Review of Quick hits for teaching with digital humanities Fisher, G. F. (2021, September 22). Review of Quick hits for teaching with digital humanities by C. J. Young, M. Morrone, T. C. Wilson & E. A. Wilson (Eds.). Education Review, 28. http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/er.v28.3305 September 22, 2021 ISSN 1094-5296 Young, C. J., Morrone, M., Wilson, T. C. & Wilson, E. A. (Eds.) (2020). Quick hits for teaching with digital humanities. Indiana University Press. Pp. 283 ISBN: 9780253050212 Reviewed by Gary F. Fisher Lincoln College England, United Kingdom Quick Hits for Teaching with Digital Humanities is the latest entry in Indiana University Press’s Quick Hits series. As the series’ name suggests, these volumes do not aim to offer a comprehensive framework for approaching their subject. Rather, they seek to provide “a collection of proven teaching tips” that “recognize, celebrate, and promote effective teaching and learning” (p. xi). The publication of this volume has been particularly well timed, being released at a moment when worldwide restrictions on face-to-face learning have occasioned a greater interest in remote and digital pedagogy than would be normal. As befits its emphasis on short and snappy ‘quick hits’ for teaching with the digital humanities, this volume features minimal introduction, and the hand of the editor is felt lightly throughout. After a two-page introduction to the Quick Hits series and a one-page foreword, the volume immediately launches into the first of its 36 chapters. These chapters cover a variety of subjects and take a mixture of formats. Some champion specific pieces of hardware or software that might be used in digital humanities settings. Others offer step-by-step guides as to how certain activities or technologies could be incorporated into different courses. Others discuss and present the pedagogical approaches of courses and programs oriented specifically around the digital humanities. Any reader is likely to be able to find something within this volume that is of interest to them. Education Review /Reseñas Educativas/Resenhas Educativas 2 The volume is divided into four parts, covering ways to teach with digital humanities, supporting teaching and learning, mapping and augmented realities, and public scholarship and community engagement, respectively. Part I presents a series of case studies in which digital humanities have been successfully applied within the classroom. Part II introduces a series of dedicated digital humanities courses and study programs that have been delivered at several different institutions. Part III again offers a series of case studies of successful classroom practice, with a specific focus on the use mapping and augmented reality software. Finally, Part IV discusses a series of digital exhibitions and other such events that have used the digital humanities to effectively engage the public with scholarship. Some of these chapters do stretch the definition of a ‘quick hit’ a little. The majority of chapters in Part II detail study programs that require dedicated institutional support over an extended period of time to be successfully delivered. Meanwhile, some of the chapters describe activities that have received substantial financial investment (p. 199), and so may be of limited applicability to classroom teachers looking for ways to easily introduce the digital humanities into their practice. It should also be noted that several of the case studies presented in this volume take it as a given that their student body should already be familiar with technical skills such as writing HTML (p. 114), something that may not be applicable to all student bodies (or even all digital humanities practitioners). Nonetheless, each chapter is able to offer something interesting that ought to at least pique the curiosity of any humanities practitioner. Teaching professionals from any field or discipline, even those outside of the humanities, are likely to find at least one chapter within this volume that offers ideas and approaches that might be profitably applied to their own teaching practice. Using a 1995 promotional video from the University of Virginia as an example (p. xiii), Edward L. Ayers’ Foreword for the volume comments that longevity is often an issue in the digital humanities, with what seemed cutting edge only a short time ago rapidly ageing and fading into obscurity. No doubt, many of the techniques and technologies discussed in this volume will experience that fate. In some cases, the technologies being showcased are already creaking a little. For example, one chapter focuses on how the online virtual world Second Life, a piece of software that experienced its zenith during the 2000s, could be used to simulate fieldtrips (pp. 141-46). While still usable, Second Life rapidly diminished in popularity over the course of the 2010s and is showing its age in terms of graphical fidelity and smoothness of interface. As intelligent and inventive as this chapter is, with virtual reality hardware becoming increasingly affordable and virtual fieldtrip tools