Congratulations to the winners of the Grand Prize drawing

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Congratulations go out to the winners in last Friday’s Grand Prize drawing at the CDH Learning Lab @ Rolfe!

1st place, iPad Mini, Guzden Varinlioglu, Visiting Scholar in Architecture

Guzden Varinlioglu won the iPad mini at the CDH Grand Prize drawing

2nd place, Samsung Galaxy Player, Janine Henri, UCLA Library

Janine Henri of the UCLA Library won a Samsung Galaxy Player at the CDH Labs Grand Prize drawing

3rd place, $75 ASUCLA gift card, Kathryn Chew, UCLA graduate student

4th place, $50 ASUCLA gift card, Jeri Williams, UCLA Office of Instructional Development

CDH thanks everyone who attended the CDH Labs Grand Opening Celebration.

 

 

Celebrate the Grand Opening of the CDH Learning Lab @ Rolfe

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The CDH Learning Lab @ Rolfe is a brand new, technology-enabled presentation and collaboration space for instruction and research. It is located in Rolfe 2118. To celebrate the opening of the Lab, CDH is hosting a series of events for faculty, staff, students,  librarians and partners who may want to make use of the Learning Lab for presentations, lectures, meetings, group projects, and collaboration.

Join us throughout the week of February 11-15 to see and experience what the Learning Lab has to offer. Enjoy food and giveaways, and enter our Grand Prize drawing for a Samsung player, an iPad mini, and other great prizes.

Click here to see our exciting schedule of events.

CDH Lab Grand Opening week is Feb. 11-15

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Our brand new instructional computer lab in Rolfe Hall is just about complete, and we are planning a Grand Opening week to celebrate the space and show off its capabilities. The week will consist of daily events, some targeted to faculty, and others to students, but all showcasing the presentation and collaboration capabilities, and giving attendees the chance to try them out.

Although the events are not yet finalized, we are working on the following:

  • A FacTech “speed dating with technology” event, featuring ten tables with ten tools or devices of interest to Humanities/Digital Humanities faculty.
  • A Digital Humanities Open House for student enrolled or interested in the Digital Humanities minor, to learn about some of the projects they can be involved with, and tools they can use.
  • Dean Schaberg’s Fireside Chat on “My favorite technology”. An informal presentation and discussion by Humanities Dean Schaberg on the technologies and apps that make a difference in his life and work.
  • A presentation by Professor Chris Johanson on his “Virtual Worlds” project, with a possible chance to use simulation software to enter the project.
  • Daily give-aways to attendees, and a final grand-prize drawing for people who have attended several of the Grand Opening events during the week.
  • Food and refreshments daily

Watch this blog for more information about the Grand Opening week as plans settle. We hope you will join us!

New CDH computer lab in Rolfe accommodates 50

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CDH has opened a brand new computer lab at 2118 Rolfe Hall that can accommodate up to 46 students, each at their own workstation. We have moved from the basement of Luvalle Commons to a windowed space overlooking the courtyard between Rolfe and Campbell Halls, in the heart of Humanities activity. The new lab is designed to accommodate classes up to 50, and to facilitate both lecture and small-group collaboration around work tables for up to five students using a shared workstation or individual laptops.

Currently open for class reservations and student drop-ins daily from 9am-5pm, the Rolfe lab is still undergoing upgrades to its audio-visual setup. When it’s complete, the lab will offer:

  • A mix of PC desktops and 15-inch dual-boot Mac Powerbook laptops;
  • High-definition video projection;
  • Fully equipped multimedia podium;
  • Zoned speakers for improved sound throughout the space;
  • Zoned lighting;
  • A full suite of humanities and digital humanities software, including programs for mapping, visualization and modeling;
  • Easy access to power and data ports for BYOD (bring your own device) capability;
  • Tables of six to facilitate group and project work, all with line of sight to the instructor and screen for traditional lectures or demos;
  • Wireless microphones for the speaker and the audience.

To be added in the next year:

  • Video-conferencing for remote meetings and guest lectures;
  • Lecture capture capability;
  • An iPad cart.

If you’ve never taught in a computer-enabled classroom before, now might be the time to take a tour and schedule a tryout. If you’ve taught before in other labs, you’ll want to include the Rolfe lab in your plans for courses this fall and going forward. Need to host an event with full multimedia projection or access to computers? A small recharge is all it takes.

How to reserve the lab. Check to see if the lab is available by consulting the online lab schedule: http://www.cdh.ucla.edu/cdh-labs-calendar/month.calendar/.

