디지털 인문학과 선비문화 콘텐츠

Abstract

In Digital Humanities education, the meaning of digital content is not limited to the finished and distributable product created by using digital technologies. Rather, digital content in the pedagogical sense is a byproduct of the educational process in which students learn to create new forms of knowledge by combining humanities knowledge with digital technologies. In this creative process, students not only acquire the digital writing abilities, but they can also expand their understanding of the humanities knowledge used in their project. This paper aims to demonstrate the potentials of teaching digital technology as a way of enhancing the efficacy of college-level humanities education. When integrating digital technology into humanities education, guiding students through the process of making one’s own digital content will have greater pedagogical value than simply teaching them how to use the already existing digital contents. In my Digital Humanities undergraduate course, I taught students how to build digital encyclopedia on the subject of the Korean Confucian Academies using digital technologies. As an outcome, the students not only acquired a set of key digital writing abilities, but they also showed increased understanding and interest in the humanities knowledge that was the target content of their project. The students learned much about Confucianism, history, and traditional culture of Korea, as well as technologies for compiling digital encyclopedia. The case illustrates the point that teaching digital writing abilities to undergraduate students can be a highly effective way to boost our younger generations’ interest in the humanities knowledge that was previously remote and unknown to them. The confidence that they can express themselves in the digital world evokes a great motivation for students to pursue deeper and wider humanities knowledge in order to enhance the quality of their own digital writing products. I propose that digital compilation projects performed in public sector should be more focused on producing reusable knowledge objects, with which our young generations will create their own digital contents.