In Spring 2017: In order to bring attention to Digital Humanities and the technologies that would/might be used in the Visualization courses, we hosted a series of workshops:

Visualizing Time: Timelines as Digital Storytelling

Daisy Benson (Howe Library) and Hope Greenberg (Center for Teaching and Learning)
In this workshop, we will explore various timeline programs that visualize change over time and trace historical chronology. Intended for faculty interested in integrating digital timeline projects into their teaching, the workshop will discuss the strengths of different programs, offer a brief overview of how to use the tools, and provide examples of some assignments that could be built around digital timelines.

Visualizing Data: Analyzing and Presenting Statistical Data

Jarlath O’Neill-Dunn (Spatial Analysis Laboratory) and Alan Howard (Howe Library)
Have you been browsing the internet, looking at wonderful interactive dashboards that make large amounts of tabular data accessible and interactive and wondered, “how can I do that?” This workshop will introduce you to Tableau, an easy to use data visualization software package that you can incorporate into your teaching and research. We will also introduce JMP, a family of statistical discovery tools that are visual, interactive, comprehensive, and extensible. You learn the process of building data visualization dashboards and sharing these dashboards on the web.

Mapping Stories: Embedding Info on Maps, Telling Geographic Stories

Jarlath O’Neill-Dunn (Spatial Analysis Laboratory)
Maps have always been a powerful way of communicating geographic information. This workshop introduces you to several creative cartographic tools for blending standard quantitative spatial data with images, sound, text, and other media. We will explore several strategies for generating spatial narratives, from basic annotations in Google’s MyMaps and easy census mapping in Social Explorer, to creating more sophisticated Story Maps using ArcGIS Online, which integrate geographic data with text, pictures, and videos in an online portal for interaction with the information in new and exciting ways.

Basic Video Techniques for Digital Scholarship

Have you thought about creating a project like a filmed interview, video mash-up, or mini documentary for your class but don’t know where to start? Come explore the video recording and editing equipment and software available at the Multimedia Resources and Services Department at the Howe Library. This workshop will introduce participants to digital cameras, digital video recorders, and ancillary equipment. Participants will also be taught basic video importing and editing techniques on Final Cut Pro. The workshop will give participants an opportunity to work hands- on with the equipment and editing software.

Illustrator for Digital Scholarship

This workshop focuses on Adobe Illustrator. This tool is somewhat involved, but we have excellent support on campus. In these two sequenced, Media Lab workshops faculty can learn enough to work with the Media Lab to construct visualization projects or assignments for their classes (and the Media Lab can teach/support students too, when the time comes).