You can reserve the CDH instructional computing lab in Rolfe by emailing cdhlabs@humnet.ucla.edu.

CDH Power Users: your “academic work” workshop series

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Don’t let the title of “Power User” fool you — this workshop series is for anyone who does academic work in the Humanities. Kicking off this fall and continuing throughout the academic year, the  ”CDH Power User” workshop series covers technology tools for anyone at UCLA who who teaches or does research in the Humanities.

Who: Open to anyone, but targeted to the Humanities

What:  Informal workshops (no prior knowledge assumed): http://www.cdh.ucla.edu/services/instructionaltechnology.html

Where: The Digital Hub, located within coffee-mug distance of Cafe 451 in the YRL Research Commons

When: Most Mondays and Thursdays, 12-1pm, weeks 2-9 of each quarter. Bring your lunch!

Here’s the slate of workshops for fall 2012:

  • Week 2 (October 8, repeated on October 11): Cut Your Grading Time by 75% with the New CCLE
  • Week 3 (October 15, repeated on October 18): Voice Tools for Language Instructors
  • Week 4 (October 22, repeated on October 25): Can CCLE tell me how much my students are learning?
  • Week 5 (October 29, repeated on November 1): Saving Time with the Assignment Tool
  • Week 6 (November 5, repeated on November 8): Increasing Learning with the Quiz Tool
  • Week 7 (November 14, repeated on November 15): Improving Quality with the Workshop Tool - first session changed to Wednesday due to Veteran’s Day holiday
  • Week 8: NO TALK DUE TO THANKSGIVING
  • Week 9 (November 26, repeated on November 29): Simplifying Grading with the CCLE Gradebook

Don’t see what you want? Other planned sessions include web design, 3D modeling, introductory GIS, and introductory text mining. Dates, times, and locations for these will be added to this schedule as they are settled. Or, you can always email John Lynch, CDH’s Instructional Technology Coordinator, at jlynch@humnet.ucla.edu to suggest a topic. CDH is happy to give special presentations to departments, research teams, or student groups in the Humanities. Just ask!

Confused about copyright? Help is here!

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If you’re teaching or managing online course content at UCLA, there’s a handy new resource to help you understand and work more easily with copyrighted materials. “Copyright Basics for Instructors” is a self-directed course that addresses the basics of copyright law and the use of the fair use exception. It is targeted to instructors, and is useful to anyone who shares course content online. For those who use CCLE, it also explains the new Copyright Status feature of CCLE in greater detail.

It’s easy to search and find the course in CCLE, or just follow this link: https://ccle.ucla.edu/course/view/CopyrightBasicsInstructors.

To enter the course, the enrollment key is: copyright

Prefer to talk to someone? If you would like some assistance in making copyright status determinations, librarians are available to assist. They can provide individualized consultations or give educational presentations for your department / unit. Email to request an appointment at copyright@library.ucla.edu.

Digital Humanities loaner laptops for faculty and grads

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CDH is now offering four “Digital Humanities” loaner laptops. These 15-inch dual-boot (Mac or Windows) laptops are available to faculty and graduate students specifically needing access to a portable digital mapping, visualization, and/or modeling workstation for academic research, projects, and presentations.  Some of the software packages installed include: ArcGIS Advanced, City Engine, Google Earth Pro, Sketchup Pro, Tableau, Cytoscape, and Gefi, among others.

Two of the laptops are available to borrow for any period from two hours (e.g. for a class or meeting) up to a maximum of two weeks (e.g. for use while attending a conference, or working on a project locally). The other two laptops are available to be checked out for up to one UCLA quarter (e.g. for use while doing field research).  These loaner laptops are not available for renewal.

To reserve one of these Digital Humanities loaner laptops, please e-mail cdhlabs@humnet.ucla.edu.  Please include your name, departmental affiliation, requested time period, and a brief description of your planned usage of the laptop.

If you have any questions, please email Michael Samojlik at msamojlik@humnet.ucla.edu.

Are you coding me? Hackathon in YRL

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If you have a project idea, we have set aside a full day to bring it to life!

On August 30th in the Research Commons of Young Research Library, a team of programmers, designers and metadata experts will be assembled to bring your idea to life.  We are looking for ideas that can be realized in a few hours.  We will bring developers who are experts in web development and mobile application development as well as design experts and content experts to help you rapidly develop your project into something you can use.  We are looking for about 6 concepts to hack upon.  If you are interested please send an email with your idea and any technologies or programs you anticipate needing (i.e. APIs).  Your challenge: meld the physical and digital content and network community into a tight concept.  Our challenge: code it.

