The Domain of One’s Own initiative (a.k.a. UMW Domains) continues to build momentum, providing any and all students, faculty and staff with their own domain and web hosting. Currently we are hosting 1204 sites across 1071 domains. More than 70 faculty and 900 students have explored this space already, and we are always looking for more. The great thing about this project is it can meet so many diverse needs: a personal website, a course site, a research hub, an online journal, portfolio, digital project, etc. There is no one way to use UMW Domains, so we encourage faculty to contact us about any and all interests you might have to see if this can help fulfill a need. And unlike UMW Blogs, it is more than just WordPress, you can explore open source digital tools like Omeka (a digital exhibit software), wiki applications, the Tumblr-esque IndieWeb app Known, and much more. For some an excellent example of how you might use UMW Domains check out Sue Fernsebner’s Taiping Civil War site … [Read more...]
Domain of One’s Own Video
As part of the article "Reclaiming Innovation" published in the May/June edition of EDUCAUSE Review, DTLT produced a video focusing on the ethos behind UMW's initiative Domain of One's Own. The video features faculty and staff from around UMW talking about this project, including Andrèa Livi-Smith, Susan Fernsebner, and Jeff MCCLurken to name just a few. You can watch it below: … [Read more...]
Jim Groom Co-Authors Article in EDUCAUSE Review
Jim Groom and Brian Lamb published the article “Reclaiming Innovation” in the May/June edition of EDUCAUSE Review. The article examines the state of innovation in higher education in regards to information and education technologies. Additionally, the article featured a series of supplemental videos about various sites of innovation, including one focusing on UMW’s intiaitive Domain of One’s [...] … [Read more...]
Domain of One’s Own 2.0: the Manatee Release
Domain of One’s Own, the distributed, web-based sea cow everyone loves! In this wopping one hour and 26 minute video Martha Burtis and Tim Owens take you through two years of development on the UMW Domains project. It’s the most thorough record available of the work they’ve been doing since Summer 2012, and it traces the thinking, development, and deployment of how UMW is giving every student, faculty, and staff a domain and web hosting account of their own. We understand that an hour and 26 minutes is a very long time, so we’re breaking down the conversation according to specific topics so you can watch what might be relevant for you: 00:01:26 – 00:10:30 Domain of One’s Own 0.5: The Alpha Pilot Timeframe: Spring 2012 through Spring 2013 In the first part of the video Tim and Martha discuss the pilot of Domain of One’s Own. We start with some history. During the Fall 2012/Spring 2013 Academic year we used a dedicated server with MediaTemple … [Read more...]
Talking Domains All Semester Long
Image credit: Kin Lane – Reclaim Evangelist One of the many cool things Cathy Derecki did while at UMW was create EagleEye, a weekly faculty and staff online newsletter about what’s happening in the community. The site runs in the umw.edu in WordPress on our umw.edu install, and the posts are broken down into two basic categories: the first is professional notes, announcements about who presented, published, karate chopped someone, etc. The other is focused around events, news, awards, etc. I’ve tried to share as much of my presentations and other work not just on this blog, but also on EagleEye whenever posible. Turns out this semester was a bear, and I am just getting around to updating my last five talks on EagleEye. So, given I just spent more than an hour writing it all up, I figured I’d taken advantage of a little cross-posting. Since early March of 2014 Jim Groom has delivered numerous invited presentations about the work the Division of Teaching and … [Read more...]
Reclaim the Handout
Click image to download PDF Ryan Brazell shared the prep work he did last week framing UMW’s various digital projects for the AAC&U Diversity, Learning, and Student Success conference in Chicago. Just yesterday he presented alongside Tim Owens and Mary Kayler on UMW Domains, the Online Learning Initaitive, and, based on the document below, at least a nod to the nascent Digital Scholars Instititue. If the document Ryan created as a resource for attendees is any indicator, it looks to have been an amazing session. I really appreciate the way the handout balances the history and vision of DTLT’s work in the “Bags of Gold” section and then goes on to outline the convergence of the various digital initiatives happening at UMW. All of which is topped off with nuts and bolts resources for getting up and running with your own domain as well as a sidebar “Reclaim Toolkit.” I’ve been blogging about much of this work for over eight years now, and … [Read more...]
UMW Domains-Now with More Community!
Domain of One’s Own has been an unqualified success, and Martha’s post on this project provides a nice summary of where we are at six months in. We’re on track to have more than 700 folks in the UMW community with their own domain and web hosting this academic year, and for 2014/15 we’re shooting to double that number with an additional 1500 domains. Just think of it, 2200 people with their own domain by year two. That’s almost half our campus community—that’s absolutely awesome. Unparalled in the known world—we’re the god damned Magellans of edtech! But like any age of exploration, we have to start mapping this brave new worlds for beauteous mankind, and that’s just what Martha Burtis and Tim Owens have been doing. Since the beginning of the semester they’ve been building a community hub for all of the distributed working happening on UMW Domains. Tim wrote about creating this space in some detail already, and … [Read more...]
UMW Domains in the News
UMW’s innovative initiative Domain of One’s Own has been receiving recognition in trade and academic publications alike. University Business, a publication for IT managers, published an article last week framing this innovative new approach to giving members of their campus the keys to the server. The author of the article for University Business, Matt Zalaznick, talked with Tim Owens of the [...] … [Read more...]
Domain of One’s Own is ALL BUSINESS
Somehow I missed the fact that the article about Domain of One’s Own published in University Business has already been out for a week. I’m slipping. I love that this article was published in an IT management-centered publication. IT management might not be our particular focus at DTLT—we’re all about the teaching and learning—but that’s part of the genius of Domain of One’s Own: it’s protean. And this isn’t the first time a more business-centered publication picked this initaitive up, last semester by Nicole Henderson wrote an article about UMW Domains on the Web Host Industry Review. The author of the article for University Business, Matt Zalaznick, talked with Tim “the wizard” Owens about the project, and it all sounds so good: The tools provided by the “Domain of One’s Own” initiative make it easier for students to carve out their own space on the web, and control and customize it… “Students want to make … [Read more...]
Digital Scholars Institute
Image by Kyle Bean: “The Future of Books.” One of the more exciting things to grow out of the Domain of One’s Own Faculty Initiative—the second cohort starts this week!—is Mary Kayler’s beautiful brainchild the Digital Scholars Institute. The Digital Scholars Institue is a way to continue the work started in the faculty initiative for those interested in sharing out the digital projects they are working on. It’s a way to bring a small group of faculty (5-7) together to talk about what they’re currently working on in the digital realm. The institute can provide a space for faculty to share the details of their work, get feedback from their peers, and publish their ongoing reflections at the end of the year. We’re roughly thinking of this being a series of 5-7 meetings a semester, each of which discusses one faculty member’s digital project (kind of like a dissertation group). They’ll be a cohort of faculty that continues to provide … [Read more...]