious, but constant reminder to us of his ties to the other leaders of the movement) or his wondering whether he made the right decision to stay in jail with other protesters arrested in Plaquemine, Louisiana instead of paying the fees and being at the 1963 March on Washington.<br />
<br />
Even if I hadn’t already been aware of the unique experience that I and my classmates were going through, it would have been brought home to me when I got my paper back with his comments on it.
My paper was on Lyndon Johnson’s varied stances on Civil Rights over the years. I won’t bore you with the details now, but I was proud of the nuanced story that I had written, working in many primary sources, but especially using LBJ’s autobiography, written after he had stepped down as president. [In retrospect, given what I know now of primary sources and about Lyndon Johnson, I bought into LBJ’s retellings of his own story more than I should have.]
When I got the paper back, Dr. Farmer had simply written, “Interesting. This is not the version President Johnson told me when I was in the Oval Office.”
Now, I’d had professors tell me that I needed to think more critically about my sources before, but none of them could cite actual interactions with the people in question to make me do so.<br />
<br />
For this and so many other reasons, my time in James Farmer’s class, my time in this very room with him, was transformative, so much so, that when I had the chance to come back to teach at Mary Washington I jumped at the opportunity to find ways to remember and honor him, for his service to the Civil Rights Movement and for his service to nearly a generation of students at this school.
I’m not alone in that. Tim O’Donnell taught a <a href="http://farmer.umwblogs.org/" target="_blank">First-Year Seminar on James Farmer</a>, as do an <a href="http://farmerfsem.umwblogs.org/" target="_blank">interdisciplinary group of faculty led by Craig Vasey</a>; my colleague Jess Rigelhaupt<a href="http://farmeroralhistory.umwblogs.org/" target="_blank"> taught an oral history class </a>in which the students interviewed many of Farmer’s colleagues during his time at MWC.<br />
<br />
But I’ve been asked to show you a bit of work that students in my digital history courses have done to honor James Farmer.
Now, in talking with my students who were working on these projects, I told them about my own experiences in Farmer’s class and about his many gifts as an orator. They decided that they wanted to make it possible for others to not just read Dr. Farmer’s words but to be able to hear him as well.
The <a href="http://digitalhistory.umwblogs.org/" target="_blank">2008 iteration of my digital history course</a> found and digitized Farmer’s 1994 appearance before the Federal Election Commission. There are <a href="http://jamesfarmer.umwblogs.org/videos/" target="_blank">many excerpts of that testimony</a> with him talking about his first exposure to racism in 1923, him discussing his views on affirmative action, him revealing the ways in which Gandhi’s non-violent approach was an inspiration to him.
But I want to share this clip of a poem that Farmer himself wrote.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/RMok7v-v6D8" width="459"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
"When I Stand Tall"</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
In the mid-1980s television station WNVT came and recorded 13 of James Farmer’s class lectures. In 2012, working with our Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies, students digitized those lectures, transcribed them, and <a href="http://jamesfarmerlectures.umwblogs.org/" target="_blank">made them available for anyone to see</a>.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
I want to share two clips here.
The first clip is actually a trailer made for the site by the students in the class to draw people in to watching the full lectures.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="369" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/40659092" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
In the second clip Farmer talks about what he saw as the successes of the Freedom Summer.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="283" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/39282740" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
Please check out these two sites for more videos of Dr. Farmer's <a href="http://jamesfarmer.umwblogs.org/videos/" target="_blank">FEC testimony</a> and <a href="http://jamesfarmerlectures.umwblogs.org/" target="_blank">class lectures</a>.<br />
<br />
So you can see that through the work of UMW students everyone can hear James Farmer’s words, can hear him tell his stories, can come to understand why we honor James Farmer today with a room in which people will regularly gather to hear from faculty, from guest speakers, from politicians debating the issues of the day, and from students presenting on their own research, perhaps on the Civil Rights Movement.<br />
<br />
It is indeed right and appropriate that today we honor James Farmer in this way, in this room in which he touched so many Mary Washington students’ lives. <br />
<br />
It is indeed right and appropriate that we designate, that we consecrate this place where the Civil Rights movement came to life through the resonant voice, the wry humor, the deep intelligence, and the raw emotion of a man who had lived through the movement, had changed the movement, and had been changed by it<br />
<br />
It is indeed right and appropriate that we celebrate and recognize the life and teaching of James Leonard Farmer, Civil Rights leader, hero, and educator.<br />
<br />
Thank you.<br />
<br />
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<br />Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-52370146188377866412013-09-19T22:41:00.000-04:002013-09-19T22:57:35.487-04:00C-SPAN Lets Me Talk about My Last Project<br />
C-SPAN's BookTV did a short interview with me about <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Take-Care-Living-Reconstructing-Confederate/dp/0813928133/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379643865&sr=8-1&keywords=take+care+of+the+living" target="_blank">my book</a> as part of their <a href="http://www.c-span.org/LocalContent/Fredericksburg/" target="_blank">C-SPAN Cities Tour of Fredericksburg</a> that appears this weekend.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/-ViRPSV1N1c?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
Considering that the book came out four years ago now, I'm glad I remembered as much as I did about it. The interviewer from C-SPAN, Christy Hinton, did a nice job framing the parts of my office that were clean and the nice cover of my book in the background. More importantly, she edited my responses down to a reasonable summary of what the book is about.Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-6718021859215711452013-02-06T13:45:00.001-05:002013-02-06T13:45:55.717-05:00Sharing my teaching and learningI've been fortunate lately to have a number of things come out recently featuring my teaching and research.<br />
<br />
1) In October my US History in Film class was recorded by C-SPAN's American History TV as we discussed the 1939 movie <i>Gone with the Wind. </i>It was a wide-ranging discussion of the movie as a flawed secondary source about the Antebellum, Civil War, Reconstruction eras in the South, as well as its role as a primary source for the 1930s perspectives on that past. <br />
<br />
I did an introduction and conclusion, but the bulk of the class was the students delving deeply into the interpretations, implications, and lessons of the film. They did a terrific job.<br />
<br />
[I've gotten a number of nice responses from people who watched it, but the best was from an 87-year old Holocaust survivor who wrote me that <i>GWTW </i>had been her first exposure to American History. She then told me that she was inspired to learn about the actual historical background of the time.]<br />
<br />
You can watch the whole class <a href="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/308441-1" target="_blank">here</a>. <br />
<br />
<br />
2) A couple weeks later, I did a talk for the <a href="http://famcc.org/" target="_blank">Fredericksburg Area Museum</a> on the Coming of the Battle of Fredericksburg as part of the celebration C-SPAN came to that as well and you can see that talk <a href="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Beforethe" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
3) A few weeks after that, I was the moderator for a great series of talks about the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Fredericksburg by George Rable, Susannah Ural, and Frank O'Reilly. They put up with my unorthodox introductions and gave great talks which can be found <a href="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/event/210988" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
4) Finally, UMW did a <a href="http://www.umw.edu/greatminds/2013/02/04/history-lessons/" target="_blank">nice profile of me</a> and my teaching for the main page of the website. It's overly generous, but I appreciate it just the same.Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-61365664759506033622012-09-05T21:34:00.001-04:002012-09-05T21:41:50.861-04:00Incorporating Digital Literacy into History Methods Courses<br />
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In the History and American Studies 2009 Departmental Strategic Plan my department said that, in
addition to other skills and literacies, we wanted all majors to develop the
following abilities:</span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">n<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><b><i><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Digital Literacy<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
ability to find reliable, scholarly, information on topics:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Within gated,
subscription databases and in the larger, disorganized online world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 1.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In online archives,
museums and institutions of higher education.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
ability to assess and evaluate the reliability of online sources bringing to
this newer source of information the skills of judicious, critical skepticism
that have long been an indispensable historical tool.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
ability to produce creative, scholarly materials for the digital world that
require the same level of rigor historians have applied to writing and
publishing traditional papers, presentations, and monographs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When we developed learning outcomes for the history major, we incorporated these concepts into 8 of the 14 objectives, including
the most obvious one:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Ability to utilize
technological resources in research, data analysis, and presentation.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now, we are looking at revising our department's long standing methods course, HIST 299, into a two semester class (HIST 297 -- Colloquium and HIST 298 -- Practicum) for a number of reasons, among them the desire to be able to fully integrate all of the aspects we believe necessary to be a successful history major in our upper-level classes, in graduate school, and beyond.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">At our last department meeting, the department agreed to include the following ideas, concepts, and assignments into the two classes: </span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">HIST 297<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">n<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Finding and evaluating
sources online<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How
do we find and evaluate online materials for scholarly uses? How does one begin
to sift through the massive content that is available in a systematic and/or
creative way? What are the pitfalls and perils, the promises and potentialities
of the online information experience?</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 1.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Learn library databases<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Advanced scholarly
searching<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 1.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Evaluating sources
online<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">n<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Discuss new forms of
scholarly communication and methodology, including digital history projects, collaborative
writing, blogs, text-mining/topic modeling, mapping/GIS [1] </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">n<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Digital identity</span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How
should we present ourselves to the online world (personally, professionally,
and intellectually)? </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">n<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Potential assignments
for HIST 297:</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">E-portfolio/digital
resume</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Website
review (e.g, along the lines of the </span><a href="http://www.journalofamericanhistory.org/submit/websitereviews.html"><i><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text2;">Journal of American
History</span></i><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text2;"> website reviews</span></a><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">)</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Public
writing (reflective blogs or individual/group resource sites on historical
topics)</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Some
kind of public history assignment</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">HIST 298<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">n<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review,
as needed, concepts of source location and evaluation (focusing on primary
sources), digital identity, and new forms of scholarly methods and communication.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">n<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Potential
assignments<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Minimum level: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Public
writing (Research log or resource site on topic)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Innovative level:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Multimedia
version of their research project.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Contribute
to a larger digital project in a small way <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Partnered
with James Monroe Papers, James Monroe Museum, and/or Library’s Special
Collections, students could make small contributions to larger projects,
getting a sense for what goes on behind the scenes and contributing to a larger
good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Or
students could participate in crowd-sourced transcription projects, such as the
</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://wardepartmentpapers.org/">War Department Papers</a> or</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/transcribe-bentham/">Jeremy Bentham’s papers</a>.</span><br />
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We'll have to see how it actually plays out in classes, but I'm glad to see our department working on practical ways to implement digital fluency into the core classes of our curriculum.
