Marshall University’s Clio, a website and mobile application that connects users with the history and culture that surround them, has been named an Education Futurist by Campus Technology.
The project is one of only 11 selected in six categories to represent the magazine’s 2016 Innovator Awards.
Rhea Kelly, executive editor of Campus Technology, said the Education Futurist category recognizes “projects that are forward-looking in some way—sometimes it’s the use of cutting-edge technology, sometimes innovative pedagogy or out-of-the-box thinking.
“We were impressed with the crowdsourcing philosophy behind Clio, the way it draws on the collective knowledge of the community to create a valuable resource that is available to anyone,” Kelly said. “And the idea of an individual professor creating a tool and contributing it to the broader digital ecosystem is something that represents the future of higher education—a commitment to openness and collaboration.”
Dr. David Trowbridge, an associate professor of history at Marshall, created Clio in 2012, and since it has grown into a national resource with more than 20,000 users a month and 10,000 curated entries. Trowbridge was recently named a Whiting Public Engagement Fellow, for which he received $50,000 and a six-month leave to devote toward development of Clio.
“Ultimately, I hope this recognition gives us the resources to share the word that this technology is available for anyone to use,” said Trowbridge.
Innovator Award honorees will be recognized at an awards ceremony at the 2016 Campus Technology Conference held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston Aug 1-4.
Named after the mythological muse of history, Clio is free, with a growing database that includes museums, art galleries, monuments, sculptures and historical sites. For more information about Clio, visit www.theclio.com.