News

On December 12, 2007, The MIT Press announced the The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. This new book series examines the effect of digital media tools on how people learn, network, communicate, and play, and how growing up with these tools may affect peoples sense of self, how they express themselves, and their ability to learn, exercise judgment, and think systematically.

The purpose of this bibliography is to highlight learning institutions (of any type) that have exhibited an exemplary commitment to digital technology and learning. We welcome and invite your comments and contributions. If you are involved in a project that you are particularly proud of or know of an exemplary institution/project that combines digital technology and learning in innovative and exciting new ways please let us know! 

CHICAGO, IL, August, 14, 2007 – The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced today a public competition that will award $2 million in funding to emerging leaders, communicators, and innovators shaping the field of digital media and learning. The competition is part of MacArthur’s $50 million Digital Media and Learning initiative that aims to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life.

Cyberinfrastructure for Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences Summer Institute

San Diego Supercomputing Center, University of California San Diego La Jolla, California | July 24-28, 2006

Call for Papers
International HASTAC Conference
“Electronic Techtonics:  Thinking at the Interface”
April 19-21, 2007
www.hastac.org

We are now soliciting papers and panel proposals for “Electronic Techtonics: Thinking at the Interface,” the first international conference of HASTAC (“haystack”: Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory).  The interdisciplinary conference will be held April 19-21, 2007, in Durham, North Carolina, co-sponsored by Duke University and RENCI (Renaissance Computing Institute). Details concerning registration fees, hotel accommodations, and the full conference agenda will be posted to www.hastac.org as they become available.

The MacArthur Foundation today announced plans to build the emerging field of digital media and learning, committing $50 million over five years to the effort. The Foundation will fund research and innovative projects focused on understanding the impact of the widespread use of digital media on our youth and how they learn. | Read Full Press Release |

HASTAC co-founder Cathy Davidson and others participating in UCHRI's 2006 Seminar in Experimental Critical Theory (SECT) are blogging on their experiences. To view the blog postings, visit http://www.hastac.org/uchri/technospheres/

For more information on the seminar, entitled "technoSpheres: FutureS of Thinking," visit:
http://flatiron.sdsc.edu/projects/sect/main.php

Durham, N.C. -- In a darkened room, 15 students listen to a presentation by two classmates. A PowerPoint show flashes on a screen as the presenters discuss historical context and cultural influences.

Pretty typical undergraduate stuff, except these students are explicating the nuances of the history of the first-person shooter games “Half-Life” and “Counter-Strike.” When they need to illustrate a point, four 50-inch plasma screens lining the walls light up with running commandos, gunfire and the flash of a laser.

At the end, juniors John Tough and Chuck Iannuzzi turn to their classmates with questions: “Does Counter-Strike really fulfill a need for people or is it simply a game to be played for entertainment only?” “Can you consider gaming a sport?”

HASTAC, ISIS, and RENCI co-host Thinking Through New Media, a graduate student conference held at Duke University, June 7-8, 2006

For more information on the conference, please visit the conference website. Archived webcasts of the sessions will be made available shortly.

To view an interview with Cathy Davidson, Co-founder of HASTAC and Vice Provost of Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke University, please click here.

To read the entire grant proposal, please see attached. 

HASTAC is proud to announce a grant from the Digital Promise Project in support of a HASTAC special section of Vectors, the on-line multi-media journal published at the University of Southern California and part of the HASTAC consortium. Vectors will sponsor a call for articles on the ways new media change the ways we think our worlds, with a special emphasis on creative rethinking of the arts and humanities.

The Digital Promise Project seeks to develop a major Federal trust fund that will provide important financing for research and development in applying advanced information technologies to education, skills training, and lifelong learning, to meet the needs of the nation’s knowledge-based economy. The Trust, called the Digital Opportunity Investment Trust, or DO IT, will fund the digitization of collections and other significant holdings in our nation’s libraries, museums, and universities. It will encourage development of innovative learning models and software tools and prototypes to transform learning and information technology for the digital age. In short, it will do for education and learning what NSF does for science and NIH for health.

PUBLIC SESSION ON THE DIGITAL ARTS + HUMANITIES -- March 3, 2005, USC and LA MoCa

Please read the press release for more details.