Session Abstract

Using the "lightning round" method of spreading ideas in the digital humanities, this experimental panel features one-minute expositions on innovative projects and cool ideas in digital history for teaching and learning. Multiple Open Online Courses (MOOCs) captured disproportionate attention in 2012 and ever since have obscured many exemplar projects aimed at adjusting disciplinary pedagogy for the digital environment. This panel asks what affordances for teaching and learning of history are present in the digital environment and what constitutes a digital pedagogy for history. Rather than offering the opportunity to integrate research, teaching, and public engagement, rather than creating new knowledge, rather than making possible new forms of scholarship, Learning Management Systems and MOOCs have been used in the some of the most traditional ways possible--to broadcast lecture-based instruction and possibly to routinize mass assessment. In the digital humanities ideas about digital pedagogy have coalesced around emphasizing collaboration, tinkering, a focus on process, praxis, and building. This lightning round explores the ways that the digital environment challenges traditional methods of teaching and learning and opens up fresh opportunities for new methods of participatory learning. Panelists will offer possibilities for more innovative pedagogical approaches than yet realized.  5 or more will be invited to register via Twitter at the meeting  audience members will also be invited to join the lightning round