As we conclude the institute, we have been asked to identify three things that we will do in the near future to put some of what we learned here to work.  I have a number of ideas, but the following are actions that I am pretty certain I can take in the next two semesters.

1. My department will be engaging in a curriculum revision this year.  I’m on the committee directing this process. I will push for the inclusion of a digital competency objective in the new curriculum documents and for a digital history course.  My department will probably not accept the first item, but most likely it will accept the second.  I will work with the director of our public history program and our library’s new digital initiatives person to begin developing the course.

2. I will pursue the project I outlined in my blog yesterday.  Several colleagues and I have been talking with a local community group about helping to organize and present a collection of oral histories, text records, and images related to the African American community in Haywood Co., NC. We will incorporate this work into several undergraduate courses over the next few semesters, with the goal of creating a digital archive of these materials for inclusion in my university’s existing Appalachian heritage site.

3. I will migrate my courses for the spring away from Blackboard to a site under my own control (a reconstructed version of this one, most likely).  Take that, Blackboard!

Source: Three Immediate Steps