This is an experiment in lean project development.  We need small projects and a few visionaries.  We will choose projects that the development team thinks can be completed in a few hours.  You are encouraged to BYOH (Bring Your Own Hacker) to the team.  Someone who knows you and what you are trying to accomplish.

What: A collection of coders and content experts to bring your concept to life.

Where: YRL Research Commons

When: August 30th from 9:00 until 5:00.  Please email your idea by the 17th of August.

How: Send an email to Todd Grappone (grappone@library.ucla.edu), Associate University Librarian, with your idea and relevant technology.

Selected projects will be announced by August 24th. Projects will be built by August 30th!

For questions or more information, contact Todd Grappone or Annelie Rugg (annelie@humnet.ucla.edu), Director of the Center for Digital Humanities.

Moodle 2 information sessions coming up

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Summer is a good time to brush up on using CCLE, especially with this summer’s upgrade to Moodle 2. In addition to learning from CCLE’s online Help and Moodle 2 documentation mentioned in my earlier blog post, you are invited to attend upcoming Moodle 2 information sessions, which are offered on campus, or via webinar (using Elluminate).

CDH will be conducting two info sessions in August and two in September (during Zero Week), each lasting about 45 minutes with time for questions throughout:

  • Tuesday, August 7, from 1PM to 2PM in Public Affairs 1023
  • Wednesday, August 8, from 1PM to 2PM, conducted online via Elluminate
  • Monday, September 24, from 12PM to 1PM, conducted online via Elluminate
  • Thursday, September 27, from 10AM to 11AM in Public Affairs 1023

Important: Please RSVP to John Lynch, Instructional Technology Coordinator (jlynch@humnet.ucla.edu). In reply to your RSVP, John will send you instructions for connecting to the Elluminate webinar.

One-on-one appointments are also available!

You can always contact your ITC (Instructional Technology Consultant) directly to learn more about the new system and to schedule your own private training session.  You can find your ITC’s contact info at http://www.cdh.ucla.edu/people/staff/501-itc-contact-sheet-and-schedule-information.html. And, as always, drop-in ITC help is available Monday-Friday in the ITC Lab, located in 1041 Public Affairs Building. Drop-in hours are posted here: http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/itc/schedules/allsched.html

Questions? Comments? Suggestions on how best offer the help you need? Contact John Lynch (jlynch@humnet.ucla.edu) to share your ideas via email or in person.

Digital Humanities highlights from the 2012 annual conference in Hamburg

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Here’s a gem of a list for those of us who want to keep abreast of what is happening in digital humanities. UCLA’s own Dr. Miriam Posner (Digital Humanities and Research Technology Coordinator) shares a few of her observations about the annual conference on digital humanities, held July 16-22, 2012 in Hamburg, Germany. Feel free to contact Miriam (mposner@humnet.ucla.edu), who is happy to meet and chat in person about any of this.

  • My notes (which are of course selective)
  • The program, which includes lengthy abstracts for each presentation as well as video recordings of most of them
  • As is usual for this conference, tech-heavy papers on literature and linguistics tended to outnumber theoretical or historical work.
  • Topic modeling was a popular topic of discussion, with a panel devoted to it and a number of papers on the subject
  • Oddly, there wasn’t a ton of GIS work, though there was one panel on the topic (number LP15)
  • Neatline made a big splash with its unveiling — lots of complimentary remarks
  • Amy Earhart gave what may have been my favorite presentation of the conference, with a talk on the need to preserve early activist recovery projects
  • I was very sorry I missed Marc Alexander’s presentation on visualizing the history of the English language, which won the Fortier prize as well as a lot of buzz.
  • Training institutes: the Alliance for Digital Humanities Organizations is focusing on fostering a network of institutes for digital humanities training, along the lines of the Digital Humanities Summer Institute and the new Digital Humanities Winter Institute. This could well be an area of opportunity for UCLA. There was also some talk about creating distance-learning opportunities.
  • ADHO is also pushing for a more coherent network of DH centers, spearheaded by centerNet, which will soon be a fee-based membership organization.
  • ADHO is growing, too, with the addition of the Australasian Association for Digital Humanities and the brand-new Digital Humanities Deutschland.
  • FairCite, an initiative to promote proper credit for project collaborators, got some play
  • Pund.it, a “novel semantic annotation tool,” also a got a lot of buzz
  • Adam Crymble unveiled the Programming Historian 2 (self-plug), for which I’m community manager. It’s a set of resources designed to teach programming to scholars.