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Book Launch: Intercultural Engagement Through Short-Term Faculty-Led Study Abroad

Announcing the newly released book, Intercultural Engagement Through Short-Term Faculty-Led Study Abroad: A Practitioner’s Guide with Multidisciplinary Perspectives from a Public University

Congratulations to MTSU faculty, Priya Ananth and Seok Jeng Jane Lim (editors), and their chapter contributors! They published an edited monograph on September 15, 2023, titled Intercultural Engagement Through Short-Term Faculty-Led Study Abroad: A Practitioner’s Guide with Multidisciplinary Perspectives from a Public University. This is the second book published under the James E. Walker Library’s MT Open Press imprint.

Have you ever thought about teaching abroad? Not sure how to get started? Or are you interested in how to improve your faculty-led study abroad courses? Then you will want to read this book!

What’s inside

  • Framework to understand short-term, faculty-led study abroad programs from theoretical and administrative perspectives.
  • 11 case studies that showcase faculty leaders demonstrating how intercultural competencies were strategically incorporated into their study abroad curricula.
  • Concluding analysis with recommendations for faculty and administrators to plan and design these programs.

 

book cover

 

What the book is about

Intercultural Engagement Through Short-Term Faculty-Led Study Abroad: A Practitioner’s Guide with Multidisciplinary Perspectives from a Public University is an edited volume that offers pedagogically sound and creative ways of integrating elements of intercultural competence into short-term, faculty-led study abroad programs. By purposefully embedding these competencies in courses, faculty leaders can better assist their students in deepening intercultural and global competencies, preparing students for a changing, more diverse global environment. This book contributes uniquely to the field by providing theoretically driven model courses across disciplines. The book will interest a readership of multidisciplinary study-abroad educators, including faculty leaders, faculty leaders-in-training, faculty scholars, and administrators.

 

What is being said about this book

It is refreshing to read what feels like a very unified approach to internationalization through intercultural engagement primarily at one institution offering varying cross-disciplinary approaches. I find the specific examples of activities, reflection exercises, and thoughtfulness of the review process of each program very well developed and a great resource for those looking to build faculty-led global learning programs.”

--Keshia Abraham, President and founder of Abraham Consulting Agency, and formerly an academic dean, Fulbright Scholar, study abroad director, and Africana scholar. 

The overall uniqueness of this book is the perspective of facilitating short-term faculty-led programs within one institution – a mid-sized public university in the U.S. This affords readers a unique perspective based on how faculty design and execute programs with a particular eye on the intercultural development aspect of short-term programs. This is a great resource for an education abroad professional or for a course in international education.”

--Karen McBride, Executive Director of Community Colleges for International Development, and formerly affiliated with the NAFSA Education Abroad Knowledge Community, Peace Corps, and Fulbright.

 

About the editors

Priya Ananth and Seok Jeng Jane Lim are faculty in the College of Liberal Arts and College of Education (respectively). They have both successfully directed multiple short-term study abroad programs to Japan and Singapore. Collectively, the editors have a wide range of experience in teaching, pedagogy, and study abroad curriculum design.

About the contributing authors

The book features a diverse group of authors with incredible expertise from a range of disciplines and perspectives at Middle Tennessee State University.

 

Contact

Together, the editors, authors, and press have created a valuable resource that we encourage the public to read and share. If you end up using this using this book in your course, please tell us about it at openpress@mtsu.libanswers.com.

Book information

Available at https://openpress.mtsu.edu

© 2023 the Authors

Published by MT Open Press at Middle Tennessee State University ∙ Murfreesboro

DOI: 10.56638/mtopb00223

ISBN (Digital PDF): 979-8-9871721-2-4

ISBN (paperback) 979-8-9871721-3-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023943895. Full record: https://lccn.loc.gov/2023943895 

 

Suggested citation:

Ananth, P., & Lim, S. J. J. (Eds.). (2023). Intercultural engagement through short-term faculty-led study abroad: A practitioner’s guide with multidisciplinary perspectives from a public university. MT Open Press, Middle Tennessee State University. https://doi.org/10.56638/mtopb00223 

The print-on-demand version (paperback) is available at https://lulu.com/spotlight/mtop  

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-4.0 International License

0823-2341 / Middle Tennessee State University does not discriminate against students, employees, or applicants for admission or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, disability, age, status as a protected veteran, genetic information, or any other legally protected class with respect to all employment, programs, and activities sponsored by MTSU. More information is available at www.mtsu.edu/iec

Announcing the Final Projects for the Digital Seed Grants 2022-2023

Announcing the Final Projects for the Digital Seed Grants 2022-2023

The Digital Seed Grant (https://dsi.mtsu.edu) had impressive applications for its sixth year. The Digital Seed Grant Review Committee and Library Dean decided to award four grants for the 2022-2023 academic year. The AY 22-23 awardees were announced on the website at https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant22-23.

Below is a summary of the four winning projects and resulting outcomes. A PDF copy of the full report details is preserved in the institutional repository.

Congratulations to the project investigators and their teams on the completion of these projects!

