Baltimore Heritage + City Lore, 2016 September 9
Note:
Welcome. Let's start with some housekeeping:
- Where is the coffee?
- Where are the restrooms?
- How do you get on the wifi?
Activity: Three Word Introductions
- Say: If you had to describe yourself in three words, which three would you choose? Take a minute to choose your three words.
- Do: Model an introduction by introducing yourself. Continue around the room taking turns until each participant introduces themselves.
Explore the slides: bit.ly/localpastnyc-slides
Help take notes: bit.ly/localpastnyc-notes
Share ideas on Twitter: #localpast
Note:
We are taking notes on today's workshop in an open Google Document. Please add your own comments, resources, and observations to the document throughout the workshop today. Our notes provide a record both for everyone who is here today and anyone who wanted to be here and couldn't make it!
Note:
Our goal for the day to is make this a two-way educational environment. We all are experts at something and we all can try to learn something new.
- For the first hour or so, we will talk about:
- How open educational resources work
- The importance of education to preservation and community heritage (especially at City Lore)
- The next hour or so, we will discuss:
- Your priorities for what you want people to learn (and what you want to teach)
- How you can create open educational resources
- Finally, we'll end the morning by:
- Creating lessons based on the Place Matters Toolkit (or your own ideas)
- Offering feedback to each other on the lessons we've made'
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Note:
This workshop is the first in a series we are organizing for our Local Preservation School project:
The Local Preservation School is an open learning environment where preservation advocates and volunteers share with people how to save and sustain historic places in their communities. Our goal is to teach you how to get involved with historic preservation in your community through free online courses, easy-to-use tutorials and fun projects. This project is led by Baltimore Heritage with support from the National Park Service and National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers.
We hope to teach you a bit about emerging approaches to open education but we also want to recruit you as collaborators (at least for the day) to talk about two big questions:
- What does the Local Preservation School teach?
- How does the Local Preservation School teach?
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Note:
What does the school teach? Honestly, we are still figuring that out. The Local Preservation School is a work-in-progress and we invited you here today because we want you to be part of it.
But we think the Place Matters toolkit is a solid foundation to build on. It is the result of a decade of work by an innovative nonprofit that has been deeply committed to working with New York residents to preserve places that might otherwise be overlooked or simply lost altogether.
Image: Library of Congress.
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But there are a few things that make this project different than most of the preservation publications, webinars, or workshops that already exist. We are focused on connecting people to free open educational resources in an online environment.
We are using an open Creative Commons license and publishing on a platform – GitHub – that is used for thousands of collaborative, community-driven, open source projects in the technology sector.
Building the Local Preservation School online also means we meet people where they are: organizing Baltimore's cemetery clean-ups on Facebook; brainstorming ideas for adaptive reuse in New York City by email newsletter; and sharing photos of "preservation-ready sites" online and on social media in Buffalo.
Building lessons for the web also enable us to avoid reinventing the wheel and reuse the wide variety of resources that already exist.
Most of all, we want to make sure that we are creating a resource that is connected to the real world challenges faced by small nonprofits, community groups, and volunteer advocates trying to preserve historic places in their communities.
We are not looking to teach local history or architectural styles for their own sake. We want to teach people what you can do with that knowledge: proactive, community-based historic preservation advocacy.
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Note:
Laurenellen McCann started writing about the concept of "build with, not for" in civic technology in the summer of 2014. The idea is that we need to be "prioritizing community leadership in the creation of tech above the tools themselves."
To make a useful resource, we think want to build a school with the community of educators and learners who care about historic preservation. Not just for that community.
Your participation today is a gift to our project and, I hope, a gift to our broader community of local preservationists.
Source: Build with, Not for
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Note:
Different people may have different definitions of open educational resources (often abbreviated as OER). Today, we are talking about OERs that are:
- available at no cost to educators and learners
- can be modified by educators and/or learners
- can be redistributed by educators who have made changes to the original work
An Introduction to Open Education Resources (CC BY-SA):
OER is not just textbook material. It can include anything from entire course shells, to syllabi, to assignments, to presentations. ... OER is important because it provides affordable material to students, allows faculty to enhance their own work, and provides faculty with content for classes.
Resources are typically distributed online but may be used in different ways. Some resources are adapted by educators to use in their own traditional classroom. Some resources become self-guided tutorials for independent learners.
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Internet Archive Open Educational Resources Collection
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The American Yawp: A Free and Online, Collaboratively Built American History Textbook. (CC BY-SA)
Yawp yôp n: 1: a raucous noise 2: rough vigorous language "I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world." Walt Whitman, 1855.
Unchecked by profit motives or business models, and free from for-profit educational organizations, The American Yawp is by scholars, for scholars. All contributors—experienced college-level instructors—volunteer their expertise to help democratize the American past for twenty-first century classrooms.
The project has 263 contributors identified on their website.
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About WikiProject National Register of Historic Places
The project covers all articles about U.S. National Register of Historic Places listings in the English language Wikipedia. We try to improve Wikipedia's coverage of these listings by creating new articles or by improving existing ones.