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Here I’m talking about, at minimum, </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">exposure to the complex new approaches to research
in the</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";"> some exposure to the complex new approaches to
research in the discipline offered by recent advancements in computing,
including text-mining or GIS (if only because that those methods are
influencing a new generation of scholarship that students will need to
understand to assess). As they become more accessible and widely used, there
will be more opportunities for students to also engage in the application of
these tools in their own work.</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-56165920686508000132012-07-11T10:56:00.002-04:002012-07-11T10:56:29.622-04:00Confirmation for "Uncomfortable, but Not Paralyzed"?Since my first<a href="http://digitalhistory.umwblogs.org/" target="_blank"> Digital History class</a> in 2008, <a href="http://mcclurken.blogspot.com/2008/01/uncomfortable-but-not-paralyzed.html" target="_blank">I've been telling students that I wanted them to be "uncomfortable, but not paralyzed"</a> based on my sense that it was only when one struggled a bit that deep learning occurred. The concept <a href="http://learningthroughdigitalmedia.net/teaching-and-learning-with-omeka-discomfort-play-and-creating-public-online-digital-collections" target="_blank">has explicitly shaped much of my teaching since then</a>. Now <a href="http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/07/what-do-emotions-have-to-do-with-learning/" target="_blank">the Mindshift blog at KQED is reporting</a> that there are several studies that back up my reasoning.<br />
<br />
In one study, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959475211000806" target="_blank">published in <i>Learning and Instruction</i></a>, psychologists Sidney D'Mello and Art Graesser found "that even negative emotions can play a productive role in learning."<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Confusion, D’Mello explains, is a state of “cognitive disequilbrium”; we are mentally thrown off balance when we encounter information that doesn’t make sense. This uneasy feeling motivates us to restore our equilibrium through thought, reflection, and problem solving, and deeper learning is the result. According to D’Mello, engaged learners repeatedly experience “two-step episodes<span style="font: inherit;"><span id="more-22490" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span>alternating between confusion and insight.” Back and forth, between perplexity and understanding: this is how the learning of complex material happens.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In fact, deep learning may be <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">unlikely</em> to happen without the experience of confusion, suggests a study <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S1532690XCI2103_01#preview" style="color: #114999; text-decoration: none;">conducted by another researcher, Arizona State’s Kurt VanLehn</a>. The students in his experiment were not able to grasp the physics concepts they were learning until they had encountered, and surmounted, an intellectual “impasse.”</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Still another study, this one <a href="http://mazur.harvard.edu/publications.php?function=display&rowid=160" style="color: #114999; text-decoration: none;">led by Harvard physicist Eric Mazur</a>, found that students who observed a demonstration in science class understood the relevant concept no better than before—unless the students were asked to predict the outcome of the demonstration in advance. When their predictions turned out to be wrong, the resulting confusion motivated them to consider the concept more deeply, and they learned more.</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
On a related note, Stephen Ramsey at the University of Nebraska has a <a href="http://lenz.unl.edu/2012/06/10/learning-to-program.html" target="_blank">wonderful post that eloquently makes the case</a> that attitude is more important than (initial) aptitude in learning programming.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Nearly every programmer I know – and I know some great ones – started out not with a course, or a book, or a teacher, but with a problem that was irritating them. Something in their computational world didn’t seem right. Maybe it was broken, or maybe just missing. But being comfortable with not-knowing-what-the-hell-they’re-doing, they decided that getting a computer to do something new was more-or-less like figuring out how to get the chain back on the bike. They weren’t trying to “be programmers” any more than the parent determined to fix the kid’s bike is trying to be a “bicycle mechanic.”</blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white;">All of these suggest that cultivating mental habits among our students (and ourselves) where we are okay with being unfamiliar with a subject, okay with struggling to master a concept or tool or problem, okay with working in new formats, okay with failure and trying again is important for intellectual and academic development in school and with the work done outside of school.</span>Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-44633237539922864552012-05-23T07:51:00.000-04:002012-05-23T07:51:11.182-04:00Pushing BoundariesI'll make this public here, partly to keep myself honest, partly to explain why there may be fewer* posts here.<br />
<br />
I often say that one of my goals in teaching is to push students <a href="http://mcclurken.blogspot.com/2008/01/uncomfortable-but-not-paralyzed.html">beyond their comfort zones</a>, that <a href="http://mcclurken.blogspot.com/2012/05/2012-umw-convocation-keynote.html">discomfort is where real learning occurs</a>, and that I want students to become<a href="http://mcclurken.blogspot.com/2008/12/digital-history-and-undergraduate.html"> comfortable with being uncomfortable</a>. One of the parallels to that, however, that I've also made <a href="http://mcclurken.blogspot.com/2010/04/lecture-teaching-and-learning-with-new.html">clear in the teaching presentations</a> I've made to faculty is that the concept applies to us as well. We need to get outside of what we are comfortable with and to learn new skills while remembering what it is like to be a student.<br />
<br />
In that vein, and because I've really always wanted to join in the fun that many of my students and my good friends at UMW's DTLT are having, I'm going to participate in <a href="http://ds106.us/">DS106</a> this summer as a student. The course (phenomenon?) that began at UMW a few years ago had its origins as a face-to-face course in Digital Storytelling in Computer Science.
<a href="http://ds106.us/about/">DS106 has become much more than that</a>, and runs at various points throughout the year with both students taking a <a href="http://ds106.us/docs/Syllabus_Summer_2012">formal class with grades and credits</a> and a host of open, online only participants (like me).<br />
<br />
I've created a separate site for my various projects to come out of the 10 week course at <a href="http://ds106.mcclurken.org/">http://ds106.mcclurken.org/</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
*I'm aware that some of you are laughing right now at the idea of "fewer" posts here, given the sporadic nature of my blogging.Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-29433568601916263302012-05-13T21:33:00.000-04:002012-05-13T21:34:10.708-04:002012 UMW Convocation Keynote<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">The following is a speech that I was invited to give to graduating seniors at the pre-graduation awards ceremony known as Convocation. If you're not at UMW, some of the inside jokes will not make as much sense so I've included some links or annotations). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><b>May 11, 2012</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Thank you for that introduction, Austin,
and thanks to the Senior Class Officers for this opportunity to talk to the
graduating class of 2012, and our honored guests, family and friends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">As Austin mentioned,
four years ago I was the first faculty member to talk to all you graduating
seniors as a class of UMW students [as part of the opening Honor Code ceremony]; I’m honored to be the last faculty member
to do so before you walk tomorrow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Four years ago I
told you all about my own Honor Convocation. Four years ago we were preparing
for a presidential election, much as we are today. Four years ago I talked about having iPhone
envy; now it’s iPad envy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">In the last four
years, Facebook gained hundreds of millions of users, tens of billions of dollars, its own
tell-all movie, and, very recently, a few questionable UMW Grad Ball pictures. In the last four
years, Twitter became so mainstream that President Hurley has an account (though
I wish he’d stop competing with Lady Gaga for followers—it’s getting
embarrassing). In the last four years, we
saw the beginning and the end of Kim Kardashian’s marriage, but sadly not the
end of her 15 minutes of fame. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">On a more serious note, as a class you’ve
witnessed a nation involved in multiple wars/conflicts; you’ve seen a world
coping with man-made disasters of massive oil spills and natural disasters of
earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic ash; you’ve seen the rise of the Tea Party
and of the Occupy Movement; and the so-called Great Recession has, more or
less, spanned your time here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Of course, you
all have been busy these four years as well.