 

Intercultural Engagement in Short-Term Faculty-Led Study Abroad Programs Across Disciplines

Primary Investigator (PI):  Dr. Priya Ananth, MTSU Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

PI’s Project Description: The Digital Seed Grant was used to fund the copyediting, print book purchases, and student worker support for producing an open access book titled Intercultural Engagement Through Short-Term Faculty-Led Study Abroad: A Practitioner's Guide with Multidisciplinary Perspectives from a Public University. The monograph is edited by Priya Ananth and Seok Jeng Jane Lim, aided by 15 contributing chapter authors, and published by MT Open Press.

The main objective of this edited volume is to offer pedagogically sound and creative ways of integrating elements of intercultural competence into class activities, tasks, and assignments in short-term faculty-led study abroad programs. The intercultural competencies, categorized in the areas of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, include characteristics such as awareness about self and other cultures, creative thinking, problem-solving, empathy, tolerance towards ambiguity, and withholding judgment, to name a few. By purposefully embedding these characteristics in their course activities, faculty leaders can better assist their students in deepening intercultural and global competencies. This book will contribute uniquely to the field by providing theoretically driven model courses from a broad spectrum of disciplines at the university level.

Purpose and Audience: The main purpose of this book is to encourage the creation of new short-term, faculty-led study abroad programs at the university level as well as empower current faculty leaders to strengthen or adapt their programs. Since the book is formatted as a practitioner’s guide, it will be of interest to a broad readership of multidisciplinary study abroad educators, including faculty leaders, faculty leaders-in-training, faculty scholars, and administrators.

Recently published online in September 2023, the book is already being used in at least two projects this fall semester. First, the chapters in this book will be used as recommended readings in a study abroad focused faculty learning community (FLC) on creating a community of short-term study abroad faculty leaders across disciplines at MTSU who are interested in enhancing intercultural engagement in their programs. Second, we will organize our 1st Study Abroad Symposium at MTSU during International Education Week on November 18, 2023. This symposium will involve talks and panel discussions with contributing authors of this book who will not only discuss the contents of their individual programs but also propel the conversations forward to cover issues such as assessments and advocacy that were not within the scope of this book.

Project News:

The book is available as open access (free) and as print-on-demand at https://doi.org/10.56638/mtopb00223. Published under the MT Open Press Lightning Series imprint, this book underwent developmental editing, copyediting, external review, and is indexed in WorldCat, DOAB, search engines, and the library catalog.

 

book cover

 

 

MATLAB/Simulink Simulations for an Autonomous Vehicle Sensors Testbed

Primary Investigator (PI):  Dr. Jorge Vargas, MTSU Department of Engineering Technology

PI’s Project Description: Autonomous Vehicle (AV) technology has the potential to provide enormous value to society. To do that, there is a need to build comprehensive testing technology to prove efficacy under different environmental conditions (e.g., rain). This can be done by creating simulations to validate perception and decision-making stages of AVs, thus demonstrating the response of radar systems in AVs. The simulated framework involves radars, target objects, and a stationary vehicle at specific environmental conditions through a real simulation system and MATLAB/Simulink.

The Digital Seed Grant was used to pay student workers, who collected data through a real simulation system and MATLAB/Simulink software in the MTSU Micro-Electronics Lab. They also attempted to create a user interface to work with real-world data and perceptive PCs. Outcomes of the data collection enabled the drafting and submission of an article for publication in an open access journal.

Purpose and Audience: This project helps solve a real-world problem, therefore having potential impact on the public. Implementation of the proposed waveform has been coded and functional. Real world implementation of this waveform may require a unique antenna array, most likely using MIMO technology to maintain low hardware cost. Simulations of the waveform are performed on MATLAB. The proposed waveform will be programmed to generate radar data based on the beat frequencies created previously. The proposed coding scheme has the ability for future potential by increasing the number of slopes or steps. The incorporation of MIMO technology may be a viable step for creating more signals. With that, ghost detections may be canceled using virtual antenna arrays. As technology evolves, AVs will encounter a decentralized tracking network in which detections will be shared amongst vehicles.

Project News: The article was published by MDPI on August 15, 2023.

Duke, Jonathan, Eli Neville, and Jorge Vargas. 2023. "A Modulated Approach for Improving MFSK RADARS to Resolve Mutual Interference on Autonomous Vehicles (AVs)" Sensors 23, no. 16: 7192. https://doi.org/10.3390/s23167192

Figure 1 Society of Automotive Engineers automation levels. Reprinted from Duke et al. (2023) https://doi.org/10.3390/s23167192

 

Database of American Synagogue Iconography (DASI)

Primary Investigator (PI):  Dr. Laura Cochrane, MTSU Department of Art & Design

PI’s Project Description: The Database of American Synagogue Iconography (DASI) is an index of decorative imagery and motifs in American synagogues built prior to 1930. My goal for this project was to have a searchable, public website on decorative imagery of American synagogues that would make images and documentation openly available for research purposes. The ability to compile and compare images from different buildings made at different times and/or in different places will allow researchers to see patterns and make connections that they might otherwise not have. The decorations of synagogues were very political and ideological —synagogue decoration could be controversial, with figural imagery often being avoided because it was thought to be forbidden. At times in American history, however, figural and narrative imagery in synagogues was used to help modernize and assimilate Judaism. Understanding the mindset behind decorative choices can help to reveal the ideology of the designers and of the congregation.

