A Year of Cool Digital Projects: Digital Competencies May/Summer '18 Newsletter
Bryn Mawr College's Digital Competencies Program helps students build the digital skills and critical perspectives on technology needed for success in the digital age.
We can hardly believe it, but it's been a whole academic year since we went live with the Digital Competencies website and began expanding our programming. From the whole planning committee, thank you for a great 2017-2018!
And what an exciting year it's been! Here are a few highlights of the different ways Bryn Mawr students, faculty, and staff have developed their digital skills and critical perspectives on technology this year:
Student Critical Making
Students in the AR/VR Praxis course developed their critical understanding of emerging technology, building apps for the Microsoft HoloLens and Google Cardboard from scratch. Meanwhile, over in Digital Scholarship, students fused technology and archival work in collaborative projects such as the data visualization of the College Women archive and a 3D model of historic Dalton Hall (part of the ongoing History of Women in Science Project).
What's Next: This summer, Bryn Mawr Digital Scholarship will be welcoming students from many Pennsylvania Consortium for Liberal Arts (PCLA) colleges for a summertime meetup and a chance to share projects and techniques.
Faculty Development and Curricular Integrations
This year, LITS offered Digital Bryn Mawr Seed Grants to faculty, staff, and grad students across the college to support digital teaching, learning, and research activities—broadly construed. (If you're interested, there are rolling deadlines throughout the fall and spring semesters.) Meanwhile, LITS's information literacy program is bringing improved research skills to students in more courses than ever, including the first year Thrive program. On our blog, Alex Pfundt talks about why information literacy is important, and the ways LITS can partner with faculty to help develop student skills.
What's Next: One of the best opportunities to learn about cutting-edge digital pedagogy innovations from across the U.S. happens every May right at Bryn Mawr College! The annual Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts Conference, now in its seventh year, will be held May 23-24 here on campus. This year's keynote speaker is Randy Bass, Vice Provost for Education and a Professor of English at Georgetown University. Learn more and register. (Registration is free for the Tri-Co community.)
LILAC
LILAC, or the Bryn Mawr Leadership, Innovation, and Liberal Arts Center, is a key partner in the Digital Competencies Initiative. This year, we worked with our LILAC colleagues on a weekend Data Intensive course, training for student career tutors, and other projects giving students opportunities to practice articulating their digital competencies.
What's next: Students can expect to see continued collaborations, particularly around LILAC's career readiness competencies, and in the summer funding orientation materials.
Public and Alumnae/i Outreach
From our presentations across the U.S. to President Kim Cassidy and Gina Siesing's article on "Solving the Work Force's Skills Gap" in Inside Higher Ed, we've been getting the word out about everything that's happening with the Digital Competencies at Bryn Mawr College. Particular highlights for us were sharing our model with other colleges and helping them imagine how the models might be adapted to their own institutions (read our CIO Gina Siesing's reflections on the Davidson College Think Tank). It was also a particular joy to share our progress with alumnae/i via webinar, leading us to connect to one of the first alums to have had a digital learning experience at Bryn Mawr (in the 1960s!).
What's Next: We'll continue the fantastic conversations we started this year; up next, we'll be presenting at the upcoming Transformative Teaching and Technology Conference.
Students-Built Audiovisual Materials
New graphics, videos, and even our T-shirt design contest were a chance for students to reflect on their digital use and gain skills, while also creating the look and feel of the Digital Competencies Initiative.
What's Next: This summer for the first time, LITS is hosting two full-time audiovisual production interns. They'll be helping with various campus projects while building their audiovisual production and analysis digital competency.
Information Security
Bryn Mawr built its information security intelligence this year with new or expanded programming, including the InfoSec Program and File Fitness Month.
What's Next: This summer, for the first time, LITS will have two InfoSec interns, who will be charged with finding new ways of bringing best practices to the undergraduate community.
Building Student Resources
We've expanded our website with student-curated resources for the different competencies, including a brand-new guide, written by Leslie Goloh ('19), on Project Management for Mawrters.
What's Next: This summer, our digital curriculum interns will be working on more self-service resources to make it easier for students and faculty to experience digital competencies programming on their own time.
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We can't wait to see what the next year brings. If you have any ideas for the future of the initiative or want to get involved, you can always email us at digicomp@brynmawr.edu or check out our website at brynmawr.edu/digitalcompetencies.
The digital competencies newsletter is going on hiatus until next fall--enjoy your summers!
Upcoming Events
- Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts Conference
All Day Event May 23, 2018 - Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts Conference
All Day Event May 24, 2018 - Digital Scholarship Summer Meetup
All Day Event July 13, 2018
Questions? Comments? Want to get involved? Email us at digicomp@brynmawr.edu.