Multidimensional Learning through Digital Platforms - September 12, 2018 - Arts Instructional Support and Information Technology (Arts ISIT)

What can open learning platforms do for your courses? How do these technologies fit with classroom learning environments?

This workshop will tackle these questions with a panel of four instructors who have used open learning platforms to bring course material to life in new ways for their students. From digital mapping of stories, geo-mapping history and mapping timelines to blogging and content management systems, these instructors have created valuable opportunities for their students to interact multidimensionally with course materials. Participants in this workshop can look forward to learning about the innovative experiences open digital platforms make possible in Arts and Humanities courses.

“Imagining St Petersburg: Digital Mapping in the Literature Classroom”
In this presentation Dr. Katherine Bowers (CENES) will discuss the application of the digital mapping tool StoryMapJS in the literature classroom. StoryMapJS, produced by Knight Lab, was originally intended to aid journalists in mapping narrative, that is, to tell their stories spatially for more impact. Dr. Bowers will discuss her experience using the tool in the context of the literature classroom, the ups and downs of introducing her students to it and the benefits of imagining literary space in this way. She will also be sharing some of her students’ projects.

“Geo-mapping with a Historical Twist”
Dr. Tristan Grunow (HIST) will be sharing his experience with the new mapping tool he worked with Arts ISIT to build. This geo-mapping application, delivered through UBC Blogs, allowed students to map images of the locations, people and buildings they researched in class. This gave students the opportunity to visualize spatial relationships which they could not have experienced otherwise, and allowed them to draw new historical conclusions.

“Representing Peace Negotiations through Interactive Timelines”
Dr. Jen Peterson (POLI) will discuss her recent collaboration with Arts ISIT which led to the creation of a student-developed academic database. Contributions to the database were made as part of the final assignment for her International Conflict Management course. This assignment saw students completing interactive timelines and compiling comparative data on over a dozen formal peace negotiations, in a format that would be of use to other peace researchers. Dr. Peterson will reflect on the learning outcomes and benefits of the collaboration, barriers to be overcome before its next iteration, and thoughts on the transferability of the model to other courses and disciplines.
“The Past, Present and Future of WordPress Use”
In a sea of social media and its currents of evanescent fashions, blogs have been solid rocky islands. From connections in Web 2.0, to futuristic dreams of a 5.0 symbiotic network, WordPress offers many ways of being and thinking online as intelligent citizens of the past, present, and future. In this workshop, Dr. Juliet O’Brien (FHIS), who works with French language and literature, Medieval Studies and course coordination, will share some of her early 2008 experiences using WordPress and UBC Blogs for research communities, information, courses, and student projects. She will also be looking at what we can do next with WordPress in Arts innovation.