Virtual Workshop. Preregister by December 7 to participate. 

Led by Anastasia Pantazopoulou, the “Imagineering Stories” workshop is centered around digital technologies which have transformed the way we conceptualize and tell stories creating a space where anyone can express themselves. More specifically, engaging with the goal of the Intersections group, the workshop aims at familiarizing the audience with digital storytelling, a digital technology that lends itself to be used as an educational, research, and social-interaction tool. The participants will be actively introduced to the possibilities that WeVideo, a video editing platform, affords to researchers and especially instructors, and will reflect on ways in which they can incorporate and utilize digital storytelling in their classes to facilitate critical discussions and creative thinking, especially at a time when online classes are our daily reality.

Anastasia Pantazopoulou is a PhD candidate in Classics at the University of Florida. She holds a BA in Philology majoring in Classics (2013), and an MA in Ancient Greek Philology (2015) from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. She is an alumna of the American Academy in Rome CSS, an Intersections-Mellon Grant doctoral student for the 2018-2021 academic years, and a UF Graduate Student Teaching Award recipient for the 2017-2018 academic year. Her research interests include ancient Greek and Roman drama, and metatheater, classical reception, digital humanities, performance studies, and public scholarship.

This workshop is free. However, attendance is limited to 29 participants. Please click here to register by December 7. Registration will be on a first come, first serve basis. For additional information, contact Anastasia Pantazopoulou at apantazopoulou@ufl.edu.

This event is organized by the UF Mellon Intersections Imagineering the Technosphere group, with additional support from the UF Center for Humanities in the Public Sphere; the UF George A. Smathers Libraries; and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Virtual Zoom Workshop with Preregistration 

What is your “why”? What motivates you in your personal and professional life? What future do you wish to create? How do you wish to tell the story of the work that you engage in? This workshop will help you leverage the power of storytelling to tap into your passions and purpose and unleash your best self. Your story is important and meaningful. By reflecting on your experiences and envisioning your professional and personal growth in the form of a story, you will be able to align your goals, your trajectory, and your legacy with the story you want to live!

Dr. Jaron Jones brings a wealth of expertise in personal leadership development for higher education. He is passionate about working with faculty, student organizations, administrators, and athletics to enhance student experiences and outcomes during their time in high school, college and beyond.

Brandon Telg is a social entrepreneur who strives to help people grow through understanding and developing their personal stories. He combines his experience in communication with a hands-on mentoring approach to work with people and organizations to achieve their goals.

This event is organized by the UF Mellon Intersections Imagineering the Technosphere group, with additional support from the UF Center for Humanities in the Public Sphere; the UF George A. Smathers Libraries; and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

This event is free and open to UF students, faculty, and staff. However, registration is limited to 40 participants and is on a first come, first serve basis. Click here to preregister for this event. Registration is limited, so please sign up in advance. For more information, contact Dr.  Sara Gonzalez (saragonz@ufl.edu).

We are happy to announce that our course was awarded a 2020 Affordable UF Badge as a recognition of our commitment to affordable education. By producing on our own the materials of this course, including the UF Quest Game, its 3D printed parts, and the associated mobile app we managed to reduce the cost of course materials to less than $20 per credit hour, which is the designated limit of the affordable UF initiative. Through our efforts we made it possible for all of our students to access the resources they needed to be successful in your course.

More specifically the say: “Today, universities have students declare a major almost immediately. That’s not to say they cannot change their major but, once a student is following their course track, it can become more difficult to switch as they progress further into their major. And for those students that love their major, they often opt to take other classes within their college major instead of exploring all the different electives that are available. But, sometimes students’ schedules are just so stress-packed that an easy, fun, and exciting elective is the perfect way to round out a schedule. Electives can serve many purposes: fulfill an individual’s major requirement, supplement more rigorous courses to complete a minor, fill a schedule, or simply to have great fun. “

Imagineering the Technosphere is one of these wish-you-took electives!

For more information visit: https://haveuheard.com/posts-uf/elective-classes/

More specifically, their post titled “UF Quest class turns campus into an interactive game” said “In the humanities class Imagineering the Technosphere, homework isn’t based on a book chapter, but an adventure through campus guided by the GPS-powered Time Traveler app. “

Link: https://spotonflorida.com/north-central-florida/1272181/uf-quest-class-turns-campus-into-an-interactive.html

The UF Quest Game that was created as part of our Imagineering the Technosphere project was featured on March 11, 2020 in EdScoop, an on-line news outlet for education.

The article was titled “Immersive app turns U. of Florida campus into educational board game” and provided a detailed presentation of the project: “The game, part of a class called “Imagineering the Technosphere,” taps into an app called Time Traveler that uses GPS to navigate students around campus and bestow historical insights into the locations they visit, such as museums, research facilities and event venues. Upon arrival at each location, the app presents historical information and later poses a question that tests students’ comprehension of the information presented. The app also ties into a corresponding physical board game in which students compete against each other for 3D-printed pieces that correspond to the locations visited. ”

You can read the full article here: https://edscoop.com/university-florida-immersive-app-educational-board-game/

Our Imagineering the Techosphere class was featured on March 6, 2020 in UF news.

The article was titled “UF class turns campus into an interactive game” and provided a detailed presentation of our class and its innovative UF Quest game. According to the article: …in the humanities class “Imagineering the Technosphere,” homework isn’t based on a book chapter, but an adventure through campus guided by the GPS-powered Time Traveler app.

The full story by Alisson Clark can be found here https://news.ufl.edu/2020/03/quest-board-game/

At Google, we believe that artificial intelligence can provide new ways of approaching problems and meaningfully improve people’s lives. That’s why we’re excited to support organizations that are using the power of AI to address social and environmental challenges. Google.org issued an open call to organizations around the world to submit their ideas for how they could use AI to help address societal challenges. We looked for projects across a range of social impact domains and levels of technical expertise, from organizations that are experienced in AI to those with an idea for how they could put their data to better use.  In this lecture I will talk about this program and speak about my personal experience working on it.

Oscar Wahltinez is a Developer Programs Engineer at Google working on Android, cameras and machine learning.

This lecture is sponsored by the Mellon Intersections Group “Imagineering and the Technosphere” and is free and open to the public.

For information or questions, please contact Angelos Barmpoutis at angelos@digitalworlds.ufl.edu

Our team was happy to find out that the UF Quest Game was featured in the Fall 2019 issue of Ytori Magazine published by the UF College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

An on-line version of this article can be found in the following link: https://news.clas.ufl.edu/reimagining-the-humanities/#intersections-third-question