Threshold Concepts, Troublesome Knowledge, and the Design of Digital Humanities Projects

Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Threshold Concepts, Troublesome Knowledge, and the Design of Digital

Humanities ProjectsRandy Bass

Georgetown University

NEH Vectors Institute on the Digital Humanities

July 22, 2011


Outline•Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge •Threshold Concepts and

Epistemic Frames•Reading and Resistance•Digital Stories and Threshold

Concepts•Digital environments and

approximations of expert practice



Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge

(Jan Meyer and Ray Land)

Decoding the Disciplines

(David Pace et. al.)

Social Pedagogies (“Designing for Difficulty”)

Randy Bass and Heidi Elmendorf

learning/site design strategies rooted in disciplinary practice


From the Wiki

“The project will enhance users’ capacity to 1) visualize connections between

environmental, public health and economic crises, 2) move across scales…3) understand how scientifically-engaged media can generate new perspectives on complex problems.” (Nick Shapiro)


From the Wiki“Through its design, the goal of the project is to show its users how representations of the witnesses to the murder were works of projection by cultural intermediaries... The project points to a larger set of perceptual and epistemological problems that trouble the social and moral act of witnessing, ones that are structured by the necessarily mediatic nature of witnessing.” (Carrie Rentschler)


From the Wiki“I’ve been looking for ways to better share my research with a general audience, especially the community of people who grew up in the scene.” (Oliver Wang)“The site would therefore have the following goals: 1. To provide experiential points of entry to

some of the central arguments of the book.

2. To offer an accessible alternative to the more esoteric academic arguments of the book so that they might be more “available” to ongoing discussions….” (Johnathan Sterne)


Adapted from slides by

James Atherton.

Threshold Conceptsand

Troublesome Knowledge

Special thanks to Renee MeyersU. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA,

who graciously allowed me to use, and revise, her slides


Threshold Conceptsand troublesome

knowledge

Threshold conceptsthemselves

Discipline specific

include

which are



knowledge


A portal to new understanding

include

are like


“A threshold concept can be considered as akin to a portal, opening up a new and previously

inaccessible way of thinking about something. It represents a transformed way of

understanding, or interpreting, or viewing something without which the learner cannot

progress….” Jan Meyer and Ray Land, “Threshold Concepts and Troublesome

Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines.” Occasional Report 4, May 2003. Enhancing Teaching-Learning Environments in Undergraduate Courses Project. University of Edinburgh.

Threshold Concepts


Examples of Threshold Concepts

From the 2003 Meyer and Land essay: •Opportunity Cost (Economics)•Limit / Infinity (Math)•Signification (Literary and Cultural Studies)Others•Geologic time (Geology)•Visual literacy (Art history)•Personhood (Philosophy)


“As a consequence of comprehending a threshold concept there may thus be a transformed internal view of subject matter, subject landscape, or even

world view. This transformation may be sudden or it may be protracted over a considerable period of

time, with the transition to understanding proving troublesome.”

Jan Meyer and Ray Land, “Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines.”

Occasional Report 4, May 2003. Enhancing Teaching-Learning Environments in Undergraduate Courses Project. University of Edinburgh.



knowledge



transformative

include

are like

they are likely to be



knowledge



transformative

irreversible

include

are like




knowledge



transformative

irreversible

integrative

include

are like



Threshold Concepts in American Studies /

Interdisciplinary Humanities?• Identity•Race (whiteness, constructedness?)•Space•Visibility / invisibility (presence / absence)•Community•?


Threshold Concepts in Digital Humanities Scholarship

“They are spaces that people call home, which is precisely why this spatio-temporal cartography will adapt new media to allow users to create their own narratives about reservation space and time.” (Kara Thompson)“This project theorizes community murals as a discursive space of ‘provisional identities’ where ‘identity is about situatedness in motion: embodiment and spatiality.”’ (Mike Rocchio and David Kim, quoting Juana Maria Rodriguez).


Threshold Concepts in Digital Humanities Scholarship

“Re-Collecting Black Hawk is an image-text essay investigating how Westward Expansion is selectively commemorated and inadvertently re-inscribed through the visual culture and memorial landscapes…” (Sarah Kanouse and Nicholas Brown).


