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Iterative Pedagogy

Iterative Pedagogy. Adam Crymble a.crymble@herts.ac.uk Digital History Research Centre University of Hertfordshire. Case 1: Starting where last year left off Case 2: ‘Adding value’ for an audience. What History Students Do. Work with old stuff. What can it teach us about dead people?

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Iterative Pedagogy

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  1. Iterative Pedagogy Adam Crymble a.crymble@herts.ac.uk Digital History Research Centre University of Hertfordshire • Case 1: Starting where last year left off • Case 2: ‘Adding value’ for an audience

  2. What History Students Do • Work with old stuff. • What can it teach us about dead people? • Arrive thinking the answer is always in a quote. • We want them to analyze.

  3. Typical History Assignment • Answer the same essay question as the students have answered for the past decade. • Why? • Scarcity of resources

  4. A Sea-Change: The Internet • Internet & Digitisation • now have an abundance • New opportunity to build rather than repeat.

  5. Adam Crymble - @adam_crymble Case 1: Starting where last year left off Essay question: Were people of African descent integrated into London life in the 1700s? • History of Britain and Africa (1750-2000) • Level 4 survey. • Thinking about relationships

  6. Adam Crymble - @adam_crymble Black Experience in 18thc. London Text-rich descriptions of crimes (but lots of details also on what people were like)

  7. Adam Crymble - @adam_crymble Year 1: Find 50 relevant entries Needles in Haystacks: ‘the black dog’, ‘the Black Boy public house’.

  8. Adam Crymble - @adam_crymble Result of Year 1 • Build students’ advanced searching skills. • 517 trial accounts out of 100,000+ contain references to people of African descent. • Students then wrote essay using these sources.

  9. Adam Crymble - @adam_crymble Year 2 • Students given list of 517 trial accounts containing references to people of African descent (running start). • Given 20 each to read carefully to identify anything ‘interesting’. Results shared with whole class • Dataset is being iteratively improved, results always shared.

  10. Adam Crymble - @adam_crymble Outcomes • Year 0: random keyword searching • Year 1: relevant records identified • Year 2: most interesting cases identified • …year 3, 4, 5… • Thousands of hours of work, shared.

  11. Adam Crymble - @adam_crymble Case 2: Designing for an audience • Digital History Workshop • Level 6 module. • Purpose is to learn to build digital resources for other historians. • Facilitating rather than doing research. • Very public facing.

  12. Adam Crymble - @adam_crymble The Historical Source Alumni Oxonienses, British History Online • Mini-biographies of 60,000 Oxford students, 1500-1714. • Students challenged to make them better…

  13. Adam Crymble - @adam_crymble The Task • Extracted from original record • Date of studies • County of origin • Name of colleges attended • Added from external source • Population of county at time of admission • Definition of degree studied for • Calculated • Year born (using age and date of admission)

  14. Adam Crymble - @adam_crymble Outcome Year 1 • Students produce professional, public-facing resource for colleagues. • Forced to consider needs of audience. • ‘Published’ online, with citation guide to ensure students receive credit.

  15. Adam Crymble - @adam_crymble Year 2: Using the new resource • Intro to Digital History • Level 5 module. • Analysis-based research • Includes digital mapping of historical data. • Research focus.

  16. Adam Crymble - @adam_crymble Year 2: Mapping and Interpreting • Given dataset and taught to build digital map • Told data was built by students. • Challenged to interpret patterns of student recruitment. • Not possible without the ‘added value’ from previous cohort.

  17. Adam Crymble - @adam_crymble Mapping Results 1649-59 1660-75 Origin of students who attended Lincoln College Maps by David Eddy

  18. Adam Crymble - @adam_crymble Student Conclusions Students able to challenge conventional historical interpretation with this new evidence (Potentially publishable new research findings!) 1660-75 Maps by David Eddy

  19. Adam Crymble - @adam_crymble Benefits: • Students see themselves as ‘real’ historians • (beyond private work for tutor). • They are making new discoveries • (more interesting to read). • Plagiarism more difficult • (can’t ask friends for essays). Challenges: • Can I publish on the research findings? • (ethics of student effort). • Can I force students to contribute to collective endeavours? • (ethics of student work).

  20. Iterative Pedagogy Adam Crymble a.crymble@herts.ac.uk Digital History Research Centre University of Hertfordshire • Case 1: Starting where last year left off • Case 2: ‘Adding value’ for an audience

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