Learn-STATIC: Expanding the Potential of Digital Humanities Pedagogy With Static Web Technologies (Slides)
Creators: name: Wikle, Olivia
Publisher: name: unknown
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Digital humanities
subject: Computer literacy
subject: Teaching

description: Static web technologies offer an exciting opportunity for DH instructors to incorporate transferable digital literacy skills into their classrooms, while producing low-cost, low-maintenance web projects that are sustainable even for institutions with limited resources. Because static websites are composed of flat HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, they can be hosted on a low-cost (or free!) web server, and remain secure and functional with little maintenance. These features make the technology especially convenient for classroom DH projects which undergo a period of intense semester-long development followed by minimal maintenance. Because a static web project's code and data are usually openly available via a GitHub repository and not hidden behind a user interface, instructors can use the code and data structures to introduce students to concepts of computing, web development, and data transformation. Depending on the instructor's focus, students might engage in learning to use Google Sheets, Git, GitHub, Markdown, HTML, CSS, and Liquid while creating their web project. These skill sets not only strengthen students' and instructors' control over the content they create; they also empower students to bring the same spirit of critical inquiry that they focus on humanities content to their understanding of the tools and processes they use to manipulate and share digital content.

The NEH-funded Learn-STATIC initiative aims to make static web technologies in DH pedagogy more accessible for students and instructors alike by creating a series of open-source learning sequences for using static web tools in the DH classroom. Each is complete with reusable code stored in a GitHub repository, an example lesson plan, and documentation. This presentation will introduce the learning sequences, report on their effectiveness in the classroom, and demonstrate how they accomplish the advantages of static web laid out above.
description: Static web technologies offer an exciting opportunity for DH instructors to incorporate transferable digital literacy skills into their classrooms, while producing low-cost, low-maintenance web projects that are sustainable even for institutions with limited resources. Because static websites are composed of flat HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, they can be hosted on a low-cost (or free!) web server, and remain secure and functional with little maintenance. These features make the technology especially convenient for classroom DH projects which undergo a period of intense semester-long development followed by minimal maintenance. Because a static web project's code and data are usually openly available via a GitHub repository and not hidden behind a user interface, instructors can use the code and data structures to introduce students to concepts of computing, web development, and data transformation. Depending on the instructor's focus, students might engage in learning to use Google Sheets, Git, GitHub, Markdown, HTML, CSS, and Liquid while creating their web project. These skill sets not only strengthen students' and instructors' control over the content they create; they also empower students to bring the same spirit of critical inquiry that they focus on humanities content to their understanding of the tools and processes they use to manipulate and share digital content. The NEH-funded Learn-STATIC initiative aims to make static web technologies in DH pedagogy more accessible for students and instructors alike by creating a series of open-source learning sequences for using static web tools in the DH classroom. Each is complete with reusable code stored in a GitHub repository, an example lesson plan, and documentation. This presentation will introduce the learning sequences, report on their effectiveness in the classroom, and demonstrate how they accomplish the advantages of static web laid out above.