A few weeks ago, I asked you for your favorite UMW memories. Hundreds of you responded and for that I
thank you. I was moved by your passion
for this school and for your time here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">When I asked
what three things you would most remember about your time at UMW, several items stood
out. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px;">Your professors, your campus, your friends, your community, your Honor.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjWOh-Xjo4e8R9ZVkjD7DOvX5S28sJtEAHeyUBuHmyPTAJBJSJtwIDfoj-LheM8iOHYCXh-2Q11aL3fO02nKwDcXCUd7RP0Sp_YZGRy9miAkElpvDpHkHzjBzHpOYT3AEph5Iwvg/s1600/Wordle-3things.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjWOh-Xjo4e8R9ZVkjD7DOvX5S28sJtEAHeyUBuHmyPTAJBJSJtwIDfoj-LheM8iOHYCXh-2Q11aL3fO02nKwDcXCUd7RP0Sp_YZGRy9miAkElpvDpHkHzjBzHpOYT3AEph5Iwvg/s400/Wordle-3things.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/5251798/2012-Convo--Honor">http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/5251798/2012-Convo--Honor</a>
</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Several of you asked me to convey to your families “the essence of UMW
and why [you] love it here: the honor code, the beauty of campus, the [caring]
professors, the engaged classmates, knowing so many people as [you] walk down
campus walk.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Whether it was playing on Ball Circle, lounging in the big white chairs,
fountain swimming, eating at Seaco or McDonalds or Hyperion, watching or
joining UMW sports, or studying in the library, you told me of “Good friends,
good times, and good memories.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">A number of you
remarked on the visit by then-presidential candidate Barack Obama to campus in
the fall of 2008. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwyYDhkeBiSFLcJdWs7_BjWzx0Yn57kdgNlx1Cp9qz6Ya2qokL9S4bCMSurzh-GMRF1BH82oe1njI0elpDqMFvogyCDR_LEiAFUb-9AZa3J929PhIaGVUUcg1vu76dnsVkUODy0Q/s1600/Obama+Visit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwyYDhkeBiSFLcJdWs7_BjWzx0Yn57kdgNlx1Cp9qz6Ya2qokL9S4bCMSurzh-GMRF1BH82oe1njI0elpDqMFvogyCDR_LEiAFUb-9AZa3J929PhIaGVUUcg1vu76dnsVkUODy0Q/s400/Obama+Visit.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="direction: ltr; language: en-US; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: .38in; margin-top: 4.32pt; mso-line-break-override: none; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-align: left; text-indent: -.38in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Anand Rao -- <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/panandrao/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/panandrao/</a> </span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Others remembered how distraught you
were to have classes cancelled during Snowpocalypse 2010’s 50+ inches of ice and
snow. </span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKhkHzgHvGhLpiAPgRUNOJeUL0_rJa6xPacot09HCE8B-gCrQJPFHvIJ066T0CFQEAw5pUZBaUxyQSj4KGlPgPdfKsxTFfJpRAusNkOyAld7X9ytPoj4JGsnkOj92Uk9fWqcjiQA/s1600/Snowpocalypse+montage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKhkHzgHvGhLpiAPgRUNOJeUL0_rJa6xPacot09HCE8B-gCrQJPFHvIJ066T0CFQEAw5pUZBaUxyQSj4KGlPgPdfKsxTFfJpRAusNkOyAld7X9ytPoj4JGsnkOj92Uk9fWqcjiQA/s400/Snowpocalypse+montage.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 19px;">[The student in the laundry basket seems particularly distraught, no?]</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Several of you commented on the constant
state of campus construction; others talked about the change in University presidents. One of you combined the two, remembering that
some presidents came, started construction (<a href="http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2010/072010/07202010/562808">including some really nice book cases</a>)
and then went. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">[</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Actually quite a few of you remarked on
how wonderful and approachable President and Mrs. Hurley are.]</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Over and over, you told me about the power of the time spent in your
department, your academic community, of your close relationships with faculty
and fellow majors, of the process of “Mentors…becoming friends”. Many of you wrote of being challenged by rigorous
professors, about the discomfort and benefits of trying out new things, about
how much you learned when operating out of your comfort zone, even if you
weren’t able to do it easily. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Now, students who have taken my classes know that I have a phrase to
describe that sweet spot in which real learning occurs: <b>uncomfortable, but not
paralyzed</b>. The comments you all made reflect that your
UMW experiences were full of these moments of uncomfortable learning, real
learning. Scary at times, yes, but if
you were ever paralyzed you knew you could turn to faculty and friends and
family to help you through it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Even more
importantly, you’ve learned to handle that discomfort of new things on your own. As one of you noted: “I think part of
becoming sure of yourself is not always being given advice but finding your own
way.” So, like your fellow student who began four years ago as a pre-dental, bio major who became an art major and will soon be
an art teacher, you all have found your own way, tried new things, and learned
about yourself and the world around you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Tomorrow you will walk in front of your
families, your friends, and your faculty. I, as many people have done and will
do over the next few weeks, asked about your plans after college. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCguHb0Gi-6MJE_r8qAzSoPlUAwycb2dr6lQeOIwZ4Co30oLHi1ex3JRQ3G6DtG1FISQc_fkh62lzcuc9FdorviQoZOqrzOC0_jQFgrAJHxhf9KXzWTQsv1ij3QWyKMNo_wQMy4Q/s1600/Plans.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCguHb0Gi-6MJE_r8qAzSoPlUAwycb2dr6lQeOIwZ4Co30oLHi1ex3JRQ3G6DtG1FISQc_fkh62lzcuc9FdorviQoZOqrzOC0_jQFgrAJHxhf9KXzWTQsv1ij3QWyKMNo_wQMy4Q/s400/Plans.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/5251832/2012Convo--Post-grad">http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/5251832/2012Convo--Post-grad</a>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">You told me
of plans for graduate schools or jobs or internships or taking time off. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">But one of
you challenged the simplicity of the question itself, saying, “instead try and
imagine a life that will forever change, evolve, adapt, revolt and challenge
the complex conventions of life that are so commonly reduced to a series of
words.” I like that reminder that graduation
is just the beginning, not the end, of figuring out who you are, what you
believe in, what you do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Now, when I asked what else you wanted
to hear about in this speech, many of you asked me to inspire you, to tell you
it was going to be okay, to tell you that life after college would be good. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">So...in order to do all of those things, I’m
going to tell you about moving back in with my parents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Four years ago I
told you about how amazing it was to w<span style="background-color: white;">alk <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">across the stage in Ball Circle</span> in 1994.</span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmVYr5vP9hUHWLUAgvAzzR6zV6E4MuGS3I-sBeJDrnRESFDmlRvoVvzcl2C6-nNWT36CsxBQ6t6O9oMs5NciBBHjm2z-6PqNVvakIs9KAzQszRFkmwrx1JoAnbxmAMnJmm5CxAsA/s1600/1993+Graduation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmVYr5vP9hUHWLUAgvAzzR6zV6E4MuGS3I-sBeJDrnRESFDmlRvoVvzcl2C6-nNWT36CsxBQ6t6O9oMs5NciBBHjm2z-6PqNVvakIs9KAzQszRFkmwrx1JoAnbxmAMnJmm5CxAsA/s400/1993+Graduation.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UMW Graduation -- <a href="http://archive.umw.edu:8080/vital/access/HandleResolver/10154/1459">http://archive.umw.edu:8080/vital/access/HandleResolver/10154/1459 </a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">I didn’t
mention, that after walking across the stage and shaking the president’s hand,
as you’ll do tomorrow, I walked back to Alvey Hall, packed up my things and
moved back home.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">I had been conflicted
my senior year about what I was going to do after college. For a while I was
sure that I would become a minister.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">That didn’t work out, though it was not
because, as one student recently suggested, of any youthful indiscretions on my
part. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">[Honestly the student in question
seemed disappointed that I wasn’t that cool.]</span>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Instead I
applied to graduate school in history.
Now, in retrospect, I realize that I didn’t know how to present myself
or my time at Mary Washington; I didn’t tap into the resources on campus. I didn’t make the case, as I should have, as
you should, that the liberal arts & sciences at Mary Washington had helped
to create me as an adaptable, engaged, well-rounded citizen, a critical thinker
eager and able to continue learning throughout my life. Perhaps not surprisingly, I was only
accepted at one of the six schools to which I applied. Without any funding, it wasn’t something that
I could make work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">So, moving back
in with my parents (who are wonderful, wonderful people, as your parents
undoubtedly are), I went back to working at a movie theatre making minimum wage,
a movie theatre I had worked at in high school.
I had some moments where I wondered what I had done with my four years of
amazing time at MW.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">I interviewed
for a few jobs, though none of them worked out.
I did turn down a chance to manage a movie theatre for the princely sum
of ~$300/week and all the popcorn I could eat.
Instead, I offered to volunteer on one of the first digital history
projects and ultimately was hired as a paid employee. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">With this
experience under my belt, and with the help of my professors here I applied again
to graduate school, this time to 11 schools, getting into six, including a fully
funded scholarship to Johns Hopkins University’s History PhD program. Within four years I was back teaching here at
this place we all love. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">[Oh, and though I didn’t
know it when I graduated 18 years ago, I’d already met the fellow Mary Washington
student who I would somehow figure out how to propose to while in graduate
school, the woman I’ve now been married to for 15 years.]</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz7C3bkQZ9QFf2oDDuPx-AiTg2pArjSt88IwYZgRPW2TzDgq-YzdTo930EtgkYXyhiuijiHqtcTfAcSCXhqYbG7gklTS32oW1Lx8_MGqUuHmnGnCpH2YZpjdwgZEDqERM7gLLaQg/s1600/Jenny.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz7C3bkQZ9QFf2oDDuPx-AiTg2pArjSt88IwYZgRPW2TzDgq-YzdTo930EtgkYXyhiuijiHqtcTfAcSCXhqYbG7gklTS32oW1Lx8_MGqUuHmnGnCpH2YZpjdwgZEDqERM7gLLaQg/s400/Jenny.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">I tell you all
of this, not because I think you should follow my path (my wife is already
married), but because I want you to know that it’s okay not to know yet what
your path is. It’s okay to be uncomfortable, but don’t be paralyzed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Some of you have
jobs. Congratulations. Some of you are already set for graduate
school in the fall.
Congratulations. Some of you are
planning to work, then go to graduate school later. Congratulations. But even if you don’t have a job yet, and
you’re not alone if you don’t, congratulations.
Why? Because historically,</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">liberal arts and
sciences graduates may take longer to get their first job, but are more likely
to hang on to jobs and to adapt as fields change. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Know as well,
that for some people, <u>not</u> going to graduate school, <u>not</u> getting a
job immediately <u>is</u> the right choice. You have fellow graduates who are
planning to backpack in Latin America, or to work for volunteer organizations, people
who are excited by the chance to do something different. Try being uncomfortable, just don’t let
yourself be paralyzed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Four years ago,
I told many of you that you were entering an academic community of scholars, engaging
in a partnership in learning with me and with my colleagues. You have done so. You have thrived, you have grown, you have
joined us in an academic enterprise of consequence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuijosmRAqRk31IAm5Z6blUzEIXtO62WT2gV6WEqz2pkss0LjnH8zJeNEIJGAqAlE7qOa6F8rbbw4v1orHa0f5OgCN3YhtPRF1dGt-7-HFG3BDBMBkgxTuCTpEdhIYNIc8VQ9Chw/s1600/Cogdog--Ball+Circle+2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuijosmRAqRk31IAm5Z6blUzEIXtO62WT2gV6WEqz2pkss0LjnH8zJeNEIJGAqAlE7qOa6F8rbbw4v1orHa0f5OgCN3YhtPRF1dGt-7-HFG3BDBMBkgxTuCTpEdhIYNIc8VQ9Chw/s400/Cogdog--Ball+Circle+2012.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alan Levine--<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/7174181426/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/7174181426/</a> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">A<span style="background-color: white;">s <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">you walk
across that stage in Ball Circle</span>, kn</span>ow that we, your professors, are
proud of you and all that you have achieved.
