classroom

2018 Call for CERES Classroom Proposals

Call for ProposalsIt’s that time of year again – time for the CERES Call for Proposals! This year the Digital Scholarship Group is looking for faculty to submit project proposals for classroom use of the CERES Exhibit Toolkit in Fall 2018 or Spring 2019. The deadline for proposals is April 30, 2018.  Deadline: April 30, 2018

Apply here 

The CERES Exhibit Toolkit is a WordPress plugin and theme developed by DSG staff. CERES is used to create websites that dynamically integrate images, text, video, and other digital materials into complex scholarly narratives and exhibits, while keeping those base digital materials preserved in a long-lasting archive. Visit our projects page for a full list of sites and exhibits that have been built using CERES. Classroom use of CERES might take many forms, including:
  • Having students contribute exhibits (singly or in groups) to a long-term cumulative project that might persist from year to year: for example, focusing on a particular set of archival materials
  • Having students work on curating a set of archival materials relating to an existing CERES project: for instance, adding georeferencing information to enable the creation of dynamic maps
  • Having students contribute exhibits to one of the existing CERES projects that invites contributions, such as the Early Black Boston Digital Almanac
To support classroom use of CERES, DSG offers training for faculty and teaching assistants in using CERES, and can visit the class and provide instruction or lead discussion about the exhibit-building process and tools. We have an extensive set of supporting materials including step-by-step instructions, how-to guides, and sample assignments. We are also happy to work with faculty on planning out syllabi and lesson plans that make imaginative use of these digital tools, at whatever scale works best for the learning objectives of the course. We are happy to meet with anyone interested in submitting a proposal to talk about possibilities. For more information, please contact us at dsg@neu.edu. Apply here. We look forward to working with you!

Texting in the Classroom: Problem or Not?

Okay, this is a different kind of “scholarly communication” than the kind I usually write about… I’ve been seeing more information recently about students texting while in class, from innocuous chatting with friends all the way to sending information during exams. This morning, Inside Higher Ed posted a “Quick Take” report on a study conducted on in-class texting at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania: ⇒ Wilkes University Professors Examine Use of Text Messaging in the College Classroom A whopping 91% of the students surveyed responded that they have used their cell phones to text during class time! (Only 3% admitted to doing it to send information about an exam while they were taking it, though.) Professors have a wide range of responses to texting in their classrooms, from a Syracuse University professor who walked out on his class after seeing a student texting in the front row: ⇒ If You Text in Class, This Prof Will Leave (Inside Higher Ed) to this professor at Georgia State University who encourages his students to text during class…in order to send questions to him, that is: ⇒ Professor Encourages Texting In Class (NPR) Faculty, students, what do you think? Is texting during class common at Northeastern? Is it a distraction, or is it no big deal? Photo courtesy of Tommy Huynh.