#PressEdConf21 Presentation

On March 25th, 2021 Sharon Albert @SharonLAlbert and I gave a presentation for #PressEdConf21. PressEdConf is a Twitter-based conference on all things WordPress/ClassicPress and Education, and has been going strong for several years now. You can read all about this great conference and community here: https://pressedconf.org/.

When Sharon and I co-taught Mapping Religion in the spring of 2020, we employed WordPress as a way to co-create an interdisciplinary glossary. You can visit that site here: https://mappingreligion.website. Sharon has shared her thoughts and observations here: http://sharonalbert.bergbuilds.domains/blog/main-post/mapping-words/

I learned a few things. First, and most embarrassing, I learned that in addition to scheduling our tweets, I needed to thread them, as well. So here is a recap and also an ordering of the 14 tweets that comprise our presentation.

1/14 Hi everyone! In Spring ‘20, Sharon Albert @sharonLalbert & Tim Clarke @floatingtim taught Mapping Religion, an Integrative Learning course at Muhlenberg College, exploring how religious communities interact w/ geographic space & a technical intro to GIS/GISc #PressEdConf21 pic.twitter.com/I11wE62QRq
— Tim C wears two masks (@floatingtim) March 25, 2021

2/14 We had no textbook but lots of texts to read & LOTS of domain-aligned terms. We wanted to construct shared understanding while holding different disciplinary senses of words like boundary, locative/location, & map – just to name a few. #PressEdConf21 pic.twitter.com/NZ38t53D0A
— Tim C wears two masks (@floatingtim) March 25, 2021

3/14 Our course is an Integrative Learning designation (https://t.co/qFOR8DDaGs) & combines seminar-style discussions w/ technical GIS labs. In physical space we arrange our chairs in a circle, not in face-front rows. We want our online space to feel the same. #PressEdConf21 pic.twitter.com/TPBfCw7Gvj
— Tim C wears two masks (@floatingtim) March 25, 2021

4/14 To make the class a genuine learning community, we included significant group work as well as lots of opportunity for conversation between students, formal and informal. We decided to include a glossary to ensure we were speaking the same “language.”#PressEdConf21 pic.twitter.com/Cp0cA3V3Ne
— Tim C wears two masks (@floatingtim) March 25, 2021

5/14 Raymond Williams (who'd be 100 this year!) published Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture & Society in 1976, to interrogate words that are familiar to us but whose meanings are slippery or confusing. His book has since spawned a subgenre for semantic criticism. #PressEdConf21 pic.twitter.com/9RBZb9S3Si
— Tim C wears two masks (@floatingtim) March 25, 2021

6/14 In that spirit, co-constructing an online glossary with our students helped reveal how disciplinary language aligns & diverges. How meaning is formed, how meaning shifts, & how meanings may conflict or be contested. #PressEdConf21 pic.twitter.com/0hbLCBOeds
— Tim C wears two masks (@floatingtim) March 25, 2021

7/14 #WordPress was a great space for the kind of glossary we wanted, with lots of support for discussion. Each entry was a post, each word was the post's title. #PressEdConf21 pic.twitter.com/3JnjSPaXRK
— Tim C wears two masks (@floatingtim) March 25, 2021

8/14 Setup was easy. We’re a #DoOO school, so we installed #WordPress & chose the Escapade theme & a plugin called A-Z Listing. We bought the domain https://t.co/urj3gS9aqu for a few dollars to make it easy for students to find & remember. Added a banner & done! #PressEdConf21 pic.twitter.com/NQvFRROjRT
— Tim C wears two masks (@floatingtim) March 25, 2021

9/14 We created Editor accounts for students & turned on moderated comments. We asked folks to engage each other in the glossary entries themselves. To draw in readings & make connections across disciplines. #PressEdConf21 pic.twitter.com/5c6X6nqxZH
— Tim C wears two masks (@floatingtim) March 25, 2021

10/14 In our physical space, we employed a reading practice in which students read aloud parts of a text significant to them w/o commentary, listening for common themes or words. Sharon or Tim scribed words on the board. This revealed potential glossary entries. #PressEdConf21 pic.twitter.com/E1QvpOriVH
— Tim C wears two masks (@floatingtim) March 25, 2021

11/14 Since this was a first go for a shared glossary, we were very informal. Entries contributed to overall participation scores – we didn’t evaluate individual entries or responses. We may formalize engagement next time, or offer more specificity, more guidance. #PressEdConf21 pic.twitter.com/xqL7tHUy4f
— Tim C wears two masks (@floatingtim) March 25, 2021

12/14 We regularly opened the glossary in class (F2F & online once we went remote) to highlight excellent contributions and discuss challenging terms.

Entries were student-generated but we each wrote one & occasionally commented to offer models for response.#PressEdConf21
— Tim C wears two masks (@floatingtim) March 25, 2021

13/14 Focusing work on our GIS group projects & co-building a resource like this glossary allowed us to engage more equitably w/ students, un-center ourselves as the holders of knowledge, & co-construct shared understanding of Mapping Religion. #PressEdConf21 pic.twitter.com/9J3fKVGmeh
— Tim C wears two masks (@floatingtim) March 25, 2021

14/14 Thanks again, #PressEdConf21, for having us & letting us describe this fairly easy but (hopefully) powerful way to use #WordPress to build interdisciplinary understanding. Sharon has more in a blog post here: https://t.co/xvw51NbAWt . Please reach out if we can be helpful. pic.twitter.com/23NU4uhX9h
— Tim C wears two masks (@floatingtim) March 25, 2021

Thanks for reading, and please reach out to Sharon or me if you have any questions or if we can help with anything. And thanks to PressEdConf21 for everything. It’s a great conference and I always learn a lot.