Know that we are grateful for the time we have spent with you and hope
that you have felt challenged, inspired, and ultimately rewarded by your time
with us. Know that we look forward to
hearing of your opportunities, successes, and accomplishments in the years to
come. No matter where you go, or what
you do, you will always be alums of Mary Washington. </span><u><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">That</span></u><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"> community lasts
a lifetime. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">So, go, be
uncomfortable in new jobs, new
internships, new business ventures, new schools, traveling to new places, or
even with just a new attitude in your old room at home. Be okay with being uncomfortable, because
that’s where the real learning, the real change, the real fun is. And come back and tell me in 18 years how it
all turns out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Thank you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">----------------------</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Acknowledgments</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Thanks to Tim O'Donnell and Carter Hudgins for their help/inspiration on earlier versions of this. Thanks as well to the hundreds of 2012 UMW graduates who responded to my request for feedback, information, and memories of their time at Mary Washington. I included as many of their words and ideas as possible here.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Image Credits</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Word
clouds from Wordle.net, based on response from hundreds of 2012 UMW Graduating
Seniors.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Obama
Visit:
</span><u style="font-family: inherit;">http</u><u style="font-family: inherit;">://www.flickr.com/photos/panandrao/</u></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Snowpocalypse Collage:
Heather Thompson, Jenn
Arndt; </span><u style="font-family: inherit;">http</u><u style="font-family: inherit;">://umwbullet.com/files/2010/02/igloo-300x201.jpg</u><span style="font-family: inherit;">; </span><u style="font-family: inherit;">http://fourword.umwblogs.org/files/2011/01/DSC_1325.jpg</u></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">1993
graduation photo: </span><u style="font-family: inherit;">http</u><u style="font-family: inherit;">://</u><u style="font-family: inherit;">archive.umw.edu:8080/vital/access/HandleResolver/10154/1459</u></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">2012
Ball Circle photo: </span><u style="font-family: inherit;">http://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/7174181426</u><u style="font-family: inherit;">/</u></li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-45330388187847200342012-04-16T14:26:00.000-04:002012-04-16T14:26:25.454-04:00Women's History Class Projects, continued<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So, a semester's work of work comes down to tomorrow. As I've <a href="http://mcclurken.blogspot.com/2012/01/assignment-for-recreating-historical.html">discussed before</a>, my Women's History since 1870 course has spent the semester researching and creating a classroom from the mid-20th Century.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The students in the class spent the first half of the semester working on research in the primary sources of the school, especially those resources in our Special Collections department. They created the following sites for each decade</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Site: <a data-mce-href="http://mwc1930s.umwblogs.org/" href="http://mwc1930s.umwblogs.org/" style="line-height: 1.5;">1930s</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.5;">Site:</span><span style="line-height: 1.5;"> </span><a data-mce-href="http://mwc1940s.umwblogs.org/" href="http://mwc1940s.umwblogs.org/" style="line-height: 1.5;">1940s</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.5;">Site:</span><span style="line-height: 1.5;"> </span><a data-mce-href="http://mwc1950s.umwblogs.org/" href="http://mwc1950s.umwblogs.org/" style="line-height: 1.5;">1950s</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.5;">Site: </span><a data-mce-href="http://mwc1960.umwblogs.org/" href="http://mwc1960.umwblogs.org/" style="line-height: 1.5;">1960s</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We then voted on which decade would be the focus of our class re-creation and the 1950s was chosen. We split into <a href="http://hist328.umwblogs.org/class-re-creation-project/">new groups to plan the class session </a>itself. </span></div>
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<li><span style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Student posts on outlines for the various parts of the recreation, including specific advice and instructions for students.</span></span></li>
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<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Academic Content -- <a data-mce-href="http://umwtimewarp.umwblogs.org/2012/04/10/class-content/" href="http://umwtimewarp.umwblogs.org/2012/04/10/class-content/" style="line-height: 1.5;">Schedule and description of class activity for Tuesday</a>, including debate and time for discussion of non-academic activities</span></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Activities -- <a data-mce-href="http://lepa.umwblogs.org/2012/04/10/62/" href="http://lepa.umwblogs.org/2012/04/10/62/" style="line-height: 1.5;">Outline for how we will work in discussion of non-academic activities on campus</a>.</span></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Clothing/materials -- Advice on dress code for 1950s students (<a data-mce-href="http://katylowdee.umwblogs.org/2012/04/10/1950s-dress-code/" href="http://katylowdee.umwblogs.org/2012/04/10/1950s-dress-code/" style="line-height: 1.5;">General</a>, <a data-mce-href="http://pete.umwblogs.org/2012/04/10/1950s-mens-clothing/" href="http://pete.umwblogs.org/2012/04/10/1950s-mens-clothing/" style="line-height: 1.5;">Men</a>, <a data-mce-href="http://328whiltshire64.umwblogs.org/2012/04/08/dress-code-and-bio/" href="http://328whiltshire64.umwblogs.org/2012/04/08/dress-code-and-bio/" style="line-height: 1.5;">hair, makeup, accessories</a>), and <a data-mce-href="http://beccasblog.umwblogs.org/2012/04/10/1950s-school-supplies/" href="http://beccasblog.umwblogs.org/2012/04/10/1950s-school-supplies/" style="line-height: 1.5;">school supplies</a>.</span></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Photo group -- Re-creating various historical photographs. Pictures to be taken on Thursday, April 25.</span></li>
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<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://sstepano.umwblogs.org/2012/04/10/photo-recreation-student-clubs-and-activities-photos/" href="http://sstepano.umwblogs.org/2012/04/10/photo-recreation-student-clubs-and-activities-photos/" style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Student Clubs and Activities</span></a></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://monkwomenshistory.umwblogs.org/2012/04/09/picture-choices/" href="http://monkwomenshistory.umwblogs.org/2012/04/09/picture-choices/" style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Classrooms and formal events</span></a></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://behindthegrind.umwblogs.org/2012/04/09/dorm-life-photos/" href="http://behindthegrind.umwblogs.org/2012/04/09/dorm-life-photos/" style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dorm Life</span></a></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://hbell288.umwblogs.org/2012/04/09/photo-recreationacademics/" href="http://hbell288.umwblogs.org/2012/04/09/photo-recreationacademics/" style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Academics</span></a></li>
<li style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://sbattles12.umwblogs.org/2012/04/07/photo-recreation-2-pictures/" href="http://sbattles12.umwblogs.org/2012/04/07/photo-recreation-2-pictures/" style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Campus Photos</span></a></li>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Based on all that research and the work done by the students, we came up with the following schedule for tomorrow's class, re-creating a 1952 History class: <a href="http://hist328.umwblogs.org/2012/04/14/an-outline-for-re-creating-a-1952-history-class/">April 17 schedule</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm looking forward to it. Wish us luck.</span></div>Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-61307482992965612542012-03-18T20:13:00.004-04:002012-03-18T20:13:54.496-04:00Visiting Parson Weems's House<div>
A bit of a break from my normal discussions about teaching and technology:<br />
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Today, my family and I had the chance to visit a house once owned by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parson_Weems">Parson (Mason Locke) Weems</a>, famed for writing the<a href="http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/gw/weems.html"> first biography of George Washington</a> (and the man responsible for introducing that silly story about <a href="http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/gw/chap2.html">Washington chopping down the cherry tree as a child</a>). <a href="http://www.tranzon.com/FX6815">The house is for sale at auction next month</a> and today was an open house. My family doesn't have much chance of buying it (though I was assured that it could well sell for "under a million"), but we enjoyed<a href="http://www.mouseonhouse.com/Property/330/17719/"> touring the house </a>and the 25 acre grounds of Bel Air (especially since after the sale, it's likely to be inaccessible again as a private residence).<br />
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Originally built in the 1740s, it was renovated in the late 19th Century and again in the mid- and late 20th Century. It is oddly <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/52355157@N00/6993869851/">accessed by driving through a very modern neighborhood</a> (a contrast which I tried to capture in the last group of pictures in the Flickr slideshow at the bottom of the page). There is a great deal of land that comes with the house, but the house itself is quite close to the neighborhood and a nearby modern church building. Still, the house is a wonderful blend of the modern and the colonial, from the formal sitting rooms on the main floor (see image below) to the wireless router and laser printer in the office, from the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/52355157@N00/6993852273/">servant staircase that leads to a door on the second floor living room</a> and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/52355157@N00/6847730898/">the full hearth in the same room as the modernized kitchen appliances</a>. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/52355157@N00/6993863339/">The grounds </a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/52355157@N00/6993867561/">would be</a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/52355157@N00/6847737286/">a wonderful place for a garden party</a>, although<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/52355157@N00/6847736664/"> they could use a little work</a>. There is also a small family graveyard, where <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/52355157@N00/6847744360/sizes/l/in/set-72157629248458780/">Weems is apparently (though not definitively) buried</a>.<br />
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All in all, it was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon with my family. Now we just have to start a Kickstarter fundraiser to be able to buy the house ourselves.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWEO9VwgxLuY546ydKSqfEKU2QiX03f8VnjWCwHUQKQLlcfsRxPDdX-NJM_SgczErV1ymMqsl4ZWi9nDBzEmWsCHnE05FeOq8_8ZaxgV2ap4Lh_hzw8wyTvrpzGRLQDYQWvsri_A/s1600/2012-03-18" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWEO9VwgxLuY546ydKSqfEKU2QiX03f8VnjWCwHUQKQLlcfsRxPDdX-NJM_SgczErV1ymMqsl4ZWi9nDBzEmWsCHnE05FeOq8_8ZaxgV2ap4Lh_hzw8wyTvrpzGRLQDYQWvsri_A/s640/2012-03-18" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Formal Sitting Room on Main Floor (captured using Photosynth)</td></tr>