The grant was used for travel reimbursements to visit and document synagogues in Texas, South Carolina, Mississippi, New Jersey, California, and Louisiana. While I first imagined this database as a means of conducting my own research, I now see this database as more important as a public good. It will help researchers to make connections and to see patterns that would otherwise be hard to discern. But, more importantly, it will preserve documents of these artworks and visual materials at a time when they are especially vulnerable.

Purpose and Audience: DASI is a visual database of decorative imagery and motifs in American Synagogues, mainly in the American Southeast. The database records historical information about the building and the decoration of the synagogue and identifies the iconography of stained-glass windows, wall paintings, and furnishings. The purpose is to be able to search within the database to see patterns and trends in synagogue decoration. These artworks are being demolished or scattered and, up until now, they have not been sufficiently documented. This database will be open to the public and for posterity, records the synagogue decorations of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Project News:

The DASI collection is available at https://digital.mtsu.edu/digital/collection/dasi. The collection will continue to grow through spring 2024.

Figure 2: Temple Emanuel in Beaumont, Texas, interior, torah ark lining, detail.

 

The African American Material Culture of Death in Middle Tennessee

Primary Investigator (PI):  Dr. Stacey Graham, MTSU Center for Historic Preservation

PI’s Project Description: Nashville and the surrounding counties are currently among the fastest-growing areas in the U.S. Both rampant development into formerly rural areas and gentrification of longstanding urban neighborhoods have put undue pressure on vulnerable properties such as small cemeteries and older housing stock, with the impact disproportionately felt among African American residents and business owners. Furthermore, city cemeteries have reflected a systemic segregation by denying African American families access and visibility. The African American history of Nashville and Middle Tennessee is a vital part of the fabric of the history, accomplishments, and character of Tennessee. Our project is located at the convergence of these pressing preservation concerns – properties associated with the human disposition and commemoration of the deceased, particularly those that are fast disappearing in the glossy sprawl of metropolitan Middle Tennessee. Our project seeks to draw attention to marginalized death traditions and culture in African American communities with a specific focus on cemeteries, churches, funeral homes, and other sites associated with death practices, particularly in Nashville and the fast-growing counties of Middle Tennessee.

The Digital Seed Grant enabled the equipment loan of a laptop and document scanner, plus hosting the digital collection in the library’s CONTENTdm database. This digital exhibit is intended to be a tool that can be used piecemeal or in its entirety in the classroom, in community heritage meetings and events, as a linked and related resource for other public history projects, and in scholarly footnotes and bibliographies.

Purpose and Audience: As intended, this exhibit starts off very small – a collection of nine artifacts or sites, with brief essays providing historical context for each item. We hope to add to it over the coming years, based on further research and from feedback from other researchers, preservationists, archivists, and interested community members. We attempted to create a story, told in different aspects as represented by the various items, that describes how African Americans in Middle Tennessee have developed death-related cultural traditions in response to the legacy of slavery, the limitations placed upon them by Jim Crow laws, and the unique cultural expressions forged by communities made tight-knit by adversity. This is why we concentrate on the period of U.S. history beginning in Reconstruction and with a strong focus on the Jim Crow period stretching from the late 19th to the early 20th century. However, we also wanted to bring the timeline into the present by examining the preservation of this material culture and how the pressures of economic and demographic growth in the Middle Tennessee area have put undue pressure on African American neighborhoods and historic sites. We hope this will be of interest and of use to students, scholars, and community members working to research and preserve artifacts and sites that represent deathways culture.

Project News:

The African American Material Culture of Death in Middle Tennessee (AAMCD) collection is available at https://digital.mtsu.edu/digital/collection/aamcd

Figure 3: Object-Ephemera essay on the church fan with funeral home advertisement

 

Funding and Support

The Digital Seed Grant is made possible by generous funding and support from the Library Dean and the Digital Scholarship Initiatives team. For many, this is a starter grant, which can lead to national grant opportunities in the future and Walker Library wants to encourage and support such creativity activity.

As a competitive grant, evaluation of applications and assessment of digital lifecycles of selected projects takes time. The Digital Seed Grant is indebted to the time of the Review Committee and colleagues at Walker Library who support operational aspects. Thanks also go to those who help promote the grant and encourage participation. The grant program was initially launched in 2016 for the award period of 2017-2018. Since 2017, the library has jumped-started campus research by funding 15 digital seed grant projects across various academic disciplines.

The 2023-2024 cycle is on pause. Information on future cycles will be available at https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant.

 

Book Launch: Privacy and Safety in Online Learning

Announcing the newly released book, Privacy and Safety in Online Learning

Congratulations to MTSU faculty, Denise FitzGerald Quintel and Amy York, and their chapter contributors! They published Privacy and Safety in Online Learning, an edited monograph on January 31, 2023. This is the first book published under the James E. Walker Library’s MT Open Press imprint.

 

Do you teach online? Or are you interested in any of these questions:  

  • Why Privacy, Why Now?
  • What's the State of Privacy in Online Education?
  • How Can We Transform Our Pedagogy with Privacy in Mind?
  • What Tools or Resources Can We Use?

Then you will want to read this book!

 

 

What the book is about

Privacy and Safety in Online Learning features essays, case studies, and pedagogical approaches that explore how educators managed the privacy, security, and safety concerns that rushed into our lives as we shifted into emergency remote learning in 2020. While the COVID-19 pandemic brought this concern into focus, privacy issues with online learning continue to exist alongside us and our students.

