http://bit.ly/humviz-framework | DH2017 Poster
Points, lines, polygons, and pixels, the primary elements of digital visualization, can be arranged and rearranged to present infinite interpretations of space, time, objects, or patterns. Visualization offers a significant opportunity for humanities students to develop digital visual literacies[1] through exploratory making, analysis, and storytelling. Yet incorporating digital visualization components into teaching depends upon instructors’ course content and access to expertise, time, and tools. A scalable, replicable approach is needed to support visualization pedagogies that can be implemented in diverse educational environments. Here I propose a framework for designing and implementing visualization projects within existing courses, drawing on my instructional experience in the Wired! Lab at Duke University.
In 2010, Tanya Clement conducted a survey, "Designing for Digital Literacy," in which she collected information regarding "undergraduate program[s] inflected by the digital humanities." In her later discussion of the survey results2, she notes the diverse methodologies, subject areas, and institutions that are engaging digital humanities in some form.3 Across the globe, across institutions, across disciplines, humanities scholars are implementing digital humanities theories and methods in the classroom.
For those looking for ways into the digital humanities, those whose work primarily occurs in the classroom, those who are new to humanities visualization, how can they, too, join in? While many have built their programs one assignment at a time, might we share across institutions and geographies in a process of assignment and course design that enables as many teachers and students as possible to engage in visualization as alternative forms of humanities knowledge production and presentation?4 Following this framework, instructors can shape project ideas into assignments suitable to multiple contexts. It matches digital methods and resources with pedagogical goals, course content, and visualization concepts by guiding instructors through an iterative planning process.
This framework is in its infancy and needs feedback to mature. Please consider contributing by commenting on the work published here; forking it and building out a framework that suits your institution, discipline, and cultural context; and sharing it with your teaching communities.
[1] Susan Brown, “Don’t Mind the Gap: Evolving Digital Modes of Scholarly Production Across the Digital-Humanities Divide,” in Retooling the humanities: the culture of research in Canadian universities, ed. Daniel Coleman. (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2011), 210-211.
[2] Tanya Clement, "Multiliteracies in the Undergraduate Digital Humanities Curriculum" in Digital Humanities Pedagogy, ed. Brett D. Hirsch, Open Book Publishers, 2012, pp. 365-388.
[3] Ibid, 379-81.
[4] Stephen Barnard, “Building Castles in the Air: Critical Digital Pedagogy and the Pursuit of Praxis,” in Hybrid Pedagogy, September 1, 2015. http://www.digitalpedagogylab.com /hybridped/building-castles-in-the-air-critical-digital-pedagogy-and-the-pursuit- of-praxis/. Accessed July 26, 2017.