Teaching – THATCamp National Council on Public History 2013

A Digitally Enabled Museum Studies Curriculum?

Jeffrey McClurken — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 03:30:04 +0000

Among the various hats I wear, I’m the chair of the host department for UMW’s museum studies minor (started 3 years ago) and a founding member of UMW’s digital studies minor (starting this fall). Both of these undergraduate minors are interdisciplinary and public facing in approach, courses, and content. As an affiliated faculty member in both, recently I’ve been thinking a great deal about the ways that these two programs are informing each other and how we might think of a curriculum that combined the two.

Would people be interested in conversation(s) about the impact of digital tools and resources on the teaching/curriculum for Museum Studies or Public History at the undergraduate or graduate level, about the lessons to be learned about program development by newer fields such as Digital Studies from more established curricula in Museum Studies and Public History, or about a glorious mash-up of all of the above? What do students entering Public History or Museum Studies programs need to know about digital tools and resources?

Websites, Collaboration with Indigenous Nations, Teaching

Katrine Barber — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:26:20 +0000

Cathy Stanton’s email requested even partial proposals and musings so I thought I’d throw out some of the things I’ve been thinking about. I’d love to talk with some folks who are thinking creatively about website development/digital publishing and/or collaborative practices and the pedagogy needed to prepare our students to work collaboratively, especially with Indigenous Nations. I’ve been working with the Chinook Indian Nation for several years on several projects, including a website that documents their history. Right now, we are working largely without funding but it’s a project I’ve pulled several graduate and undergraduate students into. Collectively, we have a lot of energy but few other kinds of resources. I hope to leave the conference and camp with some ideas about how to keep the project going and maybe even how to rethink what we are doing.

You can view the website at www.ccrh.org/comm/chinook/ (user name: Donna, password: chinook).

Katy Barber

WordPress as a Public History Platform

Clarissa Ceglio — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:11:15 +0000

On Thursday, April 18 at 8:30 a.m. in Ballroom A, I have the pleasure of joining Erin Bell, Jeffrey McClurken, and Tom Scheinfeldt in a discussion of how public historians are using and adapting WordPress software to teach, disseminate, and do public history. The types of issues we’d like to discuss range from practical basics (e.g., what plug-ins have you found useful) to deeper implications (e.g., how do the digital platforms we use influence the production of history).

In addition to the pre-conference conversation taking place on History@Work (please comment!) and the session itself, I’d like to propose a THATCamp NCPH session along similar lines.

For instance, we’ve recently started using EditFlow with our WordPress-based project, a re-envisioned collaborative state encyclopedia called ConnecticutHistory.org. And I’d love to hear from others who are using this or other tools to manage the content development workflow within WordPress rather than external to it. For example, until recently, our editing and finalization of entries took place in MicroSoft Word and material wasn’t brought into WordPress until it was complete save for images. There are pros and cons to both approaches, particularly if one is managing external authors who are not familiar with WordPress or if the internal project team is hesitant to grant backside access to outside contributors.

So, if your public history project or course uses WordPress software—or if you’ve been wondering if it might work for your needs—let me know if a session along these lines is of interest.