How do I pronounce #DigPINS?
“Dig” comes from digital and is pronounced the same way dij. PINS is pins (dij-pins).
I want to take #DigPINS. Where do I go?
#DigPINS was originally designed as a faculty/staff development experience at a liberal arts college. With this site we are making a template of that curriculum available for other facilitators who are interested in running #DigPINS at their college or university. If you are not at an institution that is running #DigPINS consider showing this site to someone at your institution who would facilitate it or consider facilitating it yourself. The #DigPINS tag on twitter is open though it is most active when someone is running a #DigPINS course at their institution.
Do I need to run #DigPINS exactly as you have it laid out in this template?
Absolutely not! The template laid out here is licensed with a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. We encourage derivatives of this curriculum for non-commerical use and ask that you share alike. The whole point is that you will take this template and make it your own.
How many people take #DigPINS at a time?
Of course each time #DigPINS is run it is a little different and there are changes for each facilitator and each school but from our experience #DigPINS is best run on a small cohort model with at least one facilitator and 3-7 participants.
What kind of experience do I need to facilitate #DigPINS?
#DigPINS facilitators should be versed in social media networking and comfortable working in online communities in both the public and in more localized channels. Past experience participating in or facilitating Connectivist MOOCs, connected learning courses, and other open online networked learning experiences is of a great benefit. A background in research and practice around digital identity, digital pedagogy, digital networks, and digital scholarship is important.
Do I need my own website to facilitate #DigPINS?
You can feel free to run #DigPINS as you see fit but a crucial part of the design is work in the public. To facilitate this a public facing website is pretty important. We have provided subdomains for past iterations of the course and will do so as long as we are able.
Do the participants need their own websites/blogs?
There are different approaches to this but having participants blog publicly has been an important part of the course in past iterations. Two different approaches have been taken: 1. Participants each establish their own blogs. 2. A facilitator sets up one blog and gives cohort participants accounts on that blog. You will want to do a participant analysis before starting your implementation and you should consider the level of digital literacy of your group, what kind of resources you have to dedicate to technical support when making this decision.
Are you interested in facilitating?
This site is set up to give you information about running #DigPINS at your school. We provide you with basic templates that can be easily adapted and implemented in your context. There are links to past iterations, blog posts written by other facilitators about their experiences, and we are happy to talk with you about creating a subdomain on this site for you when you run #DigPINS at your institution!
Are you interested in participating?
If you are interesting in being a participant of #DigPINS, we suggest checking out the past iterations and #DigPINS on Twitter. Right now #DigPINS is being run locally at different institutions. You can use this site to see if someone at your institution would like to run it. Get in touch with us and we would be happy to talk to you about implementing #DigPINS at your institution.
What if I need help?
Use our Contact Us page to reach out to past facilitators. Keep in mind that past facilitators are not providing professional consultation at this time but are happy to collaborate in a spirit of community.