The Humanities Computer Laboratory has hosted numerous events since its opening in 2000, including a Mellon-funded, MITC-sponsored (Midwest Instructional Technology Center) symposium and workshop, "Teaching and Learning with Technology in the Humanities" June 24-29, 2003. The symposium and workshop drew numerous participants from various disciplines in the humanities as well as library science and technology from MITC institutions (institutions in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and the Great Lakes Colleges Association). Total symposium participants numbered ninety-three from sixteen disciplines while the workshop participation totaled forty-one (including four Lawrence student workers as well as project advisors/instructors). Nineteen MITC institutions participated in these events as well as Vassar, Hamilton, and Hendrix colleges in addition to Trinity University and the University of Virginia. During the workshop, participants and advisors from fourteen institutions developed fourteen projects, including three from Lawrence faculty.
Most recently the lab hosted the Instructional Technology session of the Inauguration Weekend Open House on May 6, 2005. During this session fifteen technology projects or tools used to facilitate learning were displayed with faculty, staff and students on hand to explain them and answer questions. In February 2005 the lab hosted a computer technology class for GEMS Day (Girls Explore Math and Science) during which a group of girls created a website for the event.
Other events held in the lab include campuswide gatherings, such as the May 2004 "Progressive Tech Tasting," which also traveled to other locations on campus as seen in this event map and program list. (More projects were featured at the event's end during a demonstration of the Chemistry Department's wireless laptops.) The lab hosted the Fall 2003 Technology Fair, which featured projects from the MITC event as well as other projects from LU faculty and staff. The previous fall the lab along with the Center for Teaching and Learning hosted the Workshop on Digital Videotaping of Speakers with Susan Binkley of the College of Wooster and Cheryl Johnson of Denison University. With the installation of Dreamweaver, a web design software program, the lab has held workshops for both faculty and students on how to develop websites, including the use of templates as with the student electronic portfolios. Students have learned other technical tools in regular humanities classes in the lab, such as PowerPoint, FrontPage, Audacity, Photoshop/PaintShopPro, and iMovie, facilitated by staff from Instructional Technology and Information Technology Services.
The lab has also been featured in presentations at technology events. During the Teaching and Learning with Technology in the Humanities symposium, Professor Judith Sarnecki and Professor Timothy Spurgin held a session on how they have used the lab in their teaching of French and Gender Studies classes. Peter Gilbert, former Director of Instructional Technology at Lawrence, and Donnie Sendelbach held a poster session on the lab at the MITC-sponsored Instructional Technologists: Exploring Our Dynamic Roles held February 27 to March 1, 2003, at the University of Michigan. At the following year's conference, Donnie Sendelbach presented "The Successes and Challenges of Student Electronic Portfolios," in which the lab monitors were recognized as providing the main support on campus for e-ports beyond initial training sessions.