It’s hard to keep on top of the latest technologies and tools for digital humanists, and knowing how to use those tools effectively is an entirely different matter. The Humanities and Technology Podcast, fondly known as THAT Podcast by Jeremy Boggs and myself is a new endeavor to meet those needs. Offering both a video and an audio version, we lead our viewers through the new and challenging obstacles of digital tools.
The inaugural episode of our monthy podcast features an interview with Matt Mullenweg, the inventor of WordPress and a screencast of ScholarPress Courseware, the educational WordPress plugin to manage a class blog and course information. Each episode will follow a similar format, focusing on both an interview and related teaching screencast that leads viewers through the process of using digital tools. The editing in this is a little rough at times, but as our first effort podcasting I’m happy with what we’ve come up with.
Jeremy Boggs and I have officially launched ScholarPress, a hub for educational WordPress plugins. It currently features two plugins, including Courseware and WPBook. Check them out. We’re exploring a Gradebook plugin, and would love feedback on either what we currently have, or plugins that would help you out.
Courseware enables you to manage a class with a WordPress blog, including a schedule, bibliography, assignments, and other course information. Jeremy developed Courseware the summer of 2006 with Josh Greenberg, who is now the Director of Digital Strategy and Scholarship at the New York Public Library. Since then, Courseware has been tested and used by several professors at GMU – finally being publicly released with the combined effort of Jeremy and I to clean up some of the code.
WPBook works with the Facebook Development platform to create a Facebook Application (addable by users within the site) using a WordPress blog. I’ve created my own Facebook Application for Finding America.
It’s possible to use these together, as Jeremy has done for his History 120 class.
