1. Developing a virtual presence
about teaching history in higher
education
Dr Jamie Wood
University of Lincoln
Website: http://makingdigitalhistory.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/
Twitter: @woodjamie99

2. Outline: 3 points
1. Evidence
2. Examples
3. Resources

3. 1. Evidence
• Anecdotal evidence is fine, but we require
concrete evidence of practice and its impact on
students/ cost for staff in order to inform
development
– E.g. HEA funded research into e-learning in History
teaching (report forthcoming), with Antonella Liuzzo
Scorpo (Lincoln)
• (see my talk this afternoon!)
• This talk is based around this and other pieces of work I’ve
done for HEA in the past 2 years, my own practice, and
previous experience as educational developer

4. 2. Examples
• Case studies from the discipline:
– Of good practice
– With concrete examples
– With evidence
– Shareable and accessible (online?)
• For example:
– Going beyond the VLE: not just a repository
– Using social media/ web2.0 technologies
– Promoting active learning rather than passive
consumption
– Changing/ challenging/ developing student perceptions

5. 3. Resources and repositories
• Building primary source repositories online: a scoping
exercise (HEA funded @ Lincoln): http://bit.ly/1dV6Pvk
– A ‘scooping’ exercise, using http://www.scoop.it/ as a tool for
collating (or ‘curating’) resources
– Collated here (ongoing): http://www.scoop.it/t/studying-history
– Findings
• There are lots of materials out there (official and personal)
• People are actively collating more resources all the time
• People don’t really know what is out there (esp. beyond their narrow field)
• Lots of duplicated effort
• Often not maintained: many broken links/ websites
• What about secondary sources in an era of open publishing?
– Potential greater access for students, but how to facilitate that?
– What about quality control?
– What about information literacy?

6. Some suggestions
• PULL: maintained sites containing
and collating resources
– E.g. H.E. History Hub (Exeter); Making
Digital History (Lincoln)
– Must be maintained/ updated
– Collaborative; use social media
• PUSH: news and updates
– E.g. annual survey of technology and
History teaching; bulletin of pedagogy
publications in History
– From websites above; use social media

7. Your thoughts
• What would help you?
• What do you think is missing?
• What are the issues at your
institution/ with your
colleagues?
• Are there any resources that
we should be aware of that
could be collected?