The core function of this workshop is introducing personal digital archiving in a learning setting as a tool for expanding practices of digital maintenance and critical reflection. Some use cases for incorporating the workshop are:
- Implementing a digital management system for assignments and projects
- Personal tie-in to lessons on examining historical and cultural artifacts in an arts or humanities course
- Reflection and production of community knowledge production and archive
However you plan to implement it, the workshop allows students to reflect on their digital materials, analyze the systems those materials exist in, build their own management or archive practices, and create some sustainable frameworks and habits for their new skills.
Who is this workshop for?
The primary audience is educators of students in secondary or early post-secondary learning environments. If you are already teaching digital literacy and critical thinking skills, this workshop can offer an addition to a lesson or skill day. MMDD is not exhaustive as the realities of teaching mean there is limited time, but there are extras on the resource page to extend the lesson.
Structure of Workshop
The four parts of the workshop are:
- Reflection – Critical reflection of digital habits and systems
- Digital Ecosystems – An interrogation of our digital ecosystems for managing our digital files and data at large
- Building Your System – Learn practical methods to build your own management and preservation system
- Sustainable Habits – Create goals for integrating maintenance into sustained practice
Each section includes a short introduction that frames the activity, one or more guided activities, and an ending that either closes the module or transitions to the next one.
Material Needs and Time Estimates
This workshop requires internet-enabled devices or devices that are used for file storage, i.e. laptops or desktops.
Personal devices are good as students would have the most familiarity with their own, but shared institutional devices can also work with some adjustments.
The whole workshop can be done within 50 minutes to 1 hour. Some portions can be streamlined to fit into a 45 minute session.
Before You Begin
Review each section to understand the flow
Test technical elements that will be used for demonstration
Gather relevant examples and matericals for your intended framing
Other considerations:
It may be helpful to have students compile a short written assignment about digital file management, archiving, or digital memory before the session day to gauge preliminary thoughts and assumptions.
If this lesson is being introduced with a specific topic, reintroduce the readings or multimedia to start the session, discuss how the materials relate to the session topic and clear up any points on confusion.
The workshop will touch on power dynamics and surveillance in technology. Please make sure that you are comfortable engaging with those topics and that you can navigate uncomfortable truths from students should they arise.
Supplemental Files
The file below is a worksheet for a Personal Digital Archiving workshop created at the State Library at North Carolina. It can be used as a place for note-taking during the Reflection and Building a System modules.
