Workshops

THATCamp Iowa City will run from Friday, March 30 to Sunday, April 1. Conference sessions will be held Saturday and Sunday, with workshops on the Friday. See the Schedule page for details on times and locations.

Preliminary list of workshops for Friday, March 30:

From Documents to Databases/Databases 101

So—you have an idea for a digital archive, and a bunch of documents you want to “analyze.” How to you think about preparing those documents for a database? This talk will cover early project-planning and document preparation, as well as point to further resources for next steps in a project. (It will cover the concepts for early planning, rather than specific software.

What, exactly, is a database? How do you “build” one? What can a database accomplish for a digital humanities project? Like “From Documents to Databases,” this talk will cover the broad concepts of “what a database is/does”, rather than teaching specific software. Led by John Gikonyo from SITA.

Teaching with a Wiki

Wikis offer the potential to engage students, build a collaborative online learning environment, and provide a central location for all sorts of different materials. They can also be retained or built on from semester-to-semester. How do you make one, and what can you do with it? Participants will be able to leave the class able to create a Wiki.

Portable Presentation Technologies 

Jon Winet, Mark NeuCollins, and Nikki Dudley will demonstrate simple technologies for presenting research and teaching materials to a broader audience, including iPod video recording, PowerPoint to Youtube, and blogging with WordPress.

Tour/demo of TILE classroom

Kevin Fall, Amber Brian, and Cecilia Murniati will show participants the ins and outs of the Main Library’s TILE classroom (Spaces to Transform, Interact, Learn, Engage). 1022 LIB, 3:30-4:30pm.

Collaboration Between Librarians and Humanities Scholars

Greg Prickman (Assistant Head, Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Iowa) and Dr. Stephen Voyce (Assistant Professor of Digital Literacies & Visual Cultures in Iowa’s English Department) will speak about the process of collaboration and communication between scholars and archivists, who may come from different backgrounds and take different approaches to the materials they are working on.

Assessing Teaching and Learning in Technology-Infused Classrooms 

From Cecilia Murniati, Sam Van Horne: Instructors transform from teacher-centered to student-centered activities when they understood how tools in the classrooms could support new strategies. Instructors benefited from understanding not only how to use technology, but learning how the technology played a role in improving teaching. We found students were more enthusiastic about taking classes that embraced these new technologies because they believed 1) instruction was designed and appropriate for the special learning environment and 2) features of the rooms like the round tables, laptops, and wall-mounted monitors contributed to collaborative learning. Our findings pointed to how transformed teaching strategies benefit students who may need additional support.

On Saturday:

Building Digital Archives with Omeka 

Our own Melody Dworak will teach the basics of Omeka, a free, web-based publishing software for online digital archives currently being used by the New York Public Library and the Newberry Library. Users can publish all sorts of objects, create exhibits, and change the code as needed (it’s open-source and can be customized with various themes and plugins). This is an introductory skill-share for people who are new to content management systems.