Cleveland Humanities Collaborative Celebrating Graduating Students with faculty & staff 

I work at Cuyahoga Community College teaching History, Women’s Studies and advising in a Transfer Pathway to Case Western Reserve University.  You may have heard of us in the previous 8 years when President and Mrs. Obama often used our college as a model for promoting community college education.

Having earned my Ph.D. in a very …very traditional program, I have great classic research skills and felt myself falling behind the Digital World.  I wanted to understand the “Digital” behind Digital Humanities and I wanted to add new dynamics to the teaching in my on-line classes.  Also I was struggling with a long-running research project.  I needed new tools to organize, diagram and (I now realize) ‘crowdsource’ the aspects of this work.  I was crowd-sourcing before it had a fancy name, but classic methods have been insufficient for what we have been trying to accomplish.

The Digital Humanities Certificate Program is helping me in many ways, broadening my awareness of the scholarship & literature of this field, creating deadlines and forcing me to develop technological skills and independence.  I have ventured into the new fields of mapping and blogging and tried utilizing new content management systems.  I had hoped to gain more technological proficiency which is my weakness.  Since this is a distance learning course and there are no nearby facilities to act as resources, that has been a challenge.

Considering the constantly changing dynamics, platforms and resources of Digital History, I am intrigued by the concept of ‘teaching’ it.  I have used digital tools in my courses, and as noted above, I have greatly expanded my understanding of the field.  My goal for this course is to consider how to balance theory and practice in the learning environment, where ‘expertise’ is one of the variables.  My fellow history professor David Bernatowicz (standing next to the window in the picture above) teaches a “History of Cleveland” course.  This course combines traditional class lecture and activities with actual physical tours.

 I have organized and taught the Cleveland  Women’s History class & tour.  A project I would like to envisage is transforming this physical class/tour into a digital/virtual experience.

Every class is a journey transforming the mind!