From the Wiki“Through its design, the goal of the project is to show its users how representations of the witnesses to the murder were works of projection by cultural intermediaries... The project points to a larger set of perceptual and epistemological problems that trouble the social and moral act of witnessing, ones that are structured by the necessarily mediatic nature of witnessing.” (Carrie Rentschler)


Identifying TCs•Identify a threshold concept in your

own project•Why did you choose this

concept?•How does it fit (or not fit) the

definition presented here?



knowledge



transformative

irreversible

integrative troublesome?

include

are like




knowledge



transformative

irreversible

integrative

troublesome

include

are like




knowledge



transformative

irreversible

integrative

troublesomeknowledge

ritual

inert

conceptuallydifficult

alien

tacit

include

are like



Implications of threshold concept theory for teaching

and learning


Implications of threshold concept theory for teaching

and learning•Often presented as just one more concept and then move on.

•Tacit concept but operative continuously. Experts underdetermine need to address the threshold concept as part of course / learning design.

•Student’s get stuck. Wide variation among learners in passing through the threshold.


LiminalityCharacteristics

• Ambiguity, oscillation• Mimicry• Fear of learning• RegressionChanges in Movement

• Being ‘in the threshold’• Rite of passage• Beginning to “think like”• Starting to take ownership• Getting beyond ‘stuckness’


Not just about knowledge to be acquired, but

Ways of thinkingWays of acting (practice)Ways of talkingA sense of identity

Embodied

You don’t acquire threshold concepts by listening…


Decoding the Disciplines:

Instructional Bottlenecks


•“Decoding the Disciplines” Project (University of Indiana: David Pace and Colleagues)

•how do experts in that discipline think and practice their discipline?

•“instructional bottlenecks”


“Decoding the Disciplines” Project (University of Indiana: David Pace and Colleagues)

Expert Thinkin

gIdentif

y

Model

PracticeMotiva

te

Assess


“Decoding the Disciplines” Project (University of Indiana: David Pace and Colleagues)

Expert Thinkin

gIdentif

y

Model

PracticeMotiva

te

Assess



Threshold Concepts and Epistemic Frames

Epistemicgames.org/eg




Donald Williamson Shaffer




Skills: the things that people within the

community do

Knowledge: the understandings that people

in the community share

Identity: the way that members of the community

see themselves

Values: the beliefs that members of the community

hold

Epistemology: the warrants that justify actions

or claims as legitimate within the community



Threshold Concepts(Meyer and Land)

Ways of thinkingWays of acting

(practice)Ways of talkingA sense of identity

Epistemic Frames (“Ensemble”)

Schaffer (after Schon)

SkillsKnowledge

Values Identity


Michael Wesch: “From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-able”

“I like to think that we are not

teaching subjects but subjectivities:

ways of approaching,

understanding, and interacting

with the world.”


Implications for DH design projects?

Threshold ConceptsWays of thinkingWays of acting



SkillsKnowledge

Values Identity

What are the threshold concepts of your project?

What makes them troublesome, for which audiences? ?

What kind of epistemic frame do you want users to have while navigating your

project?


Reading and Resistance

•\

Frank Ambrosio, Eddie Maloney, William Garr, Theresa Schlafly (Georgetown, Center for New

Designs in Learning and Scholarship)


Reading and Resistance: MyDante and threshold concepts (“contemplative reading

practice”)

http://dante.georgetown.edu

•Literal narrative level

•Metaphoric and ironic level

•Reflective level


Reading and Resistance: MyDante





MyDante explores ways to use a digital text environment to bridge the personal and social

natures of the act of reading.Frnak Ambrosio and Theresa Schlafly, “Toward a

‘Readerly Utopia,’” (forthcoming)








Reading and Resistance: MyDante and threshold concepts (“contemplative reading

practice”)


•MyDante “slows down” reading (expert-like), decodes the act of reading

•Translates into text/contexts as database

•Reading as private and social

•Understanding as convergent






Digital Stories and Threshold Concepts in the Humanities


Digital Stories Multimedia Archive


Digital Stories Cross-Campus Study

Visible Knowledge

Project

Secondary study on digital

storytelling (Coventry and Oppermann)


Digital Stories Cross-Campus Study

How does authoring in

multimedia change student learning?

How does the explicitly social or public dimension of digital stories facilitate

epistemic thinking?

How does authoring digital stories engage students in

epistemic thinking?


