As I begin my Senior year at Chatham University I am besieged by multiple feelings and observations. Joy, sadness, ambivalence, fear of the unknown — all of these adjectives aptly describe my first day of my final year at Chatham.
But, what do you care how I feel? Well, if you are an educator, then it is imperative that you understand the angst that we undergrads feel. We are excited and scared; but most of all we are hopeful. All of us, for the most part, want to impress future employers, friends, loved ones and new acquaintances with our new-found knowledge. We want to show everyone that we are women (and men) of the World. We are go-getters. We are ready to lead.
One way in which we may reach our goals of enlightenment regarding education is to embrace technology. It is with this in mind that I have been such a boisterous proponent of THATCamp Pittsburgh. I am not the most technically savvy student, and perhaps I never will be. I certainly will do my best to understand the technology that is so pervasive in everyday life, as well as it’s applications to the scholarship of my field.
So….observations that I have made today: The students here, at Chatham, are excited to learn more about Digital Humanities and how they may incorporate them in their studies. Everyone wants to be on the cutting edge (well, almost everyone), and THATCamp Pittsburgh promises to offer opportunities to it’s attendees to be a part of that cutting edge.
Educators from the Pittsburgh region and beyond, can you hear that?? It is the collective “Wow” of students across the area who are finding out about THATCamp Pittsburgh and what it has to offer them. I hope all of you that value the Humanities and the important role they play in our educational experiences will be a part of this Camp. Come learn, collaborate, question, teach. Then take that knowledge back to your classrooms and share it with your students — whether they are undergrads, graduates, elementary school, high schoolers….you get the drift. We all need to know this stuff to be competitive in the real world. Don’t let us down.
Samantha Parish, Organizer THATCamp Pittsburgh
