The College of Arts and Humanities, the Center for Renaissance and Baroque
Studies, and the Center for Humanities Applications in New Technologies
(CHANT) at the University of Maryland at College Park are issuing a call for
contributions to an interdisciplinary conference entitled, "Attending to
Technology: Directions for Humanities Teaching and Research." A preliminary
program is attached.
The conference is planned for November 7-9, 1996 on the College Park campus
for an audience of university and K-12 faculty and students and the interested
public.
Strategically placed to sponsor such a conference, the University of
Maryland at College Park is in the vanguard of human interface research and
implementation, and has an impressive record of faculty, technical staff,
and administrative collaboration on issues raised by new technologies. The
University of Maryland is one of seven universities selected to participate
in the Getty/MESL project, a national pilot program designed to
study the use of digitized images for research and teaching, and it recently
sponsored the Digital Village, a major exhibit of computer-mediated art.
The College Park campus boasts two innovative computer teaching theaters,
increasingly being used by humanities faculty and students.
Faculty in the College of Arts and Humanities are using new technologies in
innovative ways. Their colleagues in the elementary and secondary schools in
neighboring counties are engaged with their students in exploring study and
new strategies in computer-mediated teaching and learning.
The conference has been organized to encourage dialogue and to promote
hands-on demonstration among these groups. Each of three plenaries,
addressing general themes, will be followed by a constellation of related
workshops, presentations, and demonstrations. Active audience
participation is encouraged and a conference goal is to build partnerships
nationally for ongoing scholarly and educational projects using the new
technologies.
The title "Attending to Technology" derives from our interest in the
opportunities for teaching, learning, research and communication in the arts
and humanities offered by new technologies. This is a wide-ranging context
that includes, but is not limited to, pedagogical issues in teaching with
technology; the networked classroom; educational software development;
evaluation; faculty responses; student initiatives; questions of access;
issues of gender and class.
The conference planning committee welcomes proposals for thirty-minute
discussions, presentations or demonstrations from faculty or students using,
teaching, developing, creating, theorizing, evaluating--or just thinking
about--arts and humanities applications of the new technologies. We invite
contributions that are discipline-based and/or interdisciplinary, individual
and/or collaborative. Proposals should take their theme and subject from the
plenary topics.
Please send a one-page description by March 15, 1996 (along with names of
your co-presenters, if any) to the Center for Renaissance and Baroque
Studies, 0139 Taliaferro Hall, Attention: Attending to Technology or email
to tg56@umail.umd.edu. (If you saw this notice on a listserv, please tell us
which one.) In your statement, please include your software and/or hardware
requirements. We can supply video playback and we will have a limited
number of panel projectors for laptops.
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Preliminary Program
ATTENDING TO TECHNOLOGY
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----- THURSDAY, November 7 -----
REGISTRATION will commence in the late afternoon. The KEYNOTE
ADDRESS and a RECEPTION will take place in the evening.
----- FRIDAY, November 8 -----
PLENARY I:
MYTHS AND REDEFINITIONS OF LITERACY IN THE AGE OF THE COMPUTER, is scheduled
for the morning to be followed by the first session of WORKSHOPS AND
PRESENTATIONS
PLENARY II:
CULTURE SHIFTS: TECHNOLOGY, DREAMS AND DILEMMAS, is scheduled for the
afternoon. A WORKSHOP AND PRESENTATION session will follow.
In the evening there will be a CASH BAR and a MULTIMEDIA CONCERT
PRESENTATION of works from a variety of composers, artists, and dancers.
----- SATURDAY, November 9 -----
PLENARY III:
K-16: WHERE ARE WE NOW, AND WHAT ARE THE POTENTIALS FOR
COLLABORATION, will be followed by ROUNDTABLE SESSIONS on
selected topics. A LUNCH will conclude the conference.
Submitted to EDTECH by:
Robert P. Kolker
Robert_P_Kolker@umail.umd.edu