It's here, yo
Map of the Conversation
Recommended uses for leading resources
The EN group set out to make the popular digital humanities websites Connexions, Merlot, HASTAC and New Media Consortium more accessible and useful to DWRL members by researching their offerings and distilling them into the chart below. We shared our findings about these sites and their most relevant resources during our March workshop, a video of which can be viewed here.
The EN group set out to make the popular digital humanities websites Connexions, Merlot, HASTAC and New Media Consortium more accessible and useful to DWRL members by researching their offerings and distilling them into the chart below. We shared our findings about these sites and their most relevant resources during our March workshop, a video of which can be viewed here.
| Relevant features/resources | Membership fees/requirements | Time investment vs. potential rewards | Additional notes | |
| Merlot Online collection of peer-reviewed learning materials for higher education | Learning Materials Search: Sort by discipline, type, or search by keyword) Virtual Speakers Bureau Individual Learning Exercises/Assignments Journal of Online Learning and Teaching | Free to join; necessary for adding or reviewing content but not to access content | Peer review process that may delay publication but may make for a stronger addition to CV | Tends to house larger resource sets like lesson plan websites or pedagogy blogs |
| New Media Consortium Site for organizations with shared interest in technology and education | Annual Horizon Report Updates on new technologies (via member blogs and Cool Technologies page) that could inspire lesson plans Job board Shared conference and event calendar Video and audio from summer conference Shared college campus in Second Life (individual class projects welcome) | Only necessary for contributing content ($2,500/year) UT (via Center for Teaching and Learning) and HRC are members | Would be an ideal outlet for anyone with a technology-related blog to increase exposure with minimal effort or to share information on institutional projects | Large- and medium-scale research projects in an array of digital humanities interest areas |
| Connexions Open-source textbook and curriculum site with content ranging from K-college | Best Writing Practices for Grad Students: Reducing the Discomfort of the Blank Screen by Carol Mullen Digital Humanities 2.0: A Report on Knowledge by Todd Presner Introduction to Selected Lessons in Persuasion by Institute for Learning (targeted at secondary school students) Many resources for technical writing courses | Free to join; necessary for contributing or remixing content but not for reading | Offers a good place for collaborative publishing | |
| HASTAC Digital platform for an extensive network of humanities and social science to collaborate in research and critical discussion of new and emerging technologies | Blogs by HASTAC Scholars: Projects by HASTAC Members News & Opportunities (CFPs and Jobs) | Free to join, necessary for contributing content | Prominent figures in our field read and contribute to HASTAC, making it a higher-stakes but potentially very rewarding place to publish more polished work |
Our research suggests that none of these sites offers an opportunity for re-publishing pedagogical materials or research findings from our website or Blogging Pedagogy without a significant time investment in reformatting. However, each offers some valuable resources for either teaching or professional development. We believe that our current institutional investment in HASTAC via our HASTAC scholars is wholly worthwhile.