This slideshow was presented at DHSI 2017 Colloquium at the University of Victoria. It explains the primary lessons we learned while writing the book, _Using Digital Humanities in the Classroom: A Practical Introduction for Teachers, Lecturers, and Students_. It focuses on accessibility, collaboration, tacit knowledge, tool-thinking versus objective-thinking, and structure within experimentation.

1. Using Digital Humanities
in the Classroom:
A Practical Introduction
for Teachers, Lecturers, and Students
Claire Battershill, Simon Fraser University
@cbattershill
Shawna Ross, Texas A&M University
@Shawna Ross

3. Open-access web companion at
teachdh.com

5. Some unexpected
conclusions

6. 1
the centrality of a capacious
definition of accessibility

7. Fairness
Responsibilities
• Physical and psychological
disabilities
• Household- and institution-
based economic inequalities
• Cultural and familial
resistances
• Social inequalities and
vulnerabilities related to race,
gender, sexuality
• Reliable Access
• Physical Safety
• Psychological Comfor
• Fair Evaluation

8. 2
collaboration can be fun and
productive! (if you set up a
system that works for all
collaborators)

10. Collaborative Pedagogy,
Collaborative Writing
• Solicit feedback: sometimes it’s easier for someone
else to point out what you do in the classroom than
to recognize it yourself.
• Practice collaborative habits that work for you (ie:
co-writing sessions)
• If you recommend collaboration to your students but
don’t practice if yourself, rethink it!

11. 3
the importance of structure
during radical experimentation

12. Borrow from Education Theory
• Develop consistent course objectives
• Build confidence through repetition and reflection
• Provide models of student assignments
• Construct and explain analytic or holistic rubrics
• Involve students in evaluation through iterative,
process-oriented, or peer-calibrated grading

13. 4
the tools are great, but it’s not
(really) about the tools

14. DH Tools
• Can help you achieve your pre-existing pedagogical
goals
• Can clarify those goals
• Can inspire totally analogue activities (for example:
you can teach TEI without a computer!)
• CanNOT replace thoughtful course design, careful
lesson planning, or subject expertise

15. 5
The power of tacit knowledge:
what do you already know?

16. Tacit Knowledge
• Everyday tasks build tacit knowledge: an often-
invisible, experience-based “low theory”
• Do not underestimate what you know or what others
need to know
• Sharing tacit knowledge is the key to continual,
open growth in the digital humanities community

17. Sharing tacit knowledge is the key
to continual, open growth in the
digital humanities community.

18. Using Digital Humanities in the
Classroom
• Expand your definition of accessibility
• Benefit from collaboration
• Embed formalized structure into experimentation
• Avoid “tool first, course objective later” thinking
• Recognize and share your tacit knowledge