The project is ten years old this fall and has created extensive resources for anyone interested in developing articles about National Register designated landmarks or historic districts.
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You can see the impact of the project on this map of the United States. Counties marked in dark red have an article on every single National Register designated resource in the area.
Image courtesy Dudemanfellbra, 2013 March 29, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA).
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About School of Data:
School of Data works to empower civil society organizations, journalists and citizens with the skills they need to use data effectively in their efforts to create more equitable and effective societies. ... There is huge potential to use data and open data to improve the lives of citizens around the world, especially in increasing the transparency and accountability of government. However, many of the groups who are closest to the problems – NGOs, journalists, and citizens – currently lack the skills to use data effectively — and even an awareness of the potential of data for their work. School of Data’s mission is to teach people how to gain powerful insights and create compelling stories using data.
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Note:
Example: 10 on Tuesday - How to Lobby for Preservation: Ten Essential Steps
The Ten on Tuesday series is an example of an organization repackaging existing resources in new formats – making older publications accessible for new audiences. The National Trust for Historic Preservation uses a a Creative Commons license for these slides but one that restricts commercial reuse (CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License).
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Note:
Let's take a few minutes to explore what resources we already use to teach and to learn.
- Raise your hand if you referred to a textbook or a printed encyclopedia as a reference in the past month. Printed publications can be limiting.
- Raise your hand if you referred to an article on Wikipedia as a reference in the past month. Free digital resources are used.
- Raise your hand if you've ever reused photographs from Flickr (or an archival digital collection like the Library of Congress) for a presentation. Free digital resources are useful.
- Raise your hand if you've ever adapted a colleague's presentation or notes to deliver yourself. Remixing is essential to creativity. It is an essential part of teaching and learning.
- Discuss:
- What resources do you use to teach?
- What resources do you use to learn?
- What makes a resource more or less useful for you?
- What resources for preservation or from other fields should we use as a model for the Local Preservation School?
Image: Library of Congress
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We are trying to build a learning community not just a textbook:
Online courses often feel large, intimidating and anonymous. It’s hard to feel invested in multiple choice quizzes, textbook chapters and hum-drum Q & A forums where you don’t know anyone. In a stellar learning experience, you’d know who was in the room and feel super-comfy. You’d make projects together and find help when you get stuck. You’d want to send people thank-you cards and chicken soup.
Source: P2PU
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- Volunteers
- Preservation professionals
- Related professionals
Note:
Who are we building resources for? There is no such thing as the general public. But there are three groups of people we hope to reach:
- Volunteers advocating for preservation in their community.
- Preservation professionals at volunteer-supported organizations.
- Professionals in related fields who work with preservation advocates or partners.
We think people who do historic preservation are a diverse group. What it means to do historic preservation means different things in different contexts. Who do you want to reach with your educational efforts?
Discuss:
- Can you think of someone who taught you an important skill or idea?
- Can you think of someone that you have taught an important skill or idea?
- Share some reflections on who you teach and who you learn from.
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Note:
- New things v. Adapting existing things
- Text v. interactive things
- Big things v. little things
- How do we expect these resources to be used?
- Self-guided v. Facilitated settings
- Adapted for new uses?
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Note:
Explore Baltimore Heritage 101
- Research challenges
- Writing exercises
- Prompts for making images
- Guide to interpreting
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What makes this so exciting for us is the potential to engage Baltimore residents in a deeper partnership around the work we are already doing. Instead of organizing our own tours, we can promote tours organized by neighborhood historians. Instead of researching the history of local landmarks, we'd like to empower residents to do research for themselves. We'd be happy to work ourselves out of a job.
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<iframe width="960" height="700" frameborder="0" src="https://localpast.carto.com/viz/10a62bdc-234f-11e6-8ca1-0e3ff518bd15/embed_map" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe>Note:
And this is a model that is relevant to more than just Baltimore. We've collected and mapped out over 200 local history research guides. Teaching research, writing, and interpretation is something that preservation groups, local libraries, historical societies, and small museums across the country are wroking to do.
Couldn't we build something pretty cool if we started working together?
Note:
While there are no sure ways to protect a place, the Place Matters Toolkit was created to help people nationwide to:
- Identify the cultural and historical functions of places that matter;
- Find ways to capture and use that information to protect them;
- Share the strategies that people have often found effective in preserving places that matter.
See this spreadsheet for a full list.
Distribute the handout for the Place Matters Toolkit Learning Objectives Discussion
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- Identify values
- Find people who care
- Identify threats and opportunities
- Formulate goals
Note:
We've prepared this Toolkit for people who are strongly attached to a place. This section will help you identify the causes for that attachment and define for yourself and others why this place matters. Clarifying your interests will help you to pinpoint the most effective actions.
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- Collect information
- Develop themes
Note:
Making a compelling argument for why a place matters will attract supporters and encourage creative thinking about strategies to protect it. This section of the Toolkit aims to help you make your case.
