Class Induction Friday & Saturday Sept 12/13 or 19/20 2014 VENUE?
Introduction Calendar Entry Programme Learning Outcomes for MA in Digital Cultures 5 Timetable Course Map might be useful – front up and make clickable in ebook? Assessments for the core modules DH6016 Digital Humanities Institute Session 1 Sept XX-YY DH6016 Digital Humanities Institute Session 2 Jan XX-YY DH6016 Digital Humanities Institute Session 3 April XX-YY DH6015 Communities of Practice in Digital Scholarship DH6017 Why: Conceptual Introduction to Digital Humanities DH6018 History and Theory of Digital Arts DH6019 How: Humanities and New Technologies: Tools and Methodologies DH6006 Teaching and Learning in Digital Humanities (5 credits)( Online, P1) DH6007 Models, Simulations and Games (5 credits) ( Online, P1) DH6008 Databases for Digital Humanities (5 credits) ( Online, P2) DH6009 Introduction to Quantitative Methods for Digital Humanities (5 credits) (( Online/Blended, P2) DH6012 Editing Skills for Research Postgraduates in the Humanities and Social Sciences HI6018 Digital History Writing in Digital Humanities Digital Presence Backups and Security Online Learning overview Talk Nice to Archivists Ethnographic Research Ethics Core Readings (additions?) Readings – Digital Art. (This section will be reviewed before the Digital Art course in Jan 2014) Complete rewrite here! Readings - Conceptual Introduction - Data. Rewrite? Move to module?
Welcome to your MA in Digital Cultures - the course team hopes that you will use this opportunity to collaboratively create new knowledge and to develop original thinking that will benefit yourselves, the university community, and your own wider communities.
Mike Cosgrave- [email protected], ([email protected]), @ Shawn Day - [email protected] ([email protected]) @iridium Orla Murphy - [email protected], (), @omurphy16
The MA in Digital Cultures runs for 12 months full-time from the date of first registration. Students take taught modules to the value of 45 credits (Part I ) incorporating 3 (three) x two day on-campus workshops and 8-10 hours per week of structured online activity, supplemented by reading and other study during term. Students also undertake a research dissertation (45 credits)(Part II) which is submitted at the end of the academic year. Students take 90 credits as follows:
Students complete 45 credits as follows:
A dissertation of a maximum of 20,000 words must be submitted by a specified date in September. Students who complete Part I may opt to exit the programme and be awarded a Postgraduate Certificate in Digital Cultures. Module descriptions are contained in the Book of Modules 2012/2013.
Full details and regulations governing Examinations for each programme will be contained in the Marks and Standards 2013 Book and for each module in the Book of Modules 2012/2013. See also Regulations for the Degree of MA.
(NFQ Level 9, Major Award): On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to: Demonstrate an awareness of the development and the major issues and debates in Digital Culture
- Demonstrate the ability to use digital tools commonly in use in the Digital Culture to capture and analyse source materials
- Participate in collaborative scholarly communities using digital tools
- Devise research questions which apply digital tools to arts, cultural and humanities issues
- Plan and conduct research at the appropriate level for a masters qualification
- Present their research in a thesis supported by relevant digital artefacts Initial sessions will be scheduled but as the course unfolds, students are expected to contribute to shaping their learning journey by framing questions, pursuing issues, finding and sharing resources and collaborating to produce professional scholarly work which can serve as a public demonstration of their achievement of their learning goals.
Well no, but…..do we want to fix some online offices hours? Or leave that emerge? However….
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Max 50 pages reading per course per week
All core module assessments involve individual and group written work and presentations. The usual extent of the assessed work in a 5 Credit module is about 5,000 words, or equivalent. (What is equivalent - perhaps examples) The common description for assessment across the 5 core modules is Portfolio of work of up to 6-12 items, to include an element of group work, individual work and a presentation equivalent to about 5,000 words in extent. This is fine tuned to reflect the main emphasis of each module
Monday 8th September - Friday 28th November 2014
Monday 1st December - Friday 5th December 2014
Monday 8th December - Friday 19th December 2014
Saturday 20th December 2014 - Sunday 11th January 2015
Monday 12th January - Friday 3rd April 2015
Saturday 4th April - Sunday 19th April 2015
Monday 20th April - Friday 25th April 2015
Monday 27th April - Friday 15th May 2015
Session 1 Sept 12th - 13th (MA DH Start on Tuesday 16th Sept ??)