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<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=109615" allowFullScreen="true" flashvars="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2F52355157%40N00%2Fsets%2F72157629248458780%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2F52355157%40N00%2Fsets%2F72157629248458780%2F&set_id=72157629248458780&jump_to=" width="500" height="375"></embed></object>Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-9321750813208081172012-03-16T21:24:00.001-04:002012-03-16T21:24:07.284-04:00Vote now on the UMW decade sitesThe research sites on the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s that my US Women's History students have <a href="http://mcclurken.blogspot.com/2012/01/assignment-for-recreating-historical.html">created as part of our project to re-create the Mary Washington college classroom experience</a> are now up on the course site.<br />
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Please check <a href="http://hist328.umwblogs.org/review-the-education-sites/">the sites out</a>, and vote for the site that you think provides the best set of resources for our class to actually re-create the classroom experience.<br />
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Thanks!<br />
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<br />Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-65491437008982074932012-02-03T22:40:00.000-05:002012-02-03T22:46:35.058-05:00What do we call that "digital" thing that we want to teach?I've been wrestling with the notion of an interdisciplinary academic program for undergraduates that engages students in thoughtful consumption of digital media, in production of scholarly and creative work in various forms of digital media, and in exploration and analysis of the implications of such media. In trying to clarify my thoughts before I go talk to people about this idea at my school and elsewhere, I asked for help on Twitter. The following is the conversation that emerged. I'm still analyzing it--I'm clearly still stuck, for example, in my quest to find a term that captures much of what I like about "Digital Humanities", while including the social sciences and sciences as well--but I thought it might be useful to have the whole thing in one place for me and for anyone else who is interested. I'd welcome any other comments or contributions to the discussion.<br />
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<script src="http://storify.com/jmcclurken/what-do-we-call-digital-scholarship-teaching.js">
</script><noscript>[&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://storify.com/jmcclurken/what-do-we-call-digital-scholarship-teaching" target="_blank"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;View the story "What do we call Digital Scholarship/Teaching?" on Storify&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;]</noscript>Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-31163249662870904942012-01-17T13:33:00.000-05:002012-01-17T13:34:14.047-05:00The Assignment for Recreating the historical MWC ClassroomAs I discussed in <a href="http://mcclurken.blogspot.com/2011/12/re-creating-college-classroom-of-past.html">this post</a>, my US Women's History since 1870 class will be working on a project in which the ultimate goal is to be able to recreate a class session or two from the middle of the 20th Century.<br />
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Here is the assignment that I developed for the course, in three stages. Note the use of individual and group work, online and IRL activities, and deep research in the archives of the school.<br />
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As always, I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions. [The full course syllabus is <a href="http://hist328.umwblogs.org/syllabus/">here</a>.]<br />
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<strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">MARY WASHINGTON CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE RESEARCH PROJECT</span></strong></div>
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This project will be based around researching Mary Washington College classes in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, & 1960s (including course topics, pedagogical approaches, majors, gender stereotypes, technology, and clothing). As our class lectures and readings look at the experiences of women in the United States in the late 19th and 20th Centuries, our parallel goal will be to understand what college meant to women who came to Mary Washington in the four decades in the middle of the 20th Century.</div>
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Each group of 6-7 of you will have a decade to research, using a variety of online and archival sources, as well as interviews with alums from these decades. Rather than writing a traditional individual research paper, you’ll keep a research blog and work with your group to create a research site collecting together the information that you’ve found.</div>
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<strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Primary source resources (many available in UMW Special Collections)</strong></div>
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<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Course Catalogs</li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Academic Department and Faculty Files</li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Handbooks</li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Photographs (Centennial Collection online plus those digitized, but not online yet)</li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Alumni/Faculty Interviews (talk to me about interview waivers)</li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Resources from Historic Preservation (?)</li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Scrapbooks/Aubade/Alumni Magazine/President’s files</li>
</ul>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Secondary Sources</strong></div>
<ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Crawley, William B. <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">University of Mary Washington: A Centennial History, 1908-2008</em>. Fredericksburg, VA: University of Mary Washington, 2008.</li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Key UMW faculty and staff (Parsons, McClusky, Thaden, Snyder)</li>
</ul>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Decade-based Research Groups</strong></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
I will assign each of you to a group of 5-7 each with a different decade at MWC to research, using a variety of online and archival sources, as well as interviews with alums from these decades. Each person will keep their own research log/blog and work with their group to create a research site collecting together the information that you’ve found.</div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Part I — Individual Research Logs</strong></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Each student will take a particular set of primary sources (or will interview alumni) and research classroom experiences for their group’s decade. Each student will share her/his work in progress in the form of four individual research log-style blog posts posted before class starts on four consecutive Tuesdays (1/31, 2/7, 2/14, 2/21).</div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Part II — Group Research Project</strong></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Building on the research done by each of the group members, each group will construct a site for their decade in UMWBlogs. The design, format, and presentation of these sites will be determined by the group, with a broad audience in mind. These sites are due by 11:59 PM on Monday, March 12.</div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Grading for Parts I and II</span> – 30% overall, with an individual grade for research logs and group grade for the research project.</div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Part III – Class re-creation</strong></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Based on those group research sites, we will collectively decide (with the help of some alums), which decade we will then use for the final project, a re-creation of a course session or two from that decade. The form these class sessions will take is still yet to be determined (depending in part on the decade picked), but they will involve everyone in some way in preparation and presentation. Specific tasks will be determined after the decade is chosen. This recreation will take place during the week of April 17.</div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Grading for Part III</span> – 10%, with individual grades defined by student’s participation in the re-creation process.</div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">PLEASE NOTE: Throughout these projects, all ideas, phrases, and quotes must be cited using footnote-style c</strong><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">itations and bibliographies done using the <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Chicago Manual of Style</em> (16th Edition) or Turabian’s newest <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Guide</em> (7th Edition). </strong></div>Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-76261206159875057562011-12-19T15:13:00.000-05:002011-12-19T15:13:11.365-05:00Re-Creating the College Classroom of the PastI just sent the following email to one of my classes for the Spring. <br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Hello all,<br /><br />Thanks for signing up for History 328: US Women’s History
since 1870. I wanted to give you a little preview of my plans for our
class next semester because the research projects in the class are going to be
a little different than that of other history classes (even for those of you
who took HIST 327 this fall).<br /><br />First of all, in many ways, the general structure of the
class is going to be fairly standard. We’ll have lectures on Tuesdays and
part of Thursdays, and discuss readings on Thursdays. There will be a
mid-term and a final based on those lectures, discussions, and
readings. <br /><br />What’s different is that the rest of your grade, roughly
40%, will be based on a series of projects we’ll be working on in groups and as
a class. These projects will be based around researching Mary Washington
College classes in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, & 1960s (including course
topics, pedagogical approaches, majors, gender stereotypes, technology, and
clothing). As the class lectures and readings look at the experiences of
women in the United States in the late 19<sup>th</sup> and 20<sup>th</sup>
Centuries, our parallel goal will be to understand what college meant to women
who came to Mary Washington in the four decades in the middle of the 20<sup>th</sup>
Century.<br /><br />Each group of 6-7 of you will have a decade to research,
using a variety of online and archival sources, as well as interviews with
alums from these decades. Rather than writing a traditional individual
research paper, you’ll keep a research blog and work with your group to
create a research site collecting together the information that you’ve found.<br /><br />Based on those sites, we will collectively decide (perhaps
with the help of some alums), which decade we will then use for the final
project, a re-creation of a course session or two from that decade.<br /><br />Now, if this project is not the kind of thing you’ll be
interested in working on, you may want to look for another class. But I
hope you’ll each at least be intrigued by the idea and perhaps even excited by
doing something that is original, fun, and creative, while tying in to the
themes we’ll be discussing more broadly for US women in the class.<br /><br />Have a terrific break and I’ll see you in January.<br /><br />Dr. McClurken</blockquote>
<br />
I'm very excited about this project, so any suggestions you have for the process, the approach, the research sites, or anything else will be greatly appreciated.<br />Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-27287036782992028832011-12-06T16:54:00.000-05:002011-12-19T16:18:30.475-05:00Fall 2011 -- A new building, a new classroom, a new course<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlpoQ6q_K3wwBdvjyb_7ykIaGDHr3nwYeBBziUakdpw3MzVwXEMMs5iznsLf_5COki7JT5MaQvg_Aheb_Vpz8Yeq5fSLO1dUBH3miXODDIByrC-3tevXQLSpjbWM13LUi9PupSKw/s1600/Monroe+211+in+action.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlpoQ6q_K3wwBdvjyb_7ykIaGDHr3nwYeBBziUakdpw3MzVwXEMMs5iznsLf_5COki7JT5MaQvg_Aheb_Vpz8Yeq5fSLO1dUBH3miXODDIByrC-3tevXQLSpjbWM13LUi9PupSKw/s640/Monroe+211+in+action.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