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- Write a place profile
- Make a public presentation
- Secure public recognition
Note:
Once you collect your stories, and identify and develop your themes, you will want to present them to the public to promote and advocate for your place. The value of a place is rarely so obvious that it can't benefit from vibrant interpretation.
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- Preserving the structure
- Retaining longstanding use
- Interpreting your story
Note:
Efforts to protect a place are usually galvanized by a threat or an unexpected opportunity. Typically the tools are few, and the stakes are high. Nevertheless, place advocates have forged some useful strategies.
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Activity: Help shape the lesson objectives for the Place Matters toolkit
- Start by reviewing the "lessons" outlined in the Place Matters toolkit.
- Give participants a few minutes of quiet to put a few thoughts onto paper.
- Ask people to share the ideas and skills they listed.
- Ask people to share the project ideas they listed.
- Once we define our topics, we need to set some priorities. Here are some possible approaches to soliciting priorities from workshop participants:
- Card sorting
- dot voting/idea rating (info)
- Optionally we can also look at the relationships between the topics using a hexagons-based activity:
Source: P2PU
Note:
We are going to spend 20 minutes on pedagogical design and online education, including:
- How to create with a learning community
- How to create or curate engaging content
- How to offer students authentic tasks
- How to design learning around problems
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Note:
The way we see it, any online learning experience consists of three parts:
- Social presence (that you have a crew & we’re in it together)
- Cognitive presence (ideas & content)
- Teaching presence (feedback & questions)
Design with a community.
Peers provide an audience and an important source of feedback.
Source: P2PU
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- Playful projects
- Design for all senses
- Low floors, wide walls
- Focus on themes
- Inspire with diverse examples
Note:
We recall information best when we:
- design for all senses
- build a real-life project that is applicable to our lives
- present that project to others for feedback
- share our ideas with the wider world
How could someone make a project where they fiddle, tinker and lose themselves in it? Open-ended projects and thematic prompts help learners find their own paths and ideas.
We recall information best when it engages several of our senses.
We recommend activities that can work for both beginner and advanced learners. Activities of this type have few barriers to entry ( and make use of easy-to-use tools like Googledocs or Twitter) but are flexible enough to allow advanced folks to add layers of more complex elements.
Instead of encouraging learners to compete to solve a problem, select a thematic focus for a project. Instead of working deductively towards a "correct" solution, learners are free to follow their personal passions.
Showcasing a range of work inspires learners to imagine what’s possible (as opposed to what’s correct). At the same time, an array of different projects models inclusivity, builds a broad community of learners.
Source: P2PU
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Asks the student to "do" the subject" ... [and] Replicates key challenging situations in which adults are truly "test" in the workplace, in civic life, and in personal life. Real challenges involve specific situations with "messiness" and meaningful goals: important constraints, "noise," purposes, and audiences at work. In contrast, almost all school tests are without context (even when a writing prompt tries to suggest a sense of purpose and audience).
Source: W. Caleb McDaniel
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So if you are interested in teaching people how to tell a story about a historic place in their community, how do you present them with authentic tasks—real challenges. McDaniel suggests three key components:
- Design around Problems and Frame Using (goal, role, audience, situation, product, standards).
- Find a Real Audience, online or in person.
- Peer review and response
Source: W. Caleb McDaniel
Note:
We are talking about "lessons" in this workshop but they are sometimes called modules or learning activities. Lessons is a familiar term so we are sticking with it.
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Start with our lesson template: bit.ly/localpast-template
Or start from scratch!
Note:
We are recommending Google Docs for this activity. You can also create a lesson on paper or with other digital tools instead.
Activity: Creating a lesson
- Distribute lesson templates. Review what goes into a lesson.
- Create an outline for your lesson.
- Do you need any additional resources? Identify what images, video, audio, documents may be helpful to add.
- Where can participants dig deeper into this topic? Identify related links/resources, examples for closer study, etc.
Remember: feedback is best given with I-statements.
Try saying: I like... I wish... What if...
Note:
Liz Lerman – Critical Response Process
Feedback is best given with I-statements. For example, "I sometimes feel you don’t listen to me" instead of "You don’t listen to a word I say." Specifically, "I like, I wish, What if" (IL/IW/WI) is a simple tool to encourage open feedback.
Source: "I Like, I Wish, What If" Method of Feedback
Activity: Peer feedback and critique (60 min – Molly/Eli)
- Each pair/group presents a lesson
- Participants respond with feedback/comments/suggestions
Note:
OERs need to be:
- Findable. That means including metadata about the work and the class so users will know what to expect.
- Usable. Material should be as open as possible.
- Licensed. Make sure you indicate what can be done with the work and any restrictions you have, although the less restrictive the license, the better.
Source: An Introduction to Open Education Resources (CC BY-SA)
We are using GitHub and Jekyll. You can use Google Docs.
Baltimore Heritage + City Lore, 2016 September 9
Note:
- Eli Pousson, Baltimore Heritage
- Molly Garfinkel, City Lore
- Johns Hopkins, Baltimore Heritage
...