Working online, online learning, time management, peer and self-directed learning, personal learning environments
9. DH6016 Digital Humanities Institute Session 3 April 24th - 25th April 2015?? (MA DH on 22nd -23rd April? )
“2 day public event with student presentations of work, and project proposals for the MA Thesis. Students will design the event website, devise social media solutions for the event and simultaneously liveblog the event.”
This module looks at collaboration and communities of practice which are such an important feature of digital culture. Students will use social media, blogs and discussion forums to review, summarise and discuss readings. In this module, students will be introduced to the range of theories, tools and practices which support current collaborative scholarly work in the Digital Humanities. Students will explore and evaluate the emerging digital communities and collaborations among scholars, review the literature and debates on the changing nature of scholarship, on communities of practice, peer review, collaboration and "critical friends". The changing nature of academic debate and the impact of digital tools in research and on the production of academic work and topics such as digital rights management, licensing and copyright will be studied. Students will engage with local, national and international networks, and begin to develop a professional digital "presence". Each student will submit a portfolio of collected blog posts, forum posts, responses to other students blogging and forum posts, an academic poster, a podcast and other shared public digital work. The main thrust is to demonstrate the students’ abilities to participate in scholarly communities both within the course and within the broader academic community, and to reflect on the use of digital tools for collaboration. Students in groups of 3-5 will submit collaborative essays on key topics.. Groups will be formed in September based on shared interests, with a view to writing intensively during October. Initial draft of portfolio and first contribution ot collaborative writing project due: October 31st 2013 Final due January 7th 2014
This course engages with core concepts in DH. Here students will build an understanding of these topics through discussion online and in class. In this portfolio, students will demonstrate an ability to engage with central conceptual debates in the field. The final assessment in this course will be an individual essay of about 3,000 words and a portfolio of reading summaries, discussion work, essay plans and other artefacts which demonstrate the development of the students own ideas individually and in discussion. Initial 2,500 words or equivalent due October 31st 2013 Final 5,000 words or equivalent due January 7th 2014
As with the other courses, a portfolio which demonstrate the development of the students own ideas about art, digital art, design and creativity individually and in discussion over the term is a key part of this assessment. (c 1,500 words, 6-12 items) For the major assessment, students will engage in a digital creative project which will involve group collaboration and the creation of a piece of 'art' which must have a digital element. The creative work will be submitted with a contextual essay or conference poster which demonstrates how the work is ‘digital’ and displayed as part of the end of year Institute Initial draft of 2,500 words or equivalent due Friday February 14th 2014. Final Essay and artefact due on March 31st 2014.
3,000 word essay or equivalent, analysing the potential of new technologies for the student's own dissertation research project, supported by a portfolio reading summaries, discussion work, essay and research plans and other artefacts which demonstrate the development of the students own ideas about the appropriate use of new digital technologies for research and personal learning individually and in discussion. A key issue will be analysing the potential of new technologies for the student's dissertation research project Assessment for this course due March 31st 2014 Options
Digital learning is one of the areas where the impact of digital innovations are potentially most wide ranging. This module looks at key readings on elearning, and some theories and methods in the field. As well as actively participating in class discussion, students will design and develop some open online teaching resources in areas of interest.
E-Learning in the 21st Century: A Framework for Research and Practice Randy Garrison A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change John Seely Brown and Douglas Thomas
Module will look at the main developments and debates in teaching and learning in higher education, and look at how digital tools affect, modify and develop those debates; and at pedagogical uses of digital tools
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to: - Read some of the debates on the scholarship of teaching and learning in the humanities disciplines - Demonstrate an ability to apply those debates to the digital humanities. - Demonstrate an ability to use appropriate strategies and pedagogies to design effective teaching in their humanities area. - Demonstrate an ability to use a variety digital and blended learning tools to create, deliver and evaluate teaching & learning in their humanities area. - Demonstrate an ability to collaborate on and share research on teaching and learning.
