If you are like me there are some TED talks on your ‘to watch’ list that you never get around to watching.  Let’s choose a few to watch and then have a group discussion after each one.

We watched the following video’s:

The price of shame | Monica Lewinsky

and

The library is not a place, it’s a concept. | Bill Ptacek | TEDxCalgary

In my travels I seem to discover cool, interesting little tips (and sometimes they show up a couple of times in different places). This could be anything…..academic, Microsoft office short cut, cooking recipe, etc.  Let’s share these with each other.

I’m attaching the quickie powerpoint I created for the session, including tips from the group.

Tips and Tricks (Life Hacks)

HistoryForge is an open-source program being developed by The History Center in Tompkins County that combines historic maps, data from the US Census, archival and user-generated content to allow users to engage with local history in unique ways.

thehistorycenter.net/historyforge

thehistorycenter.net/historyforge/about-historyforge

We propose a workshop in which we will lead participants in an exploration of the program and its capabilities as well as what it takes to create an engaging digital public history project

Some of the topics we can discuss include:

Building the HistoryForge database:

-Fun with the census!  Transcribing and standardizing census data

-Playing with historic maps! Geo-rectifying historic maps and/or using maps to verify census data

Using HistoryForge:

-Scavenger hunt! Searching and finding historic data on HistoryForge

-More fun with maps! See the results of your search visually displayed on map layers

Please come with questions and ideas!

In this session we will discuss approaches to teaching algorithmic principles in first year classrooms (and beyond). In the first part of this session, we will engage with 2-3 short activities that can be used to spur discussion with students about the “hidden” ways algorithms influence our encounters with information and our approaches to decision-making. The second part of this session is dedicated to discussing and brainstorming additional activities to bring into our respective classrooms.

Participants will leave this session with at least 3 ideas of activities they can use to start discussions with students in their classroom, but may potentially brainstorm many more with their co-participants.

On this session, we will look at several examples of creative interactive (mostly-text-based) writing platforms. We will play a few examples, talk about applications, and explore the backend interfaces of tools like Tiny Choice & Twine, considering pedagogical and creative endeavors to undertake with each.

Participants will leave the session with the beginnings of a small, playable game written in Tiny Choice that can serve as a basis or model for future projects.