The Integrated Campus: An Experiment in Digital Pedagogy

Dr. Payne and Jordan will present on their experience developing and teaching two collaborative courses in digital history at Colorado State University—one for graduate students of public history, the other for undergraduate history majors. These courses used digital history methodologies to focus students on the production of contracted, public history projects for the CSU Lory Student Center, Colorado’s Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (OAHP), and CSU’s Public Lands History Center’s (PLHC).

This presentation will discuss the lessons learned through this collaborative teaching experience, highlighting both the successes and challenges of bringing digital and public history methodologies into the classroom at various levels. For example, a major success of the courses was the collaboration among students, with the clients (LSC, PLHC, OAHP), and technical experts that created three high-quality end products. A major challenge was establishing a balance among teaching and/or polishing basic historical methodology—in particular research and writing at the undergraduate level—with learning new digital tools and gearing content toward varied public audiences.

Dr. Payne and Jordan will use the final projects produced by students to illustrate their approaches in the classroom. These projects include a multi-platform set of interactive digital components that accompany physical markers in CSU’s newly renovated LSC; design specifications, budget, and grant application for an assistive mobile application to complete historic preservation survey work for the OAHP; and interactive maps, timelines, and network visualizations for the PLHC’s Poudre River Digital History Project.

This presentation will also discuss the degree to which these courses and the final projects have stimulated conversation within the history department and the College of Liberal Arts about what constitutes scholarship and professional work.