Integrating Digital Humanities Projects into the Undergraduate Curriculum

Rebecca Frost Davis, Program Officer for the Humanities, National Institute for

Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE)Kathryn Tomasek, Associate Professor of History, Wheaton College, Massachusetts

THATCamp Liberal Arts Colleges, June 4, 2011

Goals• Connect digital humanities teaching

to pedagogical theory• Review why people at small liberal

arts colleges want to do digital humanities

• Connect to tenets of liberal education• Elaborate the pedagogical theory of

project-based learning

Why Digital Humanities @ LAC?• Undergraduate research • Pedagogical practices, especially active and

collaborative learning, project based and applied learning

• Learning about the changed digital environment or context and how to exercise liberal arts abilities (critical thinking, writing, etc.) in that context—in other words: preparing undergraduates to be citizens in a networked world

• Interdisciplinary work and other types of collaboration

• Revitalizing the humanities

Liberal Education: Essential Learning Outcomes• Intellectual and practical skills, like

– Inquiry and analysis– Critical and creative thinking– Written and oral communication– Quantitative literacy– Information literacy– Teamwork and problem solving

• Knowledge of human cultures and the physical and natural world;

• personal and social responsibility, including civic knowledge and engagement both locally and globally;

• integrative and applied learning.

High Impact Practices (Kuh)• First-Year

Seminars and Experiences

• Common Intellectual Experience

• Learning Communities

• Writing-Intensive Courses

• Collaborative Assignments and Projects

• Undergraduate Research

• Diversity/Global Learning

• Service Learning, Community-Based Learning

• Internships• Capstone

Courses and Projects

Undergraduate Research• Blackwell and Martin• Student-faculty collaborative

research• Tasks in expertise range of students• Meaningful contributions

Pedagogical Theory

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Applied Learning = transfer

Problem-Based Learning (PBL)• Real world application = engagement• Primary materials• Disciplinary practice• Scaffold• Scope• Intentional Learning

– Student reflection

Cavanagh, ”Bringing Our Brains to the Humanities”