Digital History comes to UMW

August 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

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In the spring of 2008, students in Jeff McClurken’s digital history class built and published persistent online resources about several historical topics. Working in small groups, students chose their topics and then spent the first few weeks of the semester learning about a “digital toolkit” of tools and technologies that they could use to build their sites.

With the new toolkit in hand, each group developed a project contract with Dr. McClurken, outlining their goals and how they planned to use various technologies to achieve them. Over the course of the semester, groups regularly reported back to their peers and their professor about their progress, providing Dr. McClurken with an opportunity to intervene if he sensed anything was going astray.

In April, the sites went live and each group presented their work at both the history department showcase and at Student Research and Creativity Day.

Filed Under: Arts & Humanities, Project Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Venice on Exhibit

August 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

groupphoto12-300x225Marjorie Och spent last fall traveling to Venice with her art history seminar students. And she did it all without getting on a plane! For two years, students in her Venice seminar have designed and developed online exhibits about the Italian city, and published their own research papers in the space.

Each student chose a topic about Venice and then spent the semester researching and writing. At the end of the term, the class unveiled an “online exhibit” that featured each of the essays, accompanying photos, an interactive timeline, and an annotated map.

The final product was professional and inviting. As one commenter said,

The exhibit had beautiful pictures and great information that I didn’t know about Venice and the arts and the artists, it also has interested me to make sure I travel to Venice….ASAP!!!

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Recording the Crisis

August 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Steve Greenlaw's Financial Crisis Website

Steve Greenlaw's Financial Crisis Website

During the spring 2009 semester, Steve Greenlaw’s international finance students did more than just study the current financial crisis — they created a persistent online resource about the global recession.

Students carefully studied and analyzed the international crisis and decided they wanted to build a Web site that shed light on the reasons behind the meltdown and the ongoing events surrounding it.

Working on a site in UMW Blogs, Dr. Greenlaw and the students developed a structure for their analysis and presentation and then spent the spring and summer publishing and updating their findings. In addition to sections on the site that examine the intricacies of everything from the subprime mortgage market to the government bailout, students created a timeline of events and developed a robust bibliography of references.

Filed Under: Featured, Project, Social Sciences Tagged With: , , , , , , ,