This book provides readers insight into the current state of privacy issues, describes the challenges and rewards of developing more privacy-focused learning environments, and presents several resources and tools that readers can bring to their own teaching practices.

Representing a variety of perspectives from K-12, higher education, and libraries, contributors describe the challenges they encountered and offer solutions to help ensure the safekeeping of students’ online lives. How do we navigate these online environments, who collects our data, and how can we protect our most vulnerable populations?

 

What is being said about this book

Privacy and Safety in Online Learning makes an incredibly important contribution to the discourse on safety and wellbeing in online environments to facilitate student engagement and learning. Although the primary audience is instructors, librarians, and instructional design and technology support staff, this would also be a valuable assigned text in a college course or online teaching program. I am not aware of any books that similarly address such important issues. This strikes me as quite unique in the currently available literature.”

--Flower Darby, lead author of Small Teaching Online, co-author of The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching, and associate director of the Teaching for Learning Center at the University of Missouri

 

“This book looks at the privacy and online safety of students and educators from a variety of perspectives, with an emphasis on marginalized or vulnerable populations. The chapters consist of a mix of case studies, research projects, real world experiences, resources, tools, and advice. This book should be on the self of anyone who oversees online education, digital information literacy, or those responsible for setting policies and guidelines for online learning. This would also be a great book for a library school student looking to work in information literacy or online education. I am happy to have it on my shelf.”

--Bonnie Tijerina, founder and president of ER&L and author of Protecting Patron Privacy and The Ultimate Privacy Field Guide.

 

About the editors

Denise Quintel and Amy York are faculty librarians at the James E. Walker Library at Middle Tennessee State University. Collectively, the editors have a wide range of experience in web services and instructional technology.

About the contributing authors

The book features a diverse group of authors with incredible expertise from K-12 teachers, college and university faculty, librarians, and technologists.

 

                            

Together, the editors, authors, and press have created a valuable resource that we encourage the public to read and share. If you end up using this using this book in your course, please email us about it at openpress@mtsu.libanswers.com.

 

Book information

Available at https://doi.org/10.56638/mtopb00123

© 2023 the Authors

Published by MT Open Press at Middle Tennessee State University

One page marketing brief (PDF)

DOI: 10.56638/mtopb00123; ISBN (Digital PDF): 979-8-9871721-0-0; ISBN (paperback) 979-8-9871721-1-7

Keywords: privacy, online learning, educational technology, digital pedagogy, emergency remote learning, COVID-19

Suggested citation: Quintel, D. F. & York, A. (2023). Privacy and safety in online learning. MT Open Press, Middle Tennessee State University. https://doi.org/10.56638/mtopb00123

The print-on-demand version (paperback) is available at https://lulu.com/spotlight/mtop  

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

0123-4567 Middle Tennessee State University does not discriminate against students, employees, or applicants for admission or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, disability, age, status as a protected veteran, genetic information, or any other legally protected class with respect to all employment, programs, and activities sponsored by MTSU. More information is available at www.mtsu.edu/iec

              

 

 

Announcing the Final Projects for the Digital Seed Grants 2021-2022

Announcing the Final Projects for the Digital Seed Grants 2021-2022

The Digital Seed Grant (dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant) had impressive applications for its fifth year (award period 2021-2022), which initially launched in 2016 for the award period of 2017-2018. The Digital Seed Grant Review Committee and Library Dean decided to award three grants for the 2021-2022 academic year. The AY 21-22 awardees were announced on the website at https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant21-22.

Below is a summary of the three winning projects and resulting outcomes. A PDF copy of the full report details is preserved in the institutional repository.

 

Revisiting the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) with Computerized Linguistic Analysis

Primary Investigator (PI):  Cindi Brown, graduate student in the Department of Psychology

PI’s Project Description: The purpose of our project was to locate narrative responses to the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), a projective assessment that played an important role in the history of psychology, and then archive these narratives, transcribe them to a digital format, and make them available for interested researchers who wish to apply modern interpretive techniques. The research also explored using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software to interpret these narratives. Developed by Dr. Henry Murray in the 1930's, the TAT was used extensively by psychologists between the 1930s and the 1970s. Given that the TAT has been administered extensively for decades, many TAT narratives are in existence. Some of these have been previously published in books or on the internet, and others can be found in the papers and records of clinicians and researchers, some of which are included in larger collections, such as the History of Psychology Archives at the University of Akron or the Murray Research Archive Dataverse at Harvard. However, prior to our efforts, no comprehensive collection of TAT narratives from these multiple sources had ever been archived in a convenient repository for researchers, teachers, and students to access.

The Digital Seed Grant has enabled us to take on this important task by providing funding for LIWC software and for a research assistant to help locate, transcribe, and organize TAT narratives. Additionally, the MTSU Walker Library hosts the published archive in the institutional repository (JEWLScholar). At present, the archive contains 665 TAT narratives, collected from 303 subjects. Additional narratives have been collected, but not yet added to the archive. It is our hope to update the archive with these additional narratives in the summer of 2023.

