April 28, 2024

Council Based at UNC Asheville Gets $540,000 Grant (Asheville Citizen-Times.com)

McClurken to Co-Chair AHA Digital History Working Group

Jeffrey McClurken, professor of history and American studies and special assistant to the provost, has been named as Co-Chair of the American Historical Association’s newly created Digital History Working Group.  The group, created to help history departments and faculty navigate the tenure and promotion process with regard to digital scholarship, “will be available to advise departments considering these issues, help them define their own guidelines, and recommend external reviewers.”  In addition, the group “will also develop materials to provide further guidance for departments, such as…a curated gallery of ongoing digital scholarship so that historians can learn directly from one another as they conceive, build, and interpret new forms of scholarship.” For more detail, including the rest of the Working Group and the AHA’s new guidelines on Evaluating Digital Projects, see here.

 

Buchanan ’15 and Macnab ’15 Take Part in Century America Digital Humanities Project (University of Minnesota Morris)

McClurken Presents Digital Humanities Workshop and Plenary at Kansas State

Jeffrey McClurken, Professor of History and American Studies and Special Assistant to the Provost, presented at the Kansas State Digital Humanities Symposium, “Exploring the Digital Medium,” on Feb. 27-28.

On Feb. 27 he led a workshop, “Integrating Digital Humanities in Pedagogy: Choosing Courses, Learning Objectives and Tools,” and on Feb. 28, he presented the opening plenary, “Claiming One Future for Digital Humanities: Undergraduate Learning, Creation, & Ownership.”

UMW Represented at State Technology Conference

The University of Mary Washington was represented at the 2015 Association of Collegiate Computing Services of Virginia, an annual conference of technologists at higher education institutions around the state.

Lisa Ames, LMS Admin-eLearning Specialist from the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies, co-chaired the Networked Learning Collaborative of Virginia group meeting. The group focused on advancing academic mission and learning technology activities.

Edward Gray, Systems Integration and Support Specialist from IT Support Services, presented “Remote Assistance: a Discussion” on remote assistance tools, usage, policies, and procedures. He also presented “Measuring Success: an Introduction to Metrics,” as an overview to what metrics are and how to tie them to organizational success.

Jeff McClurken, Professor of History and American Studies and Special Assistant to the Provost for Technology and Teaching Innovation, and Jerry Slezak, Director of IT Support Services, presented “A Convergence of Ideas and Technology,” as a story of UMW’s Information Technology Convergence Center.

Ray Usler, Director of IT Security and Information Security Officer, presented “NO, NO Not the Security Guy!” on the role of the IT Security Office and why everyone should be concerned with security.

Pam Lowery, Director of Technology Professional Development and HR Analyst, serves as chair of the ACCS Board of Directors.

Also attending the conference were Acting CIO Hall Cheshire, and Associate Director for Enterprise Application Services Ben Kjar, both from the Department of Information Technologies.

McClurken Presents on Digital Initiatives

AAC&U

At the 100th Annual Conference of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, Jeffrey McClurken, Professor of History and American Studies and Special Assistant to the Provost for Teaching, Technology, and Innovation, co-presented as part of a panel entitled, Century America: A Multi-Campus Digital History Collaboration.  McClurken presented with Leah Tams ‘14, Professor Ellen Pearson of UNC-Asheville, and Jennifer Marks, a senior at Truman State University on Century America, an online course sponsored by COPLAC and the Teagle Foundation for 13 students from nine schools that resulted in a public digital history project about local communities during the Great War and Influenza Epidemic. See more about Fredericksburg and the other communities at Http://centuryamerica.org/

EduCon

Two days later, McClurken co-led a discussion about students and digital identity at EduCon 2.7, a conference about technology, education, and project-based learning. McClurken talked about the opportunities that UMWBlogs and Domain of One’s Own creates for students at UMW to create, refine, reflect, and expand on their presence in the digital world as students, as learners, as scholars, and as graduates. He partnered with teachers and edtech leaders from K to 12 in this conversation.