“All Made Up,” Kathy Bayer and Jessica Koslow


When we reviewed the finished product we were pleased based on our time constraints and lack

of budget. Kathy was a bit nervous about portraying the story’s main character because she did not want viewers to assume that the

fictional plot reflected her personal views. Since we are both women there certainly was a little Kathy and a little Jess in the character, but it

was really intended to be a fictional representation of what one woman thought

about during a day spent wearing makeup as opposed to not.

From their additional reflection about the

digital story authoring process


Our digital story displays our main character’s dependence on her mirror. In Jacques Lacan’s “mirror stage” an individual’s ideal Self is

formed through identification with his/her reflection in a mirror in early youth. This image of self is a complete visualization of the self and is misrecognized as the self. The misrecognized Self is ideal becWe suggest that the relationship with one’s reflection and the preference for an ideal Self continues after socialization and throughout life. ause its (preferred) totality cannot be viewed without the mirror. This explains the pleasure found when viewing a “made-up” face in the mirror...

What differs in this account is the social construction of the ideal Self and the subject’s awareness that he/she is not in fact that image. A woman knows that her made up appearance is temporary and “unnatural,” however she can still derive pleasure from identifying with her reflection.

From their academic paper theorizing the

digital story


Authoring

Layers

Compression

Editing

Audience

Distinctive to Multimedia?


From Hierarchy to Grid


From Hierarchy to Grid



Writing into history


Writing into history“In my story, the concept of

advocacy is also closely related to alliance and solidarity. Robert was an

ally for the common people…. Through my story, Robert and I can

also be allies for each other. His actions give me the power to stand

up when others do not…I included a picture of Robert standing on a

wagon platform with his fist in the air while I stand beside him with my

fist in the air too. Through these images I show that we can become

sources of strength for each other…”

(Kristen Lafollette)

“The idea that one can contribute to a past life is unscientific but not necessarily ahistorical, when one considers a wider understanding of

history as constructed…This story isn’t content to tell/show the discovery of one’s

ancestral history and its impact on a life, but it proposes conceptually and visually that what we do in the present and future reshapes how

we understand and retell the past”

(Rina Benmayor)


Multiple literacies: Novice, Intermediate, Expert

“ My close analysis of student storytelling and reflection argues for the importance of recognizing and valuing ‘hidden’ theorizing (what I

call narrative theorizing), along with the more visible and complex manifestations of meaning-making (applied and critical theorizing)…

My foray into visual theorizing suggested that indeed, even novice theorizers with words can be expert theorizers with pictures, and vice-versa. And there are those who achieve a synergy between the two. …

What I’ve discovered…is that theorizing is done in multiple ways, using multiple media, for multiple intended effects” (Rina Benmayor)


For whom were you writing?


Digital Environments and Approximations of Expert Practice


Authoring

Layers

Compression

Editing

Audience

Distinctive to Multimedia?


Collaborative editing as approximation of expert practice

(writing a large complex argument)


Michael Smith & Ali Erkan, Ithaca College

•Using Wiki’s to teach history•Students work in collaborative

teams to write history wiki-texts on subjects that interest them in historical context

•Help overcome “bottlenecks” in history: making connections, constructing interpretations







“How can students be engaged so that there is meaning in the structure of wikis they produce?” “If there is meaning in the structure of student wikis, how can it be harvested and, subsequently, analyzed?

“Thin Slicing”?






Implications for DH design projects?

Threshold ConceptsWays of thinkingWays of acting



SkillsKnowledge

Values IdentityWhat are the threshold concepts of your

project? What might make them troublesome, for

which audiences? How might your project decode / slow

down the elements of epistemic thinking as well as create an experience that

enacts an epistemic frame?

[email protected]

duThanks to:Ali Erkan and Michael Smith, Ithaca College

Frank Ambrosio, Theresa Schlafly, Bill Garr and Eddie Maloney

The Teagle FoundationHeidi Elmendorf, Georgetown

Michael Coventry and Matthias OppermannRenee Meyers (UW Milwaukee)

Rina Benmayor, Kristen LaFolletteKathy Bayer and Jennifer Kostlow

My colleagues at the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship

cndls.georgetown.edu

Documents

Threshold Concepts, Troublesome Knowledge, and the Design of Digital Humanities Projects