Purpose and Audience: This grant enabled the creation of the TAT Archive, a resource beneficial to psychology researchers, teachers, and students It is our hope that the archive will be used extensively, both in research and in the classroom. Two studies using the archived data are already planned by the research team. The first of these studies is an exploration of whether or not computerized linguistic analysis can yield useful interpretations of projective tests. In order to explore this question, the researchers will utilize the TAT narratives from the archive. Each narrative will be interpreted using Dr. Henry Murray’s original guidelines and again with the aid LIWC software. A comparison of the results of the two interpretive schemas should yield interesting insights. The second project involves comparing the narratives generated by males with those generated by females, in order to explore gendered differences in language use.

Project News: The TAT Archive was published online on August 10, 2022. Visit: https://jewlscholar.mtsu.edu/handle/mtsu/6767. The archive describes the development and contents of the archived narratives through an Archive Overview and the Narrative Collection (dataset).

screenshot of TAT archive

 

Voices From the Amazon: Translating Three Brazilian Films

Primary Investigator (PI):  Professor Paul Chilsen, MTSU Department of Media Arts

PI’s Project Description: The Digital Seed Grant was used to fund translations of three films produced. These short films were shot in native languages of the Brazilian Amazon. Some of the projects are in an Indigenous language and others are in Portuguese. Because of the nature of the projects, the nature of the languages, and owing to the lack of travel because of the pandemic, I pursued new remote strategies to get the texts for these films translated into English, and in some cases, from English to Portuguese. I applied for a Digital Seed Grant to support the remote translation work, collaborating with colleagues in the Amazon and here in the U.S.

From process to product, these films are developed within an organic, evolving process of multifaceted international collaboration, maintaining cultural authenticity and contextual continuity through the stories being told. The translated films will make them more broadly available and accessible to a larger audience. Of course, there is also the interim critical step, where the translations are used to help edit the films correctly. The original intent was to work side-by-side on translations with individuals in Brazil, hashing out what was said by interviewees, etc. and then piecing together rough edits in the field, to be refined later. When Covid disallowed regular travel for some time, in that void, I started working on alternative pathways to complete these films, including working with individuals remotely to complete the translations. I requested financial support for the remote translation work, collaborating with colleagues in the Amazon and here in the United States. The methodology varies depending on each situation, but generally involves sending clips and transcripts back-and-forth to known individuals, who then provide translations over several exchanges. This is a laborious, time-consuming task and translations are still in process.

Purpose and Audience: Once the films are completed, I plan to release them to as broad an audience as possible. I will enter them in international film festivals for the first year after their completion. After that, I will work with educational distributors and libraries to distribute and share the works to their furthest potential. All of these projects will also be used in academic settings, here at our university and in classrooms and conferences around the world.

This group of projects, and my work in the Brazilian Amazon in general, is a central component of my current research and creative work. Additionally, these films have been completed as an adjunct component to an MTSU International Signature Program in the Brazilian Amazon. The student component adds an important educational aspect to the creation of these films, offering students unprecedented access and experience to advanced, international coproduction. This is an important benefit to our department, college, and university, while offering one of the few truly interdisciplinary experiences for students at MTSU.  The program and the projects also draw students from other universities and walks of life, bringing a good number of students to MTSU who would not otherwise be involved with our university.

Project News: The PI took three College of Media and Entertainment students to Brazil over the summer to shoot a documentary film. The three films are tentatively scheduled for release over the next year 2022-2023, with staggered releases as they finish. Check back for updates at https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant21-22projects.

 

image for film project

 

Tissue Culture of American Ginseng

Primary Investigator (PI):  Ethan Swiggart, MTSU Department of Agriculture

PI’s Project Description: The goal of this project was to increase the understanding of the American ginseng (panax quinquefolius) seed germination and emergence. Seeds from American ginseng have double dormancy, meaning they require two years (18 months) to begin the germination process. Seeds require two winters at very cold temperatures, known as cold stratification, and will germinate in the spring. They are quite small, around 6 cm and very difficult to see. The resulting output of the grant was the creation of a timelapse video, showing the emergence of American ginseng and illuminates another interesting fact about the elusive plant: American ginseng has hypogeous germination! This is a somewhat rare occurrence where the cotyledon (seed leaves) remains underground. The hypocotyl (stem) is quite short, and the cotyledons force the radicle and epicotyl to elongate. This results in the plant producing true leaves capable of photosynthesis right from the time of emergence.

The Digital Seed Grant enabled the purchase and equipment loan of GoPros, tripods, microphone, and memory cards to create educational videos about the ginseng plant. Additionally, the MTSU Walker Library hosts the published video in the institutional repository (JEWLScholar).

Purpose and Audience: Because it takes 18 months just to start the germination process, this video will aid viewers in understanding the time and effort it takes to produce an American Ginseng plant. This adds to the understanding of why the cost of the root and root products is often quite expensive. Conserving American Ginseng remains an uphill battle, understanding how long these processes take will increase the public’s understanding of the difficulty of the task.

The video will later be uploaded to the International Ginseng Institute’s webpage for our regional growers and enthusiasts to view. It will also be used in BIO 1110 and Plant and Soil Science classes as a unique visual aid at MTSU. It will be possible to use this video to also spark discussions on growth requirements (shady and cool) soil composition (well drained and high in calcium) as well as its cultural significance.

