Presentation on the East St. Louis Digital Humanities Club

Jeshua Pearson presenting at the DH conference 

On Friday, April 26, my team leaders, Vernon (VJ) Smith, Jr., Ngugi Geoffrey Njenga, Jeshua Pearson, and I made a presentation concerning our work with the East St. Louis Digital Humanities Club. We were presenting as part of the Digital Humanities and the Undergraduate Experience conference, organized by SIUE's IRIS Center.

We discussed what we viewed as benefits, challenges, and overall lessons that we have gained from working with the program.

VJ presenting

VJ explained that "The most rewarding thing about working with these high school students is creating a bond with them. They look to me for guidance when ever they get stuck on there project. Some of the kids ask me questions about what college is like; or have I watched a certain movie that just came out."  He added that "it's a real joy listening to some of their projects on Audacity. What I like the most is how I can learn some new things that the teens found out from using the app."

VJ also pointed that out that he enjoys those moments when the students completed audio compositions and referred to their product as "a fire track."

Ngugi presenting

During the presentation, the guys also mentioned challenges to assisting the high school students. Ngugi, for instance, noted that "the biggest challenging for me anticipating or preparing enough for questions students had regarding the Software. This was a challenge because they kept me on my feet with questions."

It was a good experience for us to get to present our thoughts and observations about working with the DH club. We focus so much of our time on actually running the program, so it's a rare, important opportunity for us to reflect on our activities.

Related:
• The East St. Louis Digital Humanities Club Spring 2019