Games and Gaming defines the digital for many people, but there were games and theories about play and culture before the digital age. This course looks at the broad range of games and gaming in culture, and at digital games, gamification, ‘serious games’ and learning games. Students will actively participating in class discussion, and will produce a thought out design for a game which may be non-digital or digital, or, ideally, both!
Reality is Broken, Jane MacGonigal
Since the adoption of Von Reisswitz' Kreigspeil by the Prussian army, the use of models, simulations and games for education, training and planning in war and peace has expanded, and this has accelerated in developments in digital gaming and simulations. This module surveys the history of these developments, and looks at the theoretical debates about the use and abuse of these tools. Students will study and design simulations.
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to: - Know the main developments in the use of models, simulations and games in the modern era. - Read a range of theoretical literature on MSG in research, planning and teaching. - Use a range of MSG and evaluated them. - Design learning simulations in the disciplinary area.
Continuous Assessment 100 marks (Portfolio of work of up to 6-12 items, to include an participation in structured online discussion and activities, and a game design document equivalent to about 4,000 words in extent.
Significant amounts of large scale digital work, especially in History and in the backend of many DH websites, require SQL Databases. This module looks at the analysis of humanities problems and the design of databases to meet the needs of the humanities. Student will design an SLQ database and produce a limited but working prototype to understand how analysis and design methods work Module will cover the history of large database projects in Digital Humanities, looking at the evolution of, and lessons learned from database projects in Digital Humanities database projects, and at how mainstream database standards and theories relate to DH projects. Students will be expected to apply this in a practical way in the design and creation of a small database for capturing humanities data in digital form
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to: Know the development of database use in the humanities and other fields Know the main features of the different types of database technology available Design, create and use databases modern standards compliant databases to create reusable digital humanities resources for research and teaching Understand the lesson learned and current best practices in large scale humanities projects Communicate digital humanities needs to database professionals and participate in large database projects.
Continuous Assessment 100 marks (Portfolio of work of up to 6-12 items, to include an participation in structured online discussion and activities, and a a design for a database equivalent to about 4,000 words in extent)
17. DH6009 Introduction to Quantitative Methods for Digital Humanities (5 credits) (( Online/Blended, P2)
This module will look at basic quantitative methods (stats) and the growing field of Analytics . It may also include some text analytics and stylometrics. The exact module sequence is being reworked to incorporate new content and new team members. This module will survey the theoretical and conceptual development of quantitative research techniques in the humanities in various fields (cliometrics, demographic history, computational linguistics; stylometrics, Big Data, data analytics and the ‘quantified self’ ); review the current state of the art and introduce students to some simple techniques which the humanities scholar can use for research.
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Demonstrate familiarity with the main developments and key readings in the application of quantitative methods to traditional humanities disciplines
- Demonstrate awareness of the differences between qualitative and quantitative research paradigms
- Demonstrate familiarity with the major controversies in the application of quantitative methods to humanities research
- Identify how humanities sources can be encoded for quantitative analysis
- Utilise the main approaches to using quantitative methods to support scholarship in the humanities and how they have developed over time.
- Be able to apply basic computational linguistics and content analysis techniques to heterogeneous data sources in the humanities.
Continuous Assessment 100 marks (Portfolio of work of up to 6-12 items, to include an participation in structured online discussion and activities, equivalent to about 4,000 words in extent
18. DH6012 Editing Skills for Research Postgraduates in the Humanities and Social Sciences (5 credits)
Using literature as a basis and reference, students will be trained in both conventional and new theories of textual editing as well as theorising copyright issues:
- the role of the editor;
- the importance of interface;
- issues of copyright and fair dealing;
- the nature of information and divisions of knowledge;
- the importance of visuals, and of different media and online spaces;
- as well as in the technical skills (XML / TEI) required to publish online.
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Create an edition of a text related to their course(not for publication) Understand key elements of editorial theory
- Participate in a joint edition of a class project: (eg) online postgraduate essay collection Use a standard academic submission, review and publication software.
Continuous Assessment 100 marks (Portfolio of work of up to 8-10 items, to include an element of group work, individual work and a presentation equivalent to about 4,000 words in extent)).
