Use the links below to view descriptions of the workshops that will be offered during the afternoon.
Introduction to Omeka
taught by Zachary Coble
Omeka is a web publishing platform used by archives, librarians, museums, and many others organization. It is used to to organize, describe, and display digital images, audio files, videos, and texts. The websites are visually appealing (e.g. many themes feature responsive design), and you can create exhibits to tell the narrative of groups of items.
In this introduction to Omeka, you’ll learn how to add images, audio, video, and text to your archive, how to arrange items into collections, and how to create exhibits. We’ll also go over the difference between Omeka.net and self-hosted Omeka sites, examples of pedagogical uses of Omeka, and discuss the Dublin Core metadata standard for describing digital objects.
To bring:
1. Laptop
2. Sample materials (several images, pdfs, and/or audiovisual files)
3. An Omeka.net Basic account (free) – sign up at www.omeka.net/signup
Handouts (complements of Miriam Posner) available at:
http://zachcoble.com/Omeka-Up-and-Running.docx
http://zachcoble.com/Omeka-Creating-an-Exhibit.docx
Theming Omeka
taught by Kim Nguyen
Attendees learn the basics of Omeka theming, with a hands-on crash course in HTML and CSS followed by Omeka-specific workflows. This workshop covers both modifying existing themes as well as building new Omeka themes from scratch. There will be line-by-line breakdowns of code snippets from existing Omeka projects, lessons on using the Omeka documentation, and a showcase of upcoming Omeka features for themers. All experience levels are welcome, though those who want to follow along should have an Omeka installation with direct access to theme files.
Under the Omeka Hood
taught by Patrick Murray-John
In this workshop Patrick will peel back some of the layers of Omeka to reveal some of the details of how and why Omeka works the way it does. We will look at the patterns that appear throughout Omeka and Omeka plugins, and what those patterns say about what can and cannot be easily done with Omeka. We will also talk about some of the tools available to plugin writers to augment existing pages, override default displays, and manipulate site structure. Along the way, we will look closely at some small plugins that make use of these affordances. Participants will leave with a better understanding of why Omeka does what it does, and what is (and is not) possible through plugins. This session will be useful for experienced Omeka users, developers, and potential developers.
Teaching with Omeka
taught by Kimon Keramidas and David Jaffee
In this workshop Kimon and David will show some examples of different applications of Omeka as a tool for teaching and experimenting with digital exhibitions and digital composition in the classroom. The workshop will begin by showing how Omeka can be used as a hub for alternative practice in relatively traditional courses and end with examples of how Omeka can be used to teach students to think beyond the research paper and in more non-linear multi-modal approaches. Less a toolsy workshop and more a demonstration and open conversation, people with a wide range of experiences using Omeka as a pedagogical tool are encouraged to participate as we will use a few BGC sites as starting points for a discussion about the ways Omeka can help to open up our teaching.