Project News: The one-minute video showing the time-lapse for American ginseng seed germination and emergence is downloadable from at https://jewlscholar.mtsu.edu/handle/mtsu/6770 (82 MB). Plays with time-lapse images, background music, and text annotation of growth description.

 

Screenshot of Ginseng project in repository

 

Funding and Support

The Digital Seed Grant is made possible by generous funding and support from the Library Dean and the Digital Scholarship Initiatives team. For many, this is a starter grant, which can lead to national grant opportunities in the future and Walker Library wants to encourage and support such creativity activity.

As a competitive grant, evaluation of applications and assessment of digital lifecycles of selected projects takes time. The Digital Seed Grant is indebted to the time of the Review Committee, comprised of digital project experts from Walker Library and the Digital Partners (a rotating member from the Department of History, Center for Historic Preservation, Center for Popular Music, Albert Gore Research Center, and the University Archives). The Walker Library also thanks those that help promote the grant and encourage participation. Since 2017, the library has jumped-started campus research by funding 15 digital seed grant projects across various academic disciplines.

The 2022-2023 call for proposals closed, and those projects are running from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2022. As those projects are completed, the following website will be updated: https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant22-23.

For more information on the Digital Seed Grant and access the application, visit https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant.

Posted on 9/16/2022

 

Digital Seed Grants 2022-2023 Awarded

Digital Seed Grants 2022-2023 Awarded

Over summer 2022, the Digital Seed Grant Committee received applications for its sixth year of awarding Digital Seed Grants. The proposals received were of high quality despite the impact of Covid-19, and Walker Library is committed to keeping the library’s charge of accelerating teaching and research with digital technologies and methodologies. One way the library does this is by funding seed grants.

The Digital Seed Grant Committee was exited to receive 7 applications from a diverse background of projects and disciplines and commends all the applicants on their proposed research or teaching projects. We are pleased to announce the 2022-2023 winners in no particular order:

 

Project: Intercultural Engagement in Short-Term Faculty-Led Study Abroad Programs Across Disciplines

Led by Professor Priya Ananth, MTSU Department of World Languages, Literature, and Cultures

Project runs July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023

See the final projects page for updates and details.

 

Project: Matlab/ Simulink simulations for an autonomous vehicle sensors testbed

Led by Professor Jorge Vargas, MTSU Department of Engineering Technology

Project runs July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023

See the final projects page for updates and details.

 

Project: Database of American Synagogue Iconography (DASI)

Led by Professor Laura Cochrane, MTSU Department of Art & Design

Project runs July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023

See the final projects page for updates and details.

 

Project: The African American Material Culture of Death in Middle Tennessee

Led by Professor Stacey Graham, MTSU Center for Historic Preservation

Project runs August 1, 2022 through July 30, 2023

See the final projects page for updates and details.

 

Congratulations to the winners. Check back later to see project news updates. To read about the next cycle for proposals or to see other Digital Seed Grants awarded, visit the Digital Seed Grant page.

Posted on 8/12/2022

Announcing the Final Projects for the Digital Seed Grants 2020-2021

Announcing the Final Projects for the Digital Seed Grants 2020-2021

The Digital Seed Grant (dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant) had impressive applications for its fourth year (award period 2020-2021), which initially launched in 2016 for the award period of 2017-2018. The Digital Seed Grant Review Committee and Library Dean decided to award two grants for the 2020-2021 academic year and extended this into 2022 to help projects impacted by Covid. The AY 20-21 awardees were announced on the website at https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant20-21. A PDF copy of this announcement is preserved in the institutional repository (access the PDF by clicking view/open).

 

Hidden Town in 3D Website

Primary Investigator (PI):  Dr. Molly Taylor-Poleskey, Department of History

PI’s Project Description: This grant enabled the web presence, https://HiddenTown3D.org, for a multi-year, collaborative project of a digital reconstruction of a slave dwelling that no longer exists physically. It is a platform for scholarly and public engagement and builds awareness about the role of museums in considering the impacts of racism on the public understanding of American history. The seed grant covered the wages of a PhD Candidate to create the webpage with a SquareSpace template and populate it with our images, essays, and links to 3D models in SketchFab.

Purpose and Audience: This project launched a website to present 3D animations and scholarly essays for the project, "Hidden Town in 3D." Hidden Town in 3D virtually presents the home and speculated possessions of Christian David, an enslaved man who lived and worked in the Moravian community of Salem, North Carolina in the 19th century. Public History students researched and composed essays explaining their curatorial choices in building and furnishing David's dwelling, which was not preserved with the dwellings of white enslavers when the Old Salem Museum was created in the 1950s.

This website and its 3D animations are the result of a partnership between Old Salem Museum and Gardens in North Carolina and the Animation and Digital History Programs at MTSU. The idea came from the museum’s attempts to recover and represent the stories of the African Americans who lived in the village in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Until the last decade, the museum has focused primarily on the stories and artifacts of the town’s white inhabitants. This project advances new understandings of the nature of race in southern town life through virtual reality, affording the public to perceive historic Salem in a way that is not possible in the current physical landscape.