Digital history and humanities, aims, objectives, philosophies, approaches; debates and controversies. Capturing and analysing textual and quantitative sources using text scanning, markup, spreadsheet and database tools as appropriate.
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Know about the range of digital technologies available for analysis and writing in history.
- Know about the development of digital techniques in historical scholarship, and the debates about the appropriate use of computing in historical research.
- Know how to accurately create a digital version of a primary historical source using appropriate methods. Demonstrate an ability to use digital tools for scholarly analysis.
- Demonstrate the ability to present primary sources and research outcomes using digital technologies.
- Demonstrate an awareness of the community of practice in digital history, and an ability to participate in the community.
Continuous Assessment 200 marks (Written assessments based on a portfolio of work including online discussion of readings, location and evaluation of sources, visualisations, other online structured activities, creation and analysis digital versions of primary sources: 200 marks).
Scholarship in the Digital Humanities is not only digital, but open and collaborative, and expressed in a wide variety of media. In this course you will produce content in a range of media – you will engage in critical discussions both in class, online in the 'confines' of the Blackboard LMS, and publicly in social media – twitter and blogs. Types of work which you will produce during the courses, which will build towards final assessments, will include:
- Twitter and other short form writing to express ideas concisely
- Discussion posts in forums where you exchange ideas about core readings and issues with other students in a few paragraphs
- Blog posts where you reflect on and refine ideas to present them for public discussion.
- Presentations using tools like Powerpoint and Prezi to integrate text and visual presentations of ideas.
- Conference posters and infographics which also present information and ideas visually.
- Podcasts, both audio and video Across this range of 'writing' you will demonstrate developing ability to:
- Locate relevant sources and critically evaluate the worth of various sources
- Monitor the flow of digital discourse on topics relevant to the course
- Make sense of the information, and extract key points through reading summaries, abstracts, mind maps, tweets of key points etc
- Plan digital 'writing' by producing plans and drafts for essays, presentations, podcasts etc
- Participate in peer review and helpful critique of the plans and drafts of colleagues
- Produce final pieces of work of an appropriate quality for masters level work and ready for public presentation. This will be challenging, but it will be exciting and by the end of the process you will be able to respond flexibly to the opportunities of the digital age.
Developing and maintaining a professional public digital presence is an important part of the Digital Humanities. During this course you will “walk the walk” of engaging with social media, blogging, collaborative work online, and by then end of the course – and hopefully much sooner – it is expected that you will demonstrate your ability to do this. This will require you to have accounts on several social network sites, and you need to consider some issues about this: You may want to keep you’re your digital footprints separate and distinct – you may want to maintain division between personal online activity, experimental online work during the course where you try out new tools, and your professional digital footprint. You may therefore decide to maintain 2 or 3 different accounts on some services You will need to consider account names, screen names and passwords for all of these. You want these to be easy to remember, and secure. All will need to come back to an email account for signup and password recovery. All of this can be organised and tracked on one page, if you have a system and are careful.
You are also responsible for keeping copies of your digital work for the course. There are many ways to do this – many students use College email to email copies of work to themselves, there are several online services like Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Skydrive, Evernote and Zotero which offer a level of free storage. USB keys are now relatively cheap. Most of these options will certainly provide enough space to store as much text as you will deal with during the year, but large media files will need more space. Work out a backup and “Business Continuity Plan” for your work that works for you Have backups in several clearly separate and distinct places/services so that if one fails, the other(s) are safe. The “internet ate my homework” will not be acceptable as an excuse in this course!
One page with useful links on personal learning, time management, study skills, Can we find a good guide? Weekly reading load (200-250 pages) weekly writing load – 10-12 discussion contributions (blog, blog comments, forums, twitter) End of term assignment load – 10,000-12,000 words, mainly collected from online participation into course portfolio Submission: All Final submissions will be done by uploading required materials to assignments in the course sites on Blackboard.
These are by no means the only or the best long-form works in the field, but they do embody the central issues and debates at this time. Selected chapters will be required in various courses, and the course team strongly recommend that you have physical or electronic copies of these texts which will serve as the foundation of a professional library in the area. Some of these are available as open online texts
- Bartscherer, Thomas, and Roderick Coover, eds. 2011. Switching Codes: Thinking Through Digital Technology in the Humanities and the Arts. University Of Chicago Press.
