Category Archives: Teaching

Toward Singularity: A Class on Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, and History

I gave a class today in my online Digital History course on the connection between neuroscience, AI, and history. My initial plan was to deliver it as the last class on Apr 10, to summarize the course while raising questions about the future of historical research considering the rise of AI. I also wanted toContinue reading “Toward Singularity: A Class on Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, and History”

A Visual Multi-Choice Question in an Online Quiz

  I recently gave my students, in the course Digital History (U of T), an online quiz that includes ten multiple-choice questions. One of the questions is about a video game titled Tag Attack, which was submitted by Antonio to the British Library Labs Crowdsourcing Game Jam. This project took place in 2015 utilizing gamingContinue reading “A Visual Multi-Choice Question in an Online Quiz”

Using Visuals in a Course Syllabus

During the academic winter break, I’ve been developing the course Digital History, which takes place in the upcoming term at the Department of History at the University of Toronto. Mostly, I prepared the syllabus, which includes the description and structure of the course, learning outcomes, assignments, marking scheme, assigned readings, schedule of guest talks, asContinue reading “Using Visuals in a Course Syllabus”

Utilizing Multiform Grammar: A Hands-on Workshop for Professionals and Employees

In February, I’ll be giving hands-on workshops on multiform grammar (MFG) at the Learning Enrichment Foundation (LEF) in Toronto. The participants in these will be the professional clients and the staff at the organization. How can proficiency in MFG benefit the two groups? Before answering this question, I like to explain what “proficiency in MFG”Continue reading “Utilizing Multiform Grammar: A Hands-on Workshop for Professionals and Employees”

Using Multiform Grammar in Presentations

How do speakers who use both words and images employ MFG? And how can they do so intentionally and effectively? As you can see in the illustration below, the speaker refers to the image on the screen in three different ways. These are three types of multiform references (MFRs) that integrate words and images intoContinue reading “Using Multiform Grammar in Presentations”

Pulling and Pushing Forces in Multiform References

Explicit, implicit and indeterminate multiform references (MFRs) maintain pulling and pushing forces between their verbal and visual poles. These forces are the mechanisms that potentially move readers to shift their attention between words and images across a multiform argument (MFA) or message. They are the invisible elements that make MFAs cohesive and coherent; the coreContinue reading “Pulling and Pushing Forces in Multiform References”

Indeterminate Multiform References

Indeterminate multiform References (MFRs) begon with terms whose semantic relatedness with terms in the caption or the image is vague and challenging to classify; it is neither a clear semantic similarity, meronym-holonym or any other relatedness; however, indeterminate MFRs seem to influence the semantic, spatial and epistemological aspects of the MFA. In some cases, aContinue reading “Indeterminate Multiform References”

Drawing Childhood Memories on Money as a Teaching Tool

The following article was published in Innovatus, York University’s monthly pedagogical newsletter, on January 19, 2018. It describes an art exercise I gave in my tutorials. In the last tutorial of the fall term, students in the History course Making Money drew their early memories on money. This exercise, given by artist and Teaching Assistant Noa Yaari, buildsContinue reading “Drawing Childhood Memories on Money as a Teaching Tool”