A workshop sponsored by the IHR Seminar in Digital History
 
In A New Culture of Learning (2011), Thomas and Seely Brown argue that the traditional view of teaching and learning ‘presumes the existence of knowledge that is both worth communicating and doesn’t tend to change very much over time’. In this workshop we explore the degree to which either assumption is valid now. We also discuss some of the new kinds of computational tools or instruments which historians may want to construct and use. These have the potential to make us better navigators of our contemporary (digital) world, and will allow us to continue to assert that a nuanced knowledge of the past is the best guide to present conduct.
 
Bill Turkel is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Western Ontario and Project Director, Digital Infrastructure for the SSHRC Strategic Knowledge Cluster NiCHE: Network in Canadian History & Environment. He does computational history, Big History, STS, physical computing, desktop fabrication and electronics. He programs whenever he gets the chance, and is experimenting regularly with analog electronics. There is more information about his work on his personal website.