Chris Blair, “From the Militantly Marginal to Weird Media: The progression of IDMAA conference themes and the evolution of digital education in the academy, 2003–2022”
The development of IDMAA over the past twenty years mirrors the evolution of digital education in many ways. We started as a rag-tag group of idealists who were often alone in our respective institutions and our respective disciplines. Most of us spent an inordinate amount of time just explaining what digital media or digital humanities or digital arts was, not only to prospective students and parents but to colleagues in our own departments. Fast forward twenty years and “digital” has become so ubiquitous in society that we question to use it as a descriptor at all. We may find ourselves teaching alongside former students, who know not of a world immersed in digital media.
At the same time, many of the originally interdisciplinary programs that peppered early IDMAA conferences have evolved into departments of their own, or, more commonly, have folded back into a more traditional discipline, like Communication, Art, Computer Science or English. Most of the early members have moved on, some retired, and a new generation of digital educators have taken up the mantle. This paper traces the development of digital education in higher education, using the variety of IDMAA conference themes over the years as a metaphor: from being “Militantly Marginal” and “Way off center—Right on target” at the very beginning; shifting to a more future-focused direction like “@ the Digital Edge” and “Fast Forward 2012;” finding our voice as we begin “Breaking Barriers” and looking for “Inclusivity in the Digital Age;” winding up in the present where we find ourselves examining “Broken” and “Weird Media” in a global pandemic.
Davin Heckman, “iDMAa’s Future”
Heckman hosts a casual conversation about the development of this year’s conference, the continued development of the organization during its transition to WSU, and announces the theme for next year’s conference. In this session, we will be actively seeking input on how to continue to improve the conferences, workshops, and exhibitions moving forward.