[Picture created using the iPhone app from Microsoft, Photosynth]<br />
<br />
<br />
The class was the <a href="http://mcclurken.blogspot.com/search/label/Information%20Age">History of the Information Age</a>, the building was Monroe Hall, and the classroom is our new flexible space classroom. Look for a post on the latter coming in the next couple weeks.<br />
<br />Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-56608544051692644652011-11-29T20:09:00.000-05:002011-11-29T20:09:56.997-05:00Info Age #4 -- The Documentaries<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">[Be sure to check out the earlier installments of my discussion of my <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/" style="background-color: white; color: #336688; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">History of the Information Age</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20px;"> senior seminar</span> as well: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"> <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/syllabus">here</a>, <a href="http://mcclurken.blogspot.com/2011/09/history-of-information-age-syllabus-20.html">here</a>, and <a href="http://mcclurken.blogspot.com/2011/10/info-age-assignment-3-advertisements.html">here</a>, as well as the</span><a href="http://infoagetimeline.umwblogs.org/" style="background-color: white; color: #336688; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> class timeline</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"> and the list of the</span><a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/project-assignments/" style="background-color: white; color: #336688; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> first set of projects</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"> to be placed in that timeline.]<br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">Assignment #4 in this course was the group documentaries on some aspect of the Information Age. I didn't give the students a great deal of direction, other than to say that they needed to show change over time, that they should be between 5 and 10 minutes, and that they needed to upload them somewhere where they could be seen (they all chose YouTube). They had about three weeks to come up with a topic (related to the class discussions of the digital age), research, film, and edit the video.</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><br />Each group had a basic video camera, and they had access to the editing stations in our Digital Media Lab (with iMovie and Premiere). Ultimately, only one group used Premiere, one used iMovie, and two used Windows Movie Maker. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;">Although they had been given a brief intro to video editing at the start of the semester by DTLT, most of them were going to be doing video capture and editing for the first time. I recommended that they test out their cameras, video files, and basic editing before they got too far into the process so that they could figure out problems in advance.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;"><br />They presented the documentaries to the class and they were a great deal of fun. Certainly, the videos aren't as polished as they would have been if I had spent more time in training them how to use editing software, or if they'd had more time in the semester to work on them (both points the students make in their after-project posts, linked below), but I'm quite impressed with the work they produced and their willingness to throw themselves into the projects. </span></div>
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<ul>
<li>Group 1 – <a href="http://socal.umwblogs.org/2011/11/16/postal-service-documentary/">How the rise of modern forms of transmitting information have affected the U.S. Postal Service</a> </li>
<ul>
<li>Student reports -- <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/11/19/project-blog-post/">1</a>, <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/11/18/week-12-%e2%80%93-project-summary/">2</a>, <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/11/17/week-12-blog-post/">3</a>, <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/11/26/documentary-project-2/">4</a></li>
</ul>
<li>Group 2 – <a href="http://ahahn.umwblogs.org/2011/11/17/tutorials-through-time/">Tutorials Through Time </a></li>
<ul>
<li>Student reports -- <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/11/19/documentary-finished-finally/">1</a>, <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/11/19/documentary-done/">2</a>, <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/11/17/the-history-of-how-to-movies/">3</a>, <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/11/23/documentary-group-blog-post/">4</a></li>
</ul>
<li>Group 3 – <a href="http://ashleylightburn.umwblogs.org/2011/11/16/library-catalog-digitization/">Shift from card catalogs to digital catalogs in libraries, with a focus on its effect on librarians</a> </li>
<ul>
<li>Student reports, <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/11/20/fine-points-of-documentary/">1</a>, <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/11/20/conducting-interviews-and-gaining-skills/">2</a>, <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/11/18/documentary-assignment-%e2%80%93-card-catalog/">3</a>, <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/11/17/blog-post-week-12-afterthoughts-of-documentary/">4</a></li>
</ul>
<li>Group 4 – <a href="http://cghist471.umwblogs.org/2011/11/17/48/">Documentary on the history of the internet and its effect on Higher Education, using the University of Mary Washington as a contextual lens</a></li>
<ul>
<li>Student reports -- <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/11/18/reflection-on-documentary-creation/">1</a>, <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/11/18/documentary-summary/">2</a>, <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/11/20/documentary-2/">3</a>, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_1075036095"></span>4</a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;">What's your take? What suggestions do you have for future iterations of the assignment?</span></div>Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-19250689180719111322011-10-25T22:13:00.002-04:002011-10-25T22:24:41.269-04:00Info Age Assignment # 3 -- The advertisements[Though I still need to go back and blog about the first two assignments in my <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/">History of the Information Age</a> senior seminar (the <a href="http://infoagetimeline.umwblogs.org/">creation of our class timeline</a> and the<a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/project-assignments/"> first set of projects</a> to be placed in that timeline), I decided to go ahead and post about this assignment anyway.]<br />
<br />
For this <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/project-assignments/">assignment</a>, the class split into four groups, each to work on their own fictional advertisement. The goal of this assignment was to have students explore what went into advertisements in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and/or 1960s. We read several pieces on the history of advertising as part of our <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/syllabus/class-readings/">weekly class reading</a> on the history of communication and information, and students did further research before they actually created their projects. [Some of the ads juxtapose topics that are chronologically out of the time period of the ad style, but I think that actually helped, in that it forced students to do more than just copy previous advertisements.]<br />
<br />
Students threw themselves into researching the way that advertising was done in terms of themes, colors, wording, images, stories, tone, even font. And at the end I think that they learned quite a bit about the difficulty and possibility of communicating in ways that go beyond text itself.<br />
<br />
Check them out and let us know what you think.<br />
<ul><li>Tupperware Print Ad -- <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/10/24/post-war-woman-and-the-spread-of-information/">http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/10/24/post-war-woman-and-the-spread-of-information/</a></li>
<li>Weight-gain Print Ad -- <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/10/24/gain-flesh-gain-the-girl/">http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/10/24/gain-flesh-gain-the-girl/</a></li>
<ul><li>Further explanation of the group's <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/10/23/as-a-preamble-to-the-project/">research and approach</a>, <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/10/21/week-8-advertisement-redux/">some technical discussion</a>, and <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/10/21/getting-the%e2%80%a6-family/">photo issues</a>.</li>
</ul><li>Wurlitzer Jukebox meets the Hipster Print Ad -- <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/10/23/advertisement-project-the-wurlitzer-jukebox/">http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/10/23/advertisement-project-the-wurlitzer-jukebox/</a></li>
<ul><li>Discussion of <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/10/21/advertisement-project-2/">advertising research</a></li>
</ul><li>Gutenberg Press Radio Ad -- <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/10/23/radio-advertisement/">http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/10/23/radio-advertisement/</a></li>
<ul><li><a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/10/23/works-cited/">Sources used</a></li>
<li>Further explanation of the group's <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/10/23/week-7-post-2/">research</a> and approach.</li>
</ul></ul>Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-46256457162311457672011-09-10T13:44:00.000-04:002011-11-29T20:11:07.625-05:00History of the Information Age Syllabus 2.0So, over the last two weeks, the students in<a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/"> this senior seminar </a>on the History of the Information Age <a href="http://mcclurken.blogspot.com/2011/08/collaborative-course-construction.html">have worked with me</a> to fill in the broad outlines of the syllabus. This <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/syllabus/syllabus-2-0/">syllabus, version 2.0</a>, has the discussion topics and the assignments set, though I still need to sit down with the weekly discussion leaders to decide on the readings for the week. <br />
<br />
The assignments include a variety of ways that, as groups and as individuals, students will contribute to the <a href="http://infoagetimeline.umwblogs.org/">class timeline</a> set up using the Simile Timline plugin for WordPress. First they'll work in groups to create the events that go into the timeline (<a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/2011/09/08/what-makes-a-timeline-event/">a process we discussed as a class last Thursday</a>), their other <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/project-assignments/">assignments</a> (again, suggested and/or modified by the students) are as follows:<br />
<blockquote>
<br />
<b>Part one & two</b> – Select one of the following by September 15.<br />
<ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Actually use an early system of communication to convey information (demonstrated to the class)</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">OR describe the process and complications of using such an early system to convey information. (300-500 words, plus sources, posted to your blog)</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">OR research and discuss the significance of an information technology in the life of a specific individual before 1950. (300-500 words, plus sources, posted to your blog)</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">OR create an infographic with information about an early system of communication from Parts I or II (with sources, posted to your blog)</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Individual project – Value is 10%</strong> of course grade</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">To avoid overlap, each topic must be submitted for approval by September 15.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Project due September 29</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<b>Part three</b> – Create your own advertisement/commercial/print ad related to the history of information to be shared. – <strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Group</strong> – 10%<br />
<ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Due Thursday, October 13</li>
</ul>
<b>Part four</b> – Make a documentary (5-10 minutes) on topic from this period – <strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Group – 15%</strong><br />
<ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Due Thursday, November 10</li>
</ul>
<b>Part five</b> – <strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">5%</strong> – Help improve the timeline – Aspect must be preapproved before work starts on it.<br />
<ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A) Work on the overall structure/format/presentation of the timeline.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">B) Pick any point on the timeline to expand on (with research) – Can take form of video, brief, essay, infographic, oral history, etc.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Individual</strong>, unless a case can be made for group work here.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Due the last day of class, December 8.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
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As always, questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome. I'm excited to see what projects the students come up with as they begin to explore the concepts of historically located information and communication through a variety of tools.Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-17468121380130386512011-08-31T23:02:00.000-04:002011-08-31T23:02:23.285-04:00Collaborative Course ConstructionI'm teaching a new course this semester, a senior seminar on the History of the Information Age. I've got a great group of students who are interested in the topic, but also in breaking out of the normal senior readings seminar. I've challenged that format in another senior seminar, Adventures in Digital History (<a href="http://digitalhistory.umwblogs.org/">2008</a>/<a href="http://dh2010.umwblogs.org/">2010 </a>iterations), but this class is a bit different. ADH is primarily a project based class, where the process of creating the projects is the entire focus of the course. <br />
<br />
For this seminar on the Information Age, I wanted to try something different. I wanted to combine digital history projects with a genuine engagement with scholarly readings and discussions of themes. But I also wanted to engage the students in creating the course itself.<br />
<br />
So, in late July/early August I created a rough syllabus (version 0.9) <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/syllabus">here</a>. It has a rough semester calendar with four broad eras of the "Information Age" -- Print (and its predecessors), Early Networked Communication, Broadcasting, and Information in the Digital Age. It includes three books I had the bookstore order and will have the students read over the course of the semester. It includes what I see as the non-negotiable parts of the course: <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><blockquote style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Students are expected to attend all classes, read all assigned texts, post regularly to the individual blogs, participate in class, and help lead two weeks of class discussions. Students are also expected to contribute to the creation of a public, digital timeline of developments, events, people in the information age and add materials to it all semester."</span></blockquote><div style="color: #333333;">Participation will be worth 40% and blog posts will be worth at least 10%. </div><div style="color: #333333;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333;">Here's what I don't know and what I want to figure out with the class over the next 10 days or so.</div><br />
<ul><li style="color: #333333;">I don't know quite what that timeline will look like yet. I don't know what will make it on the timeline, how exactly we'll construct it, what we will add to it and how.</li>
<li style="color: #333333;">I don't know what the other 50% of the graded portion of the course will consist of. </li>
<ul style="color: #333333;"><li>I imagine some of it will be material that enriches the digital timeline, but I don't know what that will be yet. </li>
<li>Some preliminary discussion of ideas on the syllabus comments suggests a student interest in group projects, perhaps video recorded oral histories of aspects of the Information Age. </li>
<li>Others have discussed the value of infographics for displaying particularly perspective on trends/ideas/concepts. </li>
<li>It's also possible that they will include formal or informal presentations of their work as part of the graded portion of the course.</li>
</ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">I don't know which topics the class will want to focus on and for how long.</span></li>
<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">On a related note, I don't know which readings/texts/images/videos we'll be using beyond the three core texts to explore the topics the class wants.</span></li>
</ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">I don't know if this will work. But I've got a group of students who <a href="http://infoage.umwblogs.org/">genuinely seem excited</a> by the <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/search/infoage">chance to try</a>, and so I'm excited too. </span></li>
</ul></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">More to follow.</span>Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-74904719786206547662011-08-19T23:28:00.000-04:002011-08-19T23:28:07.798-04:00Interview on With Good ReasonMy <a href="http://withgoodreasonradio.org/2011/08/confederate-outlaw/">interview</a> on the public radio show <i><a href="http://withgoodreasonradio.org/">With Good Reason</a></i> is up. Host Sarah McConnell and Associate Producer Kelley Libby did a great job helping me to talk about <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Take-Care-Living-Reconstructing-Confederate/dp/0813928133/">my book</a> and the experiences of Confederate veterans after the Civil War.<br />
<br />
Be sure to check out the <a href="http://withgoodreasonradio.org/2011/08/confederate-outlaw/">Companion Feature</a> at the bottom as well. Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-89424364058631799862011-06-27T09:40:00.002-04:002011-06-27T16:18:13.799-04:00A Professor's Legacy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.umw.edu/cas/history/our_faculty/images/warner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.umw.edu/cas/history/our_faculty/images/warner.jpg" /></a></div>This weekend I attended a memorial service for one of my Mary Washington college professors, and later colleague, Dr. Richard "Doc" Warner. Dick had died suddenly a couple of weeks ago while in New York to talk to an editor about the historical novels he'd been writing since he retired.<br />
<br />
Dick Warner spent 36 years at Mary Washington, teaching classes in <a href="http://eagleeye.umw.edu/2011/06/02/richard-h-warner-obituary-note/">Russian, French, and maritime history</a>. When I first came to the school as a prospective student he was the one who spent nearly 90 minutes talking to me about the school and the history major. This was in stark contrast to the other schools I had visited at which I was lucky to get even five minutes with any faculty members; I don't know if he ever realized it, but he was a big reason that I came to (then) Mary Washington College. [Over a decade later, when I applied after graduate school for a tenure-track teaching position in the department, Dick told me that he would only support hiring me if I agreed to become chair someday.... Something tells me he's still got a smile and a twinkle in his eye about that one.]<br />
<br />
Although a dedicated teacher, his real passion was men's rugby. He was instrumental in starting the club sport at MWC in the 1980s and was, as one of the participants this weekend noted, the "Godfather of Mary Washington Rugby". He advocated for resources with the administration and raised money from a wide variety of sources. He recruited constantly, boldly poaching athletes from more mainstream sports at the school. He attended almost every match for decades and continued to come to many games, even after his retirement and move out of state in 2004.<br />
<br />
I knew most of this before this weekend. Frankly, you couldn't be Dick's colleague (or student) without getting a major rugby update at least once a week. But this weekend's memorial service was a powerful sign of Dick Warner's impact, of a remarkable legacy. At the service, <b>on the rugby pitch that really should be named Doc Warner Field</b>, nearly 100 people remembered his life and his impact on them. As we went around the large circle, we heard from alumni from the classes of the 1980s to 2011, from people who had traveled thousands of miles or just a few blocks, from teary middle-age men to proud recent graduates, all to pay tribute to Dick.<br />
<br />
But the tales that were told of Doc Warner this weekend went beyond that of solely a sport. Of course there were stories of recruiting phone calls and of conversations about various aspects of a student's rugby game, of the enduring passion and love Dick had for the sport and its players. But even more powerful were those stories of Dick mentoring students about their classes, working out structured schedules with young men who were having trouble adjusting to the rigorous demands of Mary Washington's courses, introducing them not only to the library, but to the specific cubicle in which they would henceforth be studying. Several alums spoke to the fact that, rather than being easier on rugby players in his own classes, that he expected more of them. And that attention to their success as students and as men didn't stop with their graduation. We heard of countless recommendation letters written, or phone calls to potential employers; we heard of the community of people (students, alumni, parents, friends) bound together ostensibly by rugby, but really by Doc Warner's unrelenting energy and interest; we heard about Dick recognizing former students on the street decades later and remembering key details about their lives. We heard from Dick's own family about the importance of "his second family" to Dick, of his pride in them and in their successes. We heard about his generosity, his quiet support of students in financial straits, and his wry sense of humor.<br />
<br />
