I am thinking about data preservation and how long we should consider keeping digital files. Should we plan to keep files in our repository forever, have an expiration date or some other in between solution. What tools are you using to maintain access to your works and what do you see your files doing in five years. Have you budgeted for this time?
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Games
I’d like to attend (couldn’t lead) a session on classroom gamification using digital tools, building on some of the interesting work coming out of the Journal of Interactive Technology & Pedagogy and elsewhere (ie, Game Studies). Maybe a play session in which we make a game prototype…more broadly, though, would like to hear ideas on how to construct the whole classroom (not just the tools we use in it) as a gaming space and the benefits of doing so (i.e., Jesper Juul’s argument that games teach us how to fail, and this is useful to learning and growth — The Feeling of Failure).
Some Potential Session Ideas
I wanted to throw out some preliminary ideas for potential sessions:
— development of an app and/or tools for the Elliston Project
Over the past several years a number of us have been working on the Elliston Project, starting by digitizing a large body of recorded readings in our own Elliston Poetry Room over the past several decades. We’re now in the midst of working on a more attractive and user-friendly public interface, but would also welcome suggestions and assistance in terms of developing tools and potentially an app or mobile interface for the project.
— audio in the humanities (critical or creative uses)
This is a central part of the Poetry: Sound, Media & Performance class I’m teaching this semester, as well as the Audiopoetics workshop I’ll be teaching in the fall. It might be worthwhile to discuss the use of audio — like the resources available in our Elliston archive — both as primary texts, but also as a mode of critical engagement and/or as a creative end.
— digital obsolescence / link drift / retro-incompatibility / etc.
An issue I’ve run into in some of my classes this term — everything from expired security certificates to vanishing resources — but which also reminded me of Jerry McGann’s recent visit, where he wasn’t able to show us some of the tools he and his team had spent years working on because they needed to be updated to meet current web standards.
Today’s front page of Aaaaarg.org.
— underground commons / free culture / benevolent piracy / etc.
Does information want to be free? How are resources like Aaaaarg, Monoskop, torrents, Facebook groups where PDFs are shared among a scholarly community, etc., as well as open source archives (permissioned or not) changing the face of scholarship in the 21st century? How do things like the Aaron Schwartz case and the perilous fate of net neutrality affect our discussion of these phenomena?
— print vs. digital interactivity in the classroom / the portable digital library
What benefits and deficits are there when a class has no hard copy texts? Are students reading on their laptops or tablets more prone to distraction in class, less likely to annotate texts, more or less focused when reading, etc.? What are the financial pluses and minuses? How does this allow for a more adaptable pedagogy and/or limit one’s choices? What does it mean as a scholar and teacher when you can carry hundreds (if not thousands) of books, articles, and other texts on your phone/tablet/laptop?
— digital attention spans
Somewhat related to the topic above. I’m thinking in light of ideas proposed by folks as diverse as N. Katherine Hayles and Kenneth Goldsmith, but would welcome others’ perspectives outside of my own discipline.
Registration Now Open
Registration is now open for THATCamp University of Cincinnati 2015! There is no cost to register. Simply fill out the form on the Registration page. THATCamp University of Cincinnati will take place at Langsam Library on the University of Cincinnati’s main campus on May 4-6. See the Schedule page for a preliminary schedule. Sessions will be determined during the opening session on May 4. Do you have an idea for a session? If so, register and then just follow the instruction on the Propose page. We look forward to seeing you in May!
THATCamp University of Cincinnati 2015
There’s a new THATCamp being planned at the University of Cincinnati for May 4-6, 2015. Further details will be posted here soon. Meanwhile, read more about the THATCamp movement and browse other THATCamps at thatcamp.org.