- Berry, Dr David M., ed. 2012. Understanding Digital Humanities. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Deegan, Marilyn. 2008. Text Editing, Print and the Digital World. Ed. Marilyn Deegan and Kathryn Sutherland. Ashgate.
- Deegan, Marilyn, and Willard McCarty. 2012. Collaborative Research in the Digital Humanities. Ashgate.
- Gold, Matthew K., ed. 2012. Debates in the Digital Humanities. University of Minnesota Press.
- Jockers, Matthew. 2013 Macroanalysis: Digital Methods and Literary History. Uni of Illinois Press
- Moretti, Franco. 2005. Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models For A Literary History. Verso.
- Schreibman, Susan, Ray Siemens, and John Unsworth. 2004. Companion to Digital Humanities (Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture). Hardcover. Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Professional. http://www.digitalhumanities.org/companion/.
- Warwick, Claire, Melissa Terras, and Julianne Nyhan, eds. 2012. Digital Humanities in Practice. Facet Publishing.
27. Readings – Digital Art. (This section will be reviewed before the Digital Art course in Jan 2014) Complete rewrite here!
Auslander, Philip. Liveness. New York: Routledge, 2001. Bolter, Jay and Grusin, Richard. Remediation. MIT Press, 2000. Broadhurst, Susan. Performance and Technology: Practices of Virtual Embodiment and Interactivity. Palgrave, 2006. Causey, Matthew. Theatre and Performance in Digital Culture: From Simulation to Embeddedness. London: Routledge, 2009. Dixon, Steve. Digital Performance. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2006. Giannachi, Gabriella. Virtual Theatres: An Introduction. Routledge, 2004. Hayles, Kate. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media. MIT Press, 2002. Murray, Timothy. Digital Baroque: New Media Art and Cinematic Folds. University of Minnesota, 2008. Salter, Chris. Entangled: Technology and The Transformation of Performance. MIT Press, 2010. Sutherland, Kathryn. Electronic Text. Clarendon Press, 1997. Wilson, Stephen. Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology. New Haven: MIT Press, 2001.
Here are some sites that we may encounter during the sessions: Tim Berners-Lee on the next web Raw Data Now TED.com talk data.gov US government open data site data.gov.uk UK government open data site data.southampton.ac.uk U of Southampton open data initiative W3C World Wide Web consortium Standards for the world wide web - excellent, open site with great links you can trust for factual, up - to - date information on contemporary thinking about web technologies - the introduction at http://www.w3.org/Consortium/mission is excellent. Jaron Lanier on youtube (at 23 minutes in)Lanier's recent book 'You are not a gadget' is about the primacy of the individual in the digital domain, and his worries about the 'hive mind', and what happens to people when they are 'anonymised people'. It is, depending on your perspective, a dystopian or prophetic view of the web from within -and a necessary to read. Clay Shirky's article on ontologies (2005) 'Why ontologies are overrated'. Shirky is known for his ideas about cognitive surplus, there are a number of his TED talks too. Here he gives the example of the Periodic Table of Elements as an almost perfect ontology, almost. Tim Berners-Lee on the year Open Data went worldwide. This Week (at 14 minutes in) President elect Michael D Higgins speaks about restoring the connection between science and culture in his first interview as president elect, RTE radio news, October 30, 2011.
In addition to the classic “Web of documents” W3C is helping to build a technology stack to support a “Web of data,” the sort of data you find in databases. The ultimate goal of the Web of data is to enable computers to do more useful work and to develop systems that can support trusted interactions over the network. The term “Semantic Web” refers to W3C’s vision of the Web of linked data. Semantic Web technologies enable people to create data stores on the Web, build vocabularies, and write rules for handling data. Linked data are empowered by technologies such as RDF, SPARQL, OWL, and SKOS.
linked data - XML technologies... all at W3C and also the basics are introduced via w3schools.com
A useful beginning description of DATA is here: http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm
The Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) is a consortium which collectively develops and maintains a standard for the representation of texts in digital form.