With the website enabled by the Walker Library Digital Seed Grant, we are now able to share our research and models with a broad audience of scholars, students, and museum visitors. We are currently using the launch of the website as an opportunity to progress to the next phase of the project by asking for feedback through emails to prominent scholars of the interpretation of slavery at American museums. The next phase of the project is to apply for external grants for an on-site iteration of the virtual Christian David house at Old Salem Museums and Gardens. On one unsuccessful National Endowment for the Humanities grant application, two reviewers noted the need for this website to clarify the purpose of the project. HiddenTown3D.org brings all our work together in a succinct, yet informative platform. Website visitors can customize their visit to delve as deeply as they choose into the details of the reconstructions and how they are made.

Project News:

MTSU history, animation students break 3D ground on 19th-century ‘Hidden Town.’ MTSU News article written by Gina Logue on May 15, 2018. https://mtsunews.com/mtsu-old-salem-project-summer2018/

image of 3d buildling

 

Studio Art Teaching Resources

Primary Investigator (PI):  Professor Mark Mcleod, Department of Art and Design

PI’s Project Description: The Digital Seed Grant proposal was submitted to encourage collaboration among Art and Design Foundations faculty through the creation of a website for studio art resources. As part of the Digital Seed Grant that was awarded in September 2020, an email was sent to fellow faculty in the Art and Design Department requesting sample studio assignments and other resources. The resources that were submitted included assignments and assessment measures which are not only invaluable to new faculty that may not have much teaching experience but also beneficial to seasoned faculty members in the ongoing development of their course curriculum. Because of the collection of these resources, studio art faculty now have access to each other’s curricular content and can adjust their own assignments to better align with the learning objectives for foundational courses in Studio Art.

Purpose and Audience: During that first call in September, five colleagues responded with a total of 100 assignments. These 100 assignments were then edited by the grant-funded student worker for clarity and duplications were removed. This editing left us with 25 Drawing (ART 1620 and 1640), 25 Two-Dimensional Design (ART 1610), 18 Three-Dimensional Design (ART 1630), and 13 Digital Foundations (ART 1650) assignments. Although the Foundations faculty meet regularly to discuss the development of our area, I believe that this is the first time that assignments were gathered and shared so broadly. In addition to these 81 assignments other resources such as rubrics, student guidelines for documenting artwork, and course content were also shared.

The grant-loaned equipment included a scanner, digital cameras, and lighting kits. The ongoing pandemic and the continued implementation of remote courses made in-person collaboration with colleagues difficult. We were, however, able to train our current work-study students to use the equipment to document student work. They set up a drop-off table outside of the student gallery space where students and faculty could submit work to be documented. This went surprisingly well and is something we might implement going forward. As things start to return to normal the equipment should see more frequent use.

Through ongoing website maintenance and the inclusion of an assignment submission page, the website is anticipated to continue growing in both content quantity and quality. Encouraging faculty to use the resources provided and to contribute their innovative teaching ideas should improve both student learning experiences and the student’s ability to demonstrate proficiency in learning objectives.

Project News:

The assignments and other resources are viewable on the web at https://studioartteachingresources.com. Instructors can even contribute with the Submit Assignment option on the website.

image of example resources

 

Funding and Support

The Digital Seed Grant is made possible by generous funding and support from the Library Dean and the Digital Scholarship Initiatives team. For many, this is a starter grant, which can lead to national grant opportunities in the future and Walker Library wants to encourage and support such creativity activity.

As a competitive grant, evaluation of applications and assessment of digital lifecycles of selected projects takes time. The Digital Seed Grant is indebted to the time of the Review Committee, comprised of digital project experts from Walker Library and the Digital Partners (a rotating member from the Department of History, Center for Historic Preservation, Center for Popular Music, Albert Gore Research Center, and the University Archives). The Walker Library also thanks those that help promote the grant and encourage participation. Since 2017, the library has jumped-started campus research by funding 15 digital seed grant projects across various academic disciplines.

 

The 2021-2022 call for proposals closed; and those projects recently concluded on June 30, 2022. As those projects are finalized, the following website will be updated: https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant21-22.

The 2022-2023 call for proposals will closed, and those projects are running from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2022. As those projects are completed, the following website will be updated: https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant22-23.

For more information on the Digital Seed Grant and access the application, visit https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant.

Posted on 8/2/2022

We're Hiring: Digital Publishing Manager applications due 7/29/22

We have re-posted a new position! Consider the position of Manager, Digital Publishing at MTSU's Walker Library's Digital Scholarship Initiatives (DSI) unit. The Digital Publishing Manager (DPM) manages established and forthcoming production services for open access publishing and digital archiving in the library, including e-journal and e-book hosting platforms such as OJS, PressBooks, print-on-demand services, and others through effective project management, production workflow, and user support. The application closes on 7/29/22, and the job details are below.

More about Middle Tennessee State University: As a Carnegie doctoral high research institution (R2), with an ethnically diverse student body of nearly 22,000, MTSU is the No. 1 producer of graduates for the Greater Nashville economy, has been named among Princeton Review's list of the Best 385 Colleges in the U.S. three years in a row, and is also the top destination for first generation, adult learning, and transfer students in Tennessee.

For information about MTSU, Walker Library and Rutherford County, see the Hiring Resources section at https://library.mtsu.edu/about/jobs.