I was talking with other faculty members at the end of the memorial, wondering at the powerful impact Dick had had on these student-athletes. Few faculty have the kind of impact, inspire the kind of devotion, leave the kind of legacy that he did. Many of us who teach would be thrilled to have a memorial service to which so many of those we advised and taught came, where there was as much joy and laughter as there were tears and sadness, a sense of a life well and fully lived for both family and work. It was a fitting tribute to Richard Warner's career and life.Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-84524937480444470472010-07-07T13:30:00.001-04:002010-07-07T13:42:02.396-04:00Thinking about Public History Projects: A DIY history toolkitMy good friend, <a href="http://cluttermuseum.blogspot.com/">Leslie</a>, begins a new tenure-track job this fall in Idaho. She <a href="http://cluttermuseum.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-do-you-use-history.html">recently asked for input on her next big project</a>. If you haven't read the post yet, you should. The gist is as follows:<br /><blockquote>Whereas public historians traditionally have done history for the public--e.g. in museum exhibits or in documentary films--there's a small but growing group of public historians who want to foster and study history done by the public, by passionate amateurs and average folks instead of created for them. I'm one of those historians, and as I transition to life on the tenure track (I'll have 4-5 years to prove I deserve to be employed for the next 30-35 years), I'm searching for a project or two in which I can make significant progress in 3-4 years.<br /><br />I'm hoping you can help me by telling me a bit about how you use history in your life, either everyday or on special occasions. I want to find a project that not only interests me, but that really gets people excited about engaging with the history of their family, neighborhood, house, community, hobby, or whatever else they're passionate about.</blockquote><br />My response in her comments included two ideas, which, you'll notice, don't really answer her question. They do, however, raise a couple of ideas about ways to approach her rethinking of public history's goals:<br /><br /><blockquote>1) Create a centralized set of resources on a topic. I'm thinking of collecting links to web-based resources, but they might just be lists of various sources/works for the topic. Gathering those together in and of themselves could prove valuable to a group that has not done that yet for its own history and would allow you to bring the experiences of a public historian to help as well.<br /><br />2) Create a resource that would provide access to tools, methodologies, approaches that would help people engage in their own group/family history. This would be a kind of DIY family/group history kit. You might include advice on how to do interviews; how to scan images and documents for historical purposes; discuss using WP or other blogging software (or software like Omeka) to create exhibits; how to use wikis to create crowdsourced projects like the Davis Wiki; examples of other sites (and ones that inspire a sense of possibility, not major, grant-funded institutional projects); how to fact check family/group stories (or why those stories are valuable regardless of their validity), etc.<br /><br />Here I'm thinking of initially virtual tools. But with an outside grant or support from your institution, you and your new department might become known for lending the equipment (cameras, audio recorders, scanners, etc.) and expertise needed to empower people in your area to do their own individual or group history projects.</blockquote><br /><br /><br />The more I think about it, the more I really like the second notion, the DIY history toolkit. Think about the value of such a guide/checklist/resource. <span style="font-weight: bold;">What would you include in a DIT history toolkit?</span><br /><br />Good luck to Leslie with her move, her new job, and her new projects. Head on over and help her out.Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-72865993379022182662010-06-16T21:35:00.006-04:002010-06-16T22:03:56.750-04:00Banner Lecture for VHSI was truly honored when the <a href="http://www.vahistorical.org/">Virginia Historical Society</a>, a wonderful museum and archive, asked me to give one of the famous Banner Lectures on my book. Oddly enough, though I've presented various parts at a number of conferences, I've never done a formal presentation of the whole project. So, I had a <a href="http://www.vahistorical.org/news/lectures_mcclurken.htm">good time putting this talk together and it turned out pretty well</a>. I got some great questions from the audience.<br /><br /><center> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://blip.tv/scripts/pokkariPlayer.js?ver=2009070701"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://blip.tv/syndication/write_player?skin=js&posts_id=3777239&source=3&autoplay=false&file_type=flv&player_width=640&player_height=480"></script> <div id="blip_movie_content_3777239"> <a rel="enclosure" href="http://blip.tv/file/get/Vahistorical-TakeCareOfTheLivingReconstructingConfederateVeteranFamil667.flv" onclick="play_blip_movie_3777239(); return false;"><img title="Click to play" alt="Video thumbnail. Click to play." src="http://blip.tv/file/get/Vahistorical-TakeCareOfTheLivingReconstructingConfederateVeteranFamil667.flv.jpg" border="0" title="Click to play" /></a> <br /> <a rel="enclosure" href="http://blip.tv/file/get/Vahistorical-TakeCareOfTheLivingReconstructingConfederateVeteranFamil667.flv" onclick="play_blip_movie_3777239(); return false;">Click to play</a> </div> <script type="text/javascript"> play_blip_movie_3777239(); </script> </center><br /><br />Thanks again to Nelson Lankford, Frances Pollard, and the rest of the VHS staff for all the work that they do to contribute to the history of Virginia.Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-78466728915250193122010-04-06T19:14:00.004-04:002010-04-06T22:16:26.872-04:00Lecture: Teaching and Learning with New MediaI've not posted on this blog in a while (see <a href="http://ProfHacker.com">ProfHacker.com</a> and <a href="http://mcclurken.org/">http://mcclurken.org/ </a>for other goings on).<br /><br />However, I was honored to be asked to give one of the inaugural lectures in the Teaching Excellence series begun this year by UMW's Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning.<br /><br />What follows is the video and a list of the links mentioned in the talk.<br /><br />Thanks to all for the opportunity and the questions. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions.<br /><br /><br /><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" id="utv892871" name="utv_n_864756" height="386" width="480"><param name="flashvars" value="autoplay=false"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="src" value="http://www.ustream.tv/flash/video/5986790"><embed flashvars="autoplay=false" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" id="utv892871" name="utv_n_864756" src="http://www.ustream.tv/flash/video/5986790" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="386" width="480"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><strong>Overview</strong></p> <div class="entry_body"><li>What is New Media?</li> <li>My Goals in using New Media tools</li> <li>Examples of Classroom Use</li> <li>Assessing the Impact</li> <li>What Can You Do?</li> <p><strong>What is New Media? </strong>– <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_media">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_media</a></p> <p><strong>UMWBlogs</strong></p> <li>Blogging – <a href="http://coffman.umwblogs.org/">Teresa Coffman</a> (EDUC) and <a href="http://atlss.umwblogs.org/">Steve Greenlaw</a> (ECON)</li> <li>Blog as course management tool<em> — </em>Sue Fernsebner’s <a href="http://toysashistory09.umwblogs.org/student-posts/">Freshman Seminar: Toys as History</a></li> <li>As site for collecting hard-to-find research sources for students –Steve Harris’s <a href="http://russianhistorysources.umwblogs.org/">Hist 485: Researching Russian and Soviet Resources</a></li> <div> <p><em> </em></p> <p><em> </em></p> </div> <div><strong>UMWers & New Media</strong></div> <ul><li><em> </em><a href="http://skype.com/">Skype</a><em> </em><em> </em></li><li>Digital Storytelling <em>– </em><a href="http://digitalstorytelling.umwblogs.org/">Jim Groom’s </a><a href="http://digitalstorytelling.umwblogs.org/">course</a></li><li>Audio from the past<em>– </em><a href="http://ecaudio.umwblogs.org/">Marie McCallister’s 18th-Century Audio Blog</a></li><li>Digital Games –<a href="http://zachwhalen.net/"> Zach Whalen’s site with links to courses</a></li><li><a href="http://ted.com/">TEDTalks </a>– For a class based on TEDTalks, see <a href="http://ted2009.umwblogs.org/about/">this FSEM I co-taught with Tim O’Donnell</a><em> </em><em> </em></li><li>How-To Videos <ul><li>See UMW library <a href="http://www.umw.edu/library/research/showme/">ShowMe videos</a></li><li>See <a href="http://www.umw.edu/publications/apg_fburg_freshman/registration/default.php">Academic Services videos</a></li></ul> </li><li><a href="http://zotero.org/">Zotero </a>– See <a href="http://www.zotero.org/groups/history_and_american_studies_university_of_mary_washington">History & American Studies Department Zotero group library </a></li><li><a href="http://youtube.com/">YouTube</a></li></ul> <p><!--[if ppt]--><strong>Low Levels of Technology Use</strong></p> <div> <div> <li><a href="http://mcclurken.umwhistory.org/wiki/">Wiki for discussions in all my courses </a></li> <li>Blogs as Individual/Group Reflections <ul><li>Veterans FSEM – <a href="http://rwelker.umwblogs.org/2008/10/">http</a><a href="http://rwelker.umwblogs.org/2008/10/">://rwelker.umwblogs.org/2008/10/</a></li><li>TEDTalks FSEM – <a href="http://ted2009.umwblogs.org/themes/september-22-2009-%E2%80%93-the-human-mind/">http://ted2009.umwblogs.org/</a></li></ul> </li> </div> <div> <li>Blogs as Research Logs (Historical Methods/Digital History) <ul><li>Topic Discussion — <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://eweaver.umwblogs.org/2007/09/06/my-topic/">http://eweaver.umwblogs.org/2007/09/06/my-topic/</a></span></li><li>Research Problems — <a href="http://amandashumaker.umwblogs.org/2007/10/22/frustration/">http://amandashumaker.umwblogs.org/2007/10/22/frustration/</a></li><li>Lessons Learned and Shared — <a href="http://megamcdh2010.umwblogs.org/2010/03/16/week-9/">http://megamcdh2010.umwblogs.org/2010/03/16/week-9</a><a href="http://megamcdh2010.umwblogs.org/2010/03/16/week-9/">/</a></li></ul> </li> </div> <p><strong>More Intensive Uses of New Media Tools</strong></p> <div> <li>Examples of Individual digital projects — US History in Film<em> </em> <ul><li><a href="http://eweaver.umwblogs.org/bonnieandclyde/"><em>Bonnie & Clyde</em></a></li><li><a href="http://agrussell.umwblogs.org/wall-street-the-project/"><em>Wall Street</em></a></li></ul> </li> <li>Class Museum of history of technology projects (<a href="http://historyoftech.umwblogs.org/">http://historyoftech.umwblogs.org/</a>)</li> <li style="padding-left: 30px;">See also Krystyn Moon’s 19<sup>th</sup>-Century Museum – <a href="http://amst312.umwblogs.org/">http://amst312.umwblogs.org/</a></li> </div> <div><strong>Adventures in Digital history course</strong></div> <div><strong>Digital Toolkit </strong></div> <div> <div><a href="http://umwblogs.org/">UMWBlogs</a>, <a href="http://omeka.org/">Omeka.org</a>, <a href="http://www.simile-widgets.org/timeline/">Simile Timeline</a>, <a href="http://delicious.com/">Delicious.com</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/">YouTube</a>, GoogleDocs, <a href="http://flickr.com/">Flickr</a></div> <div> <ul><li><strong>2008 Class & Projects </strong>– <span style="text-decoration: underline;">http://digitalhistory.umwblogs.org</span></li></ul> </div> <ul><li>– Historical Markers Project (HMP) — <a title="http://fredmarkers.umwblogs.org/" href="http://fredmarkers.umwblogs.org/">[6]</a></li><li>– James Farmer Project (JFP) — <a title="http://jamesfarmer.umwblogs.org/" href="http://jamesfarmer.umwblogs.org/">[7]</a></li><li>– James Monroe Papers Project (JMPP) — <a title="http://monroepapers.umwblogs.org/" href="http://monroepapers.umwblogs.org/">[8]</a> and <a title="http://www.umw.edu/monroepapers/" href="http://www.umw.edu/monroepapers/">[9]</a></li><li>– Alumni Project (AP) — <a title="http://projects.umwhistory.org/alumni" href="http://projects.umwhistory.org/alumni">[10]</a></li></ul> <p><strong>Adventures in Digital History 2010 — </strong><a href="http://dh2010.umwblogs.org/">http://dh2010.umwblogs.org</a></p> <div><!--[if ppt]--><!--[endif]--></div> <ul><li>UMW Images Project</li><li>Life and Legacy of Mary Ball Washington</li><li>James Monroe’s Letters as Minister to France</li><li>City of Hospitals: Fredericksburg in the Civil War</li></ul> </div> </div> <div> <p><strong>Student Impact Survey — </strong>From November 2009<strong> — </strong><a href="http://mcclurken.org/about-2/">Contact me</a> directly for details<strong> </strong></p> <p><strong> </strong></p> </div> <div><!--[if ppt]--><!--[endif]--></div> <div><a href="http://profhacker.com/">ProfHacker.com</a></div></div>Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10303765.post-1530943304537640842009-08-19T10:09:00.003-04:002009-08-19T10:14:14.934-04:00A new blog, but with people who actually postThis week I was flattered to join the cast of bloggers at <a href="http://www.profhacker.com/">Prof. Hacker</a>, a site that focuses on productivity, technology, and teaching. My first post was on <a href="http://www.profhacker.com/2009/08/17/deploying-students-as-tech-mentors/">Deploying Students as Tech Mentors</a>. I hope I can keep up with the productive group of people assembled there....Jeffrey McClurkenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118204828598680985noreply@blogger.com0