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.
This month, we're delighted to present our brand-new digital competencies video, created by students and featuring our interns from last summer, as well as Jenny Spohrer, Director of Educational Technology. Enjoy!
In honor of all of this student-created work, our April Competency of the Month is 5.4 Digital Research and Scholarship.
There are two big opportunities this month to learn more about digital research at Bryn Mawr College.
At our April 3 Tech Talk: Building a Course with Emerging Technologies, you'll hear about the Praxis course "Exploring Museum Applications of Augmented and Virtual Reality." Students in this course use cutting-edge AR/VR tools to design their own exhibits, installations, or apps. You'll hear the rationale behind building a project-based course around such new, emerging technologies, and how the course ties in to social justice. This Tech Talk may be of extra interest to anyone designing an experiential learning course, particularly faculty, staff, and grad students considering submitting an application for a LITS Digital Bryn Mawr Seed Grant (deadline April 15).
Our April 23 Tech Talk: Using 3D Technology to Interrogate the History of Women in Science looks at a new project coming from Bryn Mawr College Digital Scholarship that seeks not only to document the vibrant history of early Bryn Mawr graduates who went on to pursue science careers, but to reconstruct their daily experiences in scientific spaces through the use of 3D technology. The project team also hopes to evaluate the various ways 3D technology, particularly Unity 3D, can be used in teaching and learning. A panel of undergraduates, Mimi Benkoussa, Courtney Dalton, Jocelyn Dunkley, and Linda Zhu, will share their experiences and insights from working on the HoWiS Project.
They'll also be sharing this work publicly on April 10, 12-1pm at the American Philosophical Society Library! To learn more about the project, see Jocelyn Dunkley's blog post, "Transforming the Historical into Digital: Digital Scholarship."
Featured Partnership: Bryn Mawr College Digital Scholarship Program
Graduate students, you won't want to miss the April 17 meeting of the Graduate Community of Learning, which will cover Mapping/Spatial Analysis!
Last Month in the Digital Competencies: Women and Tech Skills
Much of our programming last month looked at technology and gender. In our presentation at the Bryn Mawr College Community Day of Learning, we offered a workshop on "Confronting the Confidence Gap: Women and Tech Skills." In this workshop, we considered some of the research around the so-called "confidence gap" in tech fields, systemic causes of women being underrepresented in tech, and what we could do about it. Participants completed a digital competencies exercise and left with a story about their technical ability ready to be shared on resumes, cover letters, or job interviews. You can download our workshop materials and slides. This turned out to be a particularly timely conversation--only a few days later, the Harvard Business Review released an article on the question, "Is the Confidence Gap Between Women and Men a Myth?" (Short answer: It is and it isn't.)
We're also very excited to present an interview with Marion Naar ('63), one of the earliest alumna to have a digital learning experience at Bryn Mawr. As one of only a handful of math majors in the early 1960s, she taught herself to program (with punchcards!) to work on a chemistry project. She offers advice and tips from a long career in technology. Her interview spans topics ranging from modern information design to work-life balance. Read the full interview here.
Last month, students also had the opportunity to do hands-on building of their own tech skills at the March 28 "Programming and Physical Computing for Beginners" workshop. This workshop taught attendees to write a simple program using Adafruit circuits, which have been used by museum professionals, the fashion industry, and in many other interdisciplinary/practical venues. The workshop was designed for individuals with little to no coding background to serve as a creative introduction to coding in a welcoming space.
Upcoming Events
- Tech Talk: Building a Course with Emerging Technologies
4:00pm - 5:00pm April 3, 2018 - R Community of Learning
1:00pm - 2:00pm April 6, 2018 - LITS Digital Bryn Mawr Seed Grant Funding Deadline
All Day Event April 15, 2018 - R Community of Learning
1:00pm - 2:00pm April 20, 2018 - Tech Talk: Using 3D Technology to Interrogate the History of Women in Science
4:00pm - 5:00pm April 24, 2018
Questions? Comments? Want to get involved? Email us at digicomp@brynmawr.edu.