In the beginning... #1

The first few weeks have flown by at Barnard. I already feel at home in this warm, friendly environment. I'm inspired by the highly-motivated, incredibly-talented women of the DHC, and greatly appreciate the opportunity to learn from all of them.

On January 24th, the DHC hosted a "syllabus Hackathon" for faculty to learn how to incorporate the "Thinking Digitally" general education requirement into their syllabi. This full day workshop provided digital tool demonstrations, lessons on learning goals and outcomes, and group discussions on digital privacy and accessibility. In the afternoon, the faculty were given the chance to put their newly acquired digi-knowledge to the test in two 45-minute technology tutorials (out of five). I chose to participate in Twine and Data-cleaning.

Twine is a web-based tool that instructors can use to visualize a text and organize into non-linear storytelling format. We were told to chose an open-sourced fairytale on achives.org and to identify "scenes" as if we were writing a movie script. Each "scene" was then typed into boxes on Twine, and we made paths/links between each scene. Once we published, the user becomes the character, making choices as to what happens next in the story.

The computer science specialist presented best practices for clean data entry, using Google spreadsheets. We analyzed a current faculty member's digital humanities project on documenting slaves in the south. Looking at the data, we learned that each cell needed a value (even if there is no value, there should be a 0 or 'null'). When it comes to working with sort-able material, we should be consistent with descriptors and use minimal text (and '_' between multiple words).

A busy day, but an excellent learning experience for all. The faculty were very pleased with the outcome. Upon reflection, the faculty requested future workshops for faculty and students on data privacy and online security. The College is concerned about how students present themselves on the web, as well as how companies are using our students data, when faculty give permission to use a new resource in the classroom. I suggested that the DHC should consider preparing an online web-training for new students to complete in their first-year seminars. The DHC team loved the idea and are looking into this for the future.

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Conceptualizing the Virtual Reality Project

This week I met with Miriam to narrow my VR project idea to something more manageable. It began as a project where the user can walk the Versailles galleries and gardens, and literally step into a painting to experience it in the 4th dimension. Miriam is an excellent listener and was able to provide constructive criticism to focus on one, small idea and when I finish that, I can always add on to it. She also pointed me towards the 3D examples completed by the museums at Versailles and Google. We discussed the learning goals of the users and what the students would take away from the experience. As a future ed-technologist, I want this project to be a template for the classroom. And as because of my art history instructor background, I want students to combine the research and the design.

What I have imagined is a 3D model/VR template, where students learn how to replicate actual 3D museum objects in Blender or Unity, and then how to attach text/video/link annotations to hot points on to the 3D model. The instructor can upload an existing 360 video, and the student's 3D model will then be uploaded into the VR environment, where the class can experience how these were functioned in the historical context.

In order to complete a working prototype by the end of the semester, I have proposed to produce one room in the Versailles VR environment template that can be ‘walked around in’ using the HTC Vive headset. I will use the open-source British Museum 3D models from Sketchfab and Unity to modify these objects to resemble actual historic objects from the Versailles collection. Last, I will upload these objects into the room and allow users to pick up the 3d object, and to click on the annotations to learn more about the object. It will provide VR users in NYC the ability to investigate a historical object currently located in Paris.