McClurken Presents at AHA National Conference

2015 AHA Conference

2015 AHA Conference

At the Annual American Historical Association Conference, Jeffrey McClurken, Professor of History and American Studies and Special Assistant to the Provost for Teaching, Technology, and Innovation, presented in a number of venues.  He ran a two-hour workshop on “Advanced Digital History Pedagogy” at the Getting Started in Digital History session.  He presented “Student Historians and a Domain of One’s Own” in the Digital History Pedagogy session.  He co-organized a Digital Drop-In Session where anyone could come by and ask experts in digital humanities questions about a new or ongoing projects.  McClurken also was asked to comment with other current and former department chairs on a draft statement from the AHA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Professional Evaluation of Digital Scholarship.  He ended the conference by leading sessions at THATCamp AHA–an unconference exploring the intersection of humanities and technology–on the future of THATCamp and on teaching digital history to undergraduates.

UMW History Professor Featured on With Good Reason

University of Mary Washington Professor of History Jeffrey McClurken will be featured on the “With Good Reason” public radio program, December 13-19. The show, “Give War and Peace a Chance,” will consider how history is captured in anticipation of the 150th anniversary of the first publication of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” McClurken will discuss how, despite the way that historical movies are often inaccurate, history can be learned from the way the stories are told. The program also will feature commentary from a faculty member at the University of Virginia. “With Good Reason” is a program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. The show airs weekly in Fredericksburg on Sundays from 1-2 p.m. on Radio IQ 88.3 Digital. To listen from outside of the Fredericksburg area, a complete list of air times and links to corresponding radio stations can be found at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/when-to-listen.  Audio files of the full program and its companion news feature are available online at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/2014/12/give-war-and-peace-a-chance/. McClurken, who joined the UMW faculty in 2001, has been instrumental to the university’s digital history efforts and has been on the forefront of incorporating technology in the classroom. Currently the special assistant to the provost for teaching, technology and innovation, McClurken previously served as chairperson of the history and American studies department. McClurken is recipient of a prestigious 2014 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia, the commonwealth’s highest honor for faculty at Virginia’s public and private colleges and universities. He has presented numerous lectures and presentations across the country on teaching with social media, digital history and 19th-century American social and cultural history. His 2009 book “Take Care of the Living: Reconstructing Confederate Veteran Families in Virginia” examines the long-term consequences of the Civil War for veterans and their families in Southside Virginia. Named to the Princeton Review’s inaugural list of “300 Best Professors,” McClurken received the Mary Washington Young Alumnus Award in 2003 and the J. Christopher Bill Outstanding Faculty Service Award in 2012. A 1994 graduate of Mary Washington, McClurken received a master’s degree and doctorate from Johns Hopkins University.  

McClurken Featured on With Good Reason

An encore presentation from the University of Mary Washington’s Open and Digital Resource Conference, moderated by Jeffrey McClurken, professor of History and American Studies, aired on the “With Good Reason” public radio program from Nov. 29 to Dec. 5.

Audio files of the full program and its companion news feature are available at  http://withgoodreasonradio.org/2014/11/the-future-of-higher-education-2/

 

UMW Dedicates Technology Convergence Center

The University of Mary Washington formally dedicated its Information and Technology Convergence Center with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 18. New ITCCThe four-story center, adjacent to Simpson Library and straddling Campus Walk, opened to students in August. The 77,000 square-foot structure features open, flexible classrooms and collaboration spaces, communal furniture and multiple student work centers. “Yes, it is a technology-enabled building that supports our digital spaces, but it does so to further enhance personal connections,” said Jeffrey W. McClurken, special assistant to the provost for technology, teaching, and innovation. “These form the center of knowledge creation and are at the core of the deeply collaborative experience of learning.” “It is also a manifestation of UMW’s leadership in the field of digitally enabled creativity,” added McClurken, who oversees the Convergence Center. Information and Technology Convergence Center The center features a digital auditorium, a digital gallery, a data center, audio/video production spaces and the new Digital Knowledge Center. Also, the university’s Speaking and Writing centers, the Division of Information and Technologies, and the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies have relocated to the building. Calling the building a “game changer,” Board of Visitors Rector Holly T. Cuellar said she’s delighted to see the Convergence Center full of students and buzzing with activity. “Not only will this space enhance the experience of UMW students, it will grab the attention of prospective students in unprecedented ways,” Cuellar said.  “With access to technological innovations like the ones offered in this building, our students will be well-prepared for any type of career and will become skilled, adaptable producers and consumers of digital resources.” The $40 million building is designed for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver certification requirements, meaning the building meets stringent requirements for green design, construction and operations.