Routledge, 4 Apr 2014

This book acts as a review of research by leading digital literacy scholars from around the world, and is as up to date as possible with new technology (as of 2014). The authors intend this book to be used as a reference guide, directing readers to the central issues in a cross disciplinary context, with explanations of theoretical themes throughout; it is indexed as so, to best facilitate this handbook goal. The book is primarily aimed at scholars from the following fields: ICT, library and media studies, cognitive science, educational studies (in all its forms), and linguistics. However, the authors do state their hope that graduate students in all disciplines will also find this text a help during their studies, and to this end the final section of the book contains commentary by top scholars on a selection of relevant studies. These aptly show the merit of multiple interpretations of research and the various uses that outcomes could be put to; ergo this could also be of use to administrators, course directors and institution policy makers. The book is split into six sections as follows: (1) “Methodologies” – looking at current research on new literacies in an extensive variety of areas. (2) “Knowledge and Inquiry” - where several varying perspectives are examined on how it could be best to fulfil the potential of new media in regards to knowledge acquisition. (3) “Communication” - where the latest (as of 2014) research on new communication media is examined e.g. social networking tools. The roles of language and gender are also examined in this section. (4) “Popular Culture, Community and Citizenship: Everyday Literacies” - looks at research in online worlds such as gaming and fanfiction, as well as the issues surrounding the role of digital citizenship. This section also looks at collaborative work and projects. (5) “Instructional Practices and Assessment” – looks at classroom teaching and assessment in a new literacy context from early years education through to HE. (6) This is the section that sees the reprints of articles with critical evaluation and commentary. As a large and detailed handbook, this publication is highly effective. It would be a great reference text for anyone interested in the integration of digital literacy into many aspects of research, teaching, or even day to day life.

JiTP: The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy. 4(2013). With Valerie Cruz, Dylan Grozdanich, Randy Holaday, Amanda Kolstad, Alexander James Papoulias, Ilyssa Russ, Genevieve Sanvictores, Erik White

This article is an extensively detailed picture of the work done on BeardStair: a project conducted by several MA students at a large public US university. It also provides a reflective history of the wider DH and the role that such projects can play in HE teaching. The research agenda of the project was to produce a scholarly digital edition of several rare books which had been anonymously donated to the San Jose State University Library. Those involved in the project believe that it yielded “unique implications for administrators, faculty, and students who are interested in building DH projects and fostering collaborative digital pedagogies”. The majority of this article is a narrative account of the foundation, initiation and continuation of the BeardStair project. This includes the difficulties that occurred with funding (including Kickstarter), development of legitimacy (defining what they were attempted to do and why it was important), retention of participants, and issues over proving accuracy. This account of the project is illustrated with screen grabs and digital images. These images enable a visualisation of the progression of the project from the initial discovery of the texts, through the ‘brainstorming on a whiteboard’ phase, to the development of a user interface on the webpage and final publication, so that others can share in the projects findings. The article concludes with a summary of what the students who participated in the project gained through their involvement. Not only in terms of DH skills, but also in the intricacies of project management and collaboration. These skills are transferable outside of academic, and demonstrated the intrinsic value of such projects to students.

Dept. of Slavic Languages and Literatures. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. (Autumn/Fall 2015)

A course to be run in the first term of the 2015-2016 year at the University of Pittsburgh; open to both UG and PG students. Course requirements include regular (preferably 100%) attendance due to the nature of the digital skills building learning schedule. Participation on the course blog site, discussion boards and completion of the tests/quizzes is required by all students taking the course. The course use designed specifically to give students the knowledge and skills involved in quantitative and formal reasoning with the context of the interests and needs of students studying and working in the humanities. There is no prerequisite at this time (Summer 2015) for programming knowledge. The am of the course is to use digital tools and techniques to “identify interesting humanities research questions’. The assignments for the course are the required readings, programming ‘challenges’ or ‘problems’, response papers and a large research project (conducting in collaboration). The module site goes into detail about how these will be organised and assessed, with qualitative indicators of the level expected. The weight of each requirement is as follows: 25% homework assignments, 15% taken from the six best test scores, 10% midterm ‘take home’ exam, and 50% on the final research project During the course XML will be taught along with several meta languages (W3C Scheme, Relax NG and DTD). The formal course outcomes are described as follows: “upon successful completion of this course students will be able to 1) identify opportunities for the application of computer technology to authentic research problems in the humanities; 2) analyse the structure of texts in the humanities and develop formal representations of those structures; and 3) write original computer programs to conduct research on those texts.”