For more information about the Library’s DSI unit and its core values visit https://dsi.mtsu.edu/coreprinciples.

Application Review Date: July 29, 2022

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CFP Now Open: Digital Seed Grants 2022-2023

Announcing the call for Digital Seed Grants

The Digital Seed Grant competition for 2022-2023 is now open. Walker Library Digital Scholarship Initiatives invites proposals for seed grants to support individual or collaborative digital scholarship projects in research, teaching, or public outreach from any discipline or area at MTSU. The call for proposals (CFP) is open to MTSU faculty, staff, researchers and graduate students pursing digital scholarship projects (from the arts to sciences and everything in between). Projects run from July 1 to June 30. Applications for the 2022-2023 cycle are due April 18, 2022.

 

Examples of digital projects, past winners, and application guidelines are available at https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant.

 

Seed Grants (up to $2,000)

The number of grants available each year will vary, with each at a maximum of $2,000. A list of the awarded projects are available by year: 2021-2022, 2020-2021, 2019-2020, 2018-2019 and 2017-2018.

Example Uses of Seed Grant

·  Hiring a student worker to perform data collection or analysis, text encoding, or data entry*

·  Digitizing materials not held at Walker Library

·  Purchasing specialized equipment for digitization or analysis

·  Digital textbook, edition, archive or exhibit

·  Media-rich narratives or interactive storytelling

·  Use of games, 3D, AR/VR, or maker projects for research or teaching

·  Applying geospatial methods to literary texts, historical problems, or scientific discoveries

·  Textual, network, audio, or visual analysis

·  Pedagogical focus on civic or public humanities

 

Call for Proposals—Book Chapters--deadline extended to Feb 7!

Working book title: Privacy and Safety in Remote Learning Environments  

Proposal submission deadline extended: February 7, 2022 

Interdisciplinary perspectives are highly encouraged 

Overview 

Online education is not a new phenomenon, but the Covid-19 pandemic caused a sudden and widespread shift online for many K-12 schools and higher education institutions that had little prior experience with it. Even as schools return to in-person classes, online platforms remain prevalent as backup and supplemental content delivery tools. While privacy issues related to education are not new, the sudden shift to online learning brought these concerns into sharp focus for many parents, educators, administrators, and researchers. 

The objective of this book is to reflect on the unintended breaches of privacy, safety, and security that occurred during the rush to move classes online, and to examine and propose solutions for more responsible future use of the platforms.

This book will document how educational institutions approach privacy regarding students and educators, describe privacy initiatives implemented in response to online learning, and contribute to the growing discussion of how privacy and surveillance impact our users, especially students from our most vulnerable populations. 

We encourage a broad range of contributions, including original research, case studies, pedagogical approaches, and critical reflection papers. We especially encourage contributions from K-12 and higher education educators, research centers, museums, and libraries that facilitate online learning or online curriculum, and from underrepresented and historically marginalized racial, social, and/or class groups. Interdisciplinary perspectives are highly encouraged. 

Topics may include but are not limited to: 

  • Privacy policies of 3rd party EdTech platforms (Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Schoology, etc) 
  • Parental “spying” and classroom privacy 
  • Family privacy and synchronous online schooling 
  • Online harassment among students (private chats, doxing, social media, etc) 
  • Cameras in student private spaces  
  • Surveillance of student online activities 
  • Exam proctoring software and privacy concerns  
  • Personally Identifiable Information in online learning systems and susceptibility to cybercriminals  
  • Privacy, storage, and deletion policies for recordings and data 
  • Handling data removal requests from students  
  • Appointing a privacy expert in schools, universities, or districts 
  • How and why to perform security/privacy audits 
  • Student attitudes about online privacy 
  • Instructor privacy/safety concerns 
  • Libraries: privacy policies of ebook platforms 
  • Libraries: online reference services and transcripts 
  • Identity authentication best practices 
  • Learning analytics and “big data” in higher education  

Submission Procedures: 

Potential contributors are invited to submit proposals of not more than 500 words for chapters of 3,000-5,000 words (not including tables/figures and references). All submitted chapters will be reviewed by at least two peer-reviewers on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project. Inquiries should be sent to the editors and proposals submitted via the submission form (link below). 

Tentative timeline- (adjusted for deadline extension): 

February 7, 2022 / Chapter proposals due

February 21, 2022 / Authors notified

May 21, 2022 / Final chapters due

July 10, 2022 / Post peer-review, final edits from editors/authors due

Fall 2022 / Book published 

Submission form at https://mtsu.libwizard.com/f/BookCFP2022 (extended deadline of 2/7/2022) 

About the Book 

The book is published by Digital Scholarship Initiatives (DSI) at the James E. Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University. DSI has been publishing peer-reviewed journals and hosting scholarly and creative works at MTSU since 2014. The book has no submission nor acceptance fees for manuscripts and will be published open access (free to read online), while also available as a print-on-demand option. Chapter contributions are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license (CC BY-NC 4.0).

About the Editors  

Denise Quintel (denise.quintel@mtsu.edu) and Amy York (Amy.York@mtsu.edu) are faculty librarians at the James E. Walker Library at Middle Tennessee State University. Collectively, the editors have a wide range of experience in web services and instructional technology. Please contact them with any questions.  

Printable copy of the CFP (PDF)

 

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