such as thinglink ever more accessible, it is difficult to imagine something like Second Life continuing to be deployed with a classroom of modern young adult learners for much longer. Where Quick Hits is at its strongest is when chapters first discuss a pedagogical principle or approach, and then offer a case study of how it was achieved with a particular piece of technology as a proof of concept. One Review of Quick hits for teaching with digital humanities 3 such example is Patricia Turner’s chapter on using digital humanities to promote integrated and applied learning in college writing (pp. 248-55). Turner first outlines the principle and importance of integrated and applied learning, then offers six generic steps to using digital humanities techniques to support them, before going into the details and technologies that she has used to deliver these steps in her own teaching practice. One could easily imagine a reader 10 years from now reading such chapters, extracting the universal pedagogical principles contained within, and considering how the technology of the day could be used to facilitate the learning objectives. These are the chapters that will have the most enduring impact and will continue to enjoy applicability as different technologies rise and fall. Chapters are typically in the region of 5-10 pages in length and tend towards a conversational tone. Language is often more anecdotal than empirical in character, with phrases such as “I have found” (p. 42) and “in my own experience” (p. 95) being commonplace. While this tone helps make the content of the chapters more engaging, the tendency towards emphasizing practitioner experience comes at the expense of analysis of measurable student learning outcomes. This is not so much an issue with this volume, which aims principally to use this series of ‘quick hits’ to generate curiosity and experimentation amongst its readership. But, as the field of digital humanities continues to develop and practitioners become more discerning, volumes such as this will increasingly need to offer a more concrete and nuanced examination of the results of different digital humanities teaching techniques on student learning outcomes in order to have a meaningful impact on their readers. Unlike previous entries in Indiana University Press’ Quick Hits series, Quick Hits for Teaching with Digital Humanities includes editors based at institutions other than Indiana University. Emma Annette Wilson from Southern Methodist University and Thomas C. Wilson from the University of Alabama joined Indiana University’s Christopher J. Young and Michael Morrone on the volume’s editorial team. The plurality of institutions represented on the editorial team is reflected in the volume’s diverse contributions. Teaching practice from a range of different institutions operating in a variety of different contexts are on display in this volume. That said, aside from a few contributions from teaching practitioners based in Australian and Canadian institutions, as well as one independent practitioner, all chapters are centered around digital humanities teaching delivered at institutes of higher education in the United States. This emphasis on the United States is by no means prohibitive of the volume’s relevance and interest to international practitioners. Barring occasional uses of terminology that is relatively peculiar to American educational institutions (for example, using terms like sophomore and senior to identify a student’s year of study; a practice not followed in countries such as the United Kingdom) the language used throughout the volume is largely universal and accessible to any Anglophone reader. More important than the terminology, the pedagogy and teaching approaches demonstrated in this Education Review /Reseñas Educativas/Resenhas Educativas 4 volume are universally relevant. Nonetheless, this applicability to higher education institutions would have been greatly enhanced had the volume’s editors been able to incorporate examples and contributions from the wider world of the digital humanities. A wider global perspective could have broadened the volume’s accessibility and interest and as well as its general value as a venue for international dialogue and cross-pollination of practice. Taken as a whole, Quick Hits for Teaching with the Digital Humanities achieves the goal stated in its title. Not every chapter will have something for every teacher, but every teacher will be able to find something of interest within this volume that will incite their curiosity and encourage experimentation. For this reason, this volume is well worth picking up and ought to find a place on the shelf of any digital humanities practitioner. About the Reviewer Gary F. Fisher is a lecturer in education studies at Lincoln College with a specific focus on digital pedagogy and blended learned. He received his doctorate from the University of Nottingham in 2020 and has published research on a variety of subjects, ranging from literary studies to the history of education. 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