Issue #7 - Modern Languages Digital Digest
Congratulations, you made it. I imagine we all have a few loose ends to tie up and a pile of marking to complete but hope you're looking forward to some summer months of reading, writing, reflecting, and catching up.
There will be many who will be heading off to destinations near and far, engaged in research and working on personal projects. I've included a few things to help you in this week's newsletter, I hope you find them find useful.
There's also a reminder to include the Global Languages & Cultures Room in your plans for teaching in the Fall, whether you want to use it as your classroom, run a workshop, showcase student work, arrange talks and panel discussions. Please get in touch.
Please let me know if you would like to include any events or upcoming projects in this newsletter, look forward to hearing from you.
Still from " The Legacy Arts Project" - A 360 VR Film by Paloma Sierra as part of 82-284 Multicultural Pittsburgh - available to view using Oculus Rift Headset in the Global Languages & Cultures Room.
Links and Stories
One of the most useful changes I ever made was ditching MS Word and learning how to use Markdown. If you haven't heard of it, then there's a guide here. Over the past few years, Markdown editors have become more sophisticated, so than Bear or iA Writer. Let you in on a secret, this newsletter was written in markdown, it doesn't take long to learn and will speed up your writing. Yes, you can still export documents to Word.
If you get writer's block over the summer, comfort yourself in this Twitter feed of fellow sufferers. If you need a shortcut method for online research, then this ten-minute single-question remote user survey is what you need.
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to some of the winners of the NPR Student podcast competition. More than 25,000 students participated and the subjects were fascinating and varied, reporting on climate change, immigration, and gun control. These podcasts suggest opportunities to adopt podcasting in your teaching, in truly spectacular ways.
Here's a Dictionary of words invented to name emotions we all feel but don't yet have a name for. A graphic designer and a filmmaker have teamed up to create a series of short films to highlight these words. These made-up words have a strange power to them, you can see how easily they might be adopted and how beautifully they describe the given moment.
Earlier in the year, we held a workshop in the Global Languages & Cultures Room for graduate students and their supervisors. We explored a few ideas and one of those that seemed to make an impression was Apple Clips which helps you create short clips and add subtitles in multiple languages. Here's one I created following the trip to Nantes and here's a post I wrote on how Apple Clips can be used in research work.
Shot on iPhone X using Filmic Pro, edited and produced in Apple Clips.
Finally, if you're are still marking and struggling with rubrics, then this tutorial on adaptive marking using spreadsheets might be useful. Peter Klappa is a professor at the University of Kent and has created a series of videos and talks on assessment and feedback that you might find useful.
On Screen
This short animation was directed by Joshua Seftel, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, and features Hussein Rashid, an adjunct faculty member in the department of religion at Barnard College talking to writer and comedian Negin Farsad.
I'm afraid I'm completely addicted to this Netflix series about Street Food. Each episode explores the connection between the food and the lives of the people who make it. A literal feast for the eyes.
Please drop us a line if you would like to include a link or let us know about an upcoming event. Thank you for reading and please share and forward this newsletter to those who might find it useful.