Thanks for Your Interest in #DigPINS 2020
June 1st – 26th
Sign-up using this form
What is #DigPINS?
#DigPINS is an online faculty development learning experience focused on conversation and community in online spaces around the topics of “Dig”ital – Pedagogy, Identity, Networks, and Scholarship.
#DigPINS is a place to:
- Think about and question digital influences on education
- Consider how your identity, as a teacher and a scholar, is perceived in a digital context
- Experience an online community to gain practical knowledge of student perspectives
- Practice navigating (both socially and technically) different digital environments – both open and more private
- Find overlaps and intersections of these digital topics with colleagues from our network schools at:
- St. Norbert College
- Kenyon College
- The American University in Cairo
- Colgate University
What will I do in #DigPINS
#DigPINS is conversational and community based around a set of weekly provocations from our facilitators which include readings, videos, and activities. We have weekly blogging prompts (and provide you a place to blog on this site), a backchannel chat board, and we also organize other activities such as Twitter chats and synchronous video meetings throughout the experience. The format is flexible and provides various options for you to participate in the ways that you feel drawn to.
To get a feel for things is to check out last year’s UM-D #DigPINS Blog and check out this testimonial from a participant from last year:
“#DigPINS converted me! It made me excited to explore my digital identity as a researcher and teacher. In recent years, I have been slow — truly resistant — to online education. With #DigPINS, I was energized by colleagues and able to ease into various pedagogical tools in a low stakes manner. I also finally launched my professional Twitter account, which I wanted to do for years. In the midst of the transition to remote learning during COVID-19, I tapped into my new Twitter network to identify virtual guest speakers and find ways to convert my teaching on the fly. While I know it will be challenging, I am now actually excited to build a virtual learning community during my first fully online course next year.” – Natalie Sampson Assistant Professor, Public Health, and a UM-D participant in #DigPINS 2019
Stipends
A limited number of stipends are available to University of Michigan – Dearborn faculty who are able to commit to active participation (3-5hrs a week) through building online community and reflection around shared resources to build online conversation in #DigPINS’ spaces over the month of June.
Time
#DigPINS Summer 2020 will run from June 1st – 26th. Time commitment for active participation is estimated at between 3-5hrs per week though someone could spend more time if they were so motivated. #DigPINS has many asynchronous activities like blogging/commenting and text chat that can take place on a very flexible schedule. However, there are a few synchronous activities like video calls and twitter chats that happen at a specific time. All synchronous activities are scheduled via polling of participants availability and suggestions are made to those who cannot make that time about how they can participate in other ways. We like to offer lots of opportunities for participants and then they can decide how they would like to spend their time in them – it is okay to focus on some more than others or to even miss some activities.
Focus and Environments
The community will focus on guiding faculty towards building and shaping a digital identity while asking questions about how one’s own digital identity informs our use technology within our teaching and scholarship. Participants in #DigPINS work online in both public spaces and more private backchannels. More private digital backchannels provide a platform for community within the cohort while the public interactions creates a larger inter-institutional network. One of our more active public spaces is Twitter with the hashtag #DigPINS where participants from other institutions have reflected on these topics for close to three years. Participation will include online interactions in the form of text chat, blog posts, twitter interactions, group video calls, and more.
Sign-Up
To sign up for #DigPINS Summer 2020 fill out this form.
#DigPINS is an openly licensed template for adoption and adaptation in college and university environments by faculty development professionals, instructional designers, librarians, and others looking to create a significant online learning experience for faculty. DigPINS has been implemented at:
