NEH's Digital Humanities Workshops for K-12 Educators

The NEH recently announced the second year of our Digital Humanities Workshops for K-12 educators. The deadline is January 17, 2008. The guidelines are here: http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/digital.html

To learn more about this exciting program, I went straight to the experts and conducted an interview with two of the top program officers in the NEH's Division of Education! Here you go:

AN INTERVIEW WITH BARBARA ASHBROOK & JULIA HUSTON NGUYEN ABOUT THE NEH'S DIGITAL HUMANITIES WORKSHOPS PROGRAM FOR K-12 EDUCATORS

BRETT: I understand that this program funds professional development programs for K-12 educators, is that right?

JULIA: Yes, Digital Humanities Workshops grants fund professional development programs that help teachers integrate digital resources into their teaching of the humanities. These workshops feature important humanities scholars, significant humanities topics and texts, and innovative new digital resources in ways that we hope will enrich and energize teachers and ultimately benefit their students.

BRETT: Can you give me some examples from last year's competition?

BARBARA: Last year we made two awards. One of the projects will take place simultaneously in three locations --New York, Florida, and Texas-- where teachers will convene to explore recent scholarship on early modern China. The workshops (four days over a two-month period) are designed to give access to rich material and intellectual resources that, in some cases, may only be accessible in digital form. My favorite example of this is the beautiful handscrolls documenting the progress of inspection tours that the Kangxi and Quianlong emperors made through their southern territories. The entire set (twelve scrolls, each one up to 85 feet in length and more than 27 inches high) would cross more than three football fields in length. The handscrolls in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art are not accessible even to those teachers fortunate enough to travel to the museum, since only a small section can be displayed at any given time. The workshops, which will meet in January-February, 2008, seek to strike a balance between personal and virtual forms of engagement by combining the resources of local scholars, a listserv for the teachers, videoconferencing to feature important scholars and their work, and shared online content studied in "real-time" formats. Teachers at each site will collaborate in creating lesson plans, to be shared at a joint follow-up session in March, and then, more widely, through publication in Columbia University’s Asia for Educators web site. Another project, sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, took place this summer in New York City. Teachers met for four days to examine a broad array of documents from the American Revolution and the Civil War, concentrating on specific themes within those eras. Each teacher created a short digital documentary based on workshop topics which will be posted on the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s web site.

BRETT: In your guidelines, you mention that the workshop might incorporate materials from EDSITEment. What is EDSITEment?

JULIA: EDSITEment is a partnership between NEH and the Verizon Foundation that serves as a portal to content-rich, peer-reviewed humanities websites like the Valley of the Shadow project or the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Teaching Shakespeare site. In addition to the linked websites, EDSITEment also includes lesson plans that help teachers incorporate digital resources into their teaching in innovative ways. You can find the site here: http://edsitement.neh.gov/

BRETT: I'd imagine that an entire workshop could focus on how to use technology as a pedagogical tool. Do these workshop focus on pedagogical techniques? Or on particular humanities topics? Or is it a balance of both?

BARBARA: Your idea about balance is closer to the way we view these projects, though as with all grant making that falls within the purview of Division of Education Programs, the intellectual quality of the endeavor is primary. Good classroom teaching blends all these practical, creative, and intellectual elements; the skillful teacher learns how to integrate technique and content in order to engage student curiosity and excitement about learning. In fact, that is what we hope will happen with the digital humanities workshops.

BRETT: What is the dollar limit for these grants and who is eligible to apply?

JULIA: Any U.S. nonprofit organization with IRS 501(c)(3) status may apply for grants of up to $30,000 for projects serving a single institution or up to $100,000 for regional or multi-institutional projects.

BRETT: Anything else that folks should know about this program?

BARBARA: I would start with the two basic reminders: 1) the deadline for the program is January 17, 2008; and 2) you must submit your application through Grants.gov. Our guidelines include a FAQs section for Grants.gov that will walk you through the process; just be sure to allow enough time to familiarize yourself with the system. You can find the information you need at: http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/digital.html

JULIA: Anyone interested in Digital Humanities Workshops should contact me or Barbara. You can call us at (202) 606 8500 or write to us at jnguyen@neh.gov and bashbrook@neh.gov. We can provide sample narratives of funded projects, offer advice about preparing a proposal, and review a draft application.

Thank you Barbara and Julia!

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Brett Bobley

Chief Information Officer

Director, Digital Humanities Initiative

National Endowment for the Humanities

http://www.neh.gov/grants/digitalhumanities.html

(202) 606-8401

bbobley@neh.gov