2018 12.4

Information Visualization Pedagogy

Editor: Steven Braun

Articles

Creative Data Literacy: A Constructionist Approach to Teaching Information Visualization

Catherine D'Ignazio, Emerson College; Rahul Bhargava, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Abstract [en] Data visualization has rapidly become a standard approach to interrogating and understanding the world around us in domains that extend beyond the technical and scientific to arts, communications and services. In business settings the Data Scientist has become a recognized and valued role . Journalism has re-oriented itself around data-driven storytelling as a potential saviour for an industry in peril . Governments are moving to more data-driven decision making, publishing open data portals and pondering visualization as an opportunity for citizen participation . This journal itself has numerous examples that use visualization tools and techniques within the digital humanities as a tool for exploration . This boom in attention has led large new populations of learners into the field. Formal educational settings have rushed to create new approaches and introductions to this content, but often they fall back on traditional approaches to things such as scientific charting and graphing . Many view data visualization as a new technology, which runs the risks of replicating old approaches without acknowledging the unique affordances and domains that data visualization relies upon. Data visualization is not simply another technology to integrate into education. It is visual argument and persuasion, far more closely associated with rhetoric and writing than spreadsheets . In this paper we present novel approaches to learning technologies and activities, focused on novice learners entering the field of data driven storytelling. We begin with a deeper dive into the problems we see with introducing new learners into a field characterized by inequality, continue with a discussion of approaches for introducing technologies to education, and summarize the inspirational pedagogies we build on. We then offer some design principles and three activities as examples of the concept of creative data literacy. We assert that creative approaches grounded in constructionist educational theories are necessary to empower non-technical learners to be able to tell stories and argue for change with data.

Critically engaging with data visualization through an information literacy framework

Steven Braun, Northeastern University Library, Digital Scholarship Group

Abstract [en] The proliferation of tools that enable anyone to create visualizations of their data, even with limited experience or skills, has made data visualization more accessible than ever before. This is true in its use in both teaching and learning, as data visualization has increasingly taken on an important pedagogical role in the classroom and in scholarly research. However, with this proliferation of tools there has been a concomitant awareness that visualization needs to be employed through a critical lens that acknowledges its constructedness as explanatory medium and as a product of situated knowledges. Here, I describe one approach to teaching this notion of constructedness via a framework oriented around information literacy, which encourages critical engagement with data, the tools we use to interrogate them, and the visualizations we design to represent them. I describe this approach through a collection of “critical dichotomies” used to evaluate the authority and value of visualizations, which are mapped to a subset of the core information literacy competencies defined in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education. To put these dichotomies into practice, I further describe an interactive activity called “Choose Your Own Adventure, with Data Visualization,” in which participants are given paper and markers to create booklets in the style of Choose Your Own Adventure books and asked to consider the relationship between active choices in the design process of a visualization and how a given visualization is interpreted. In the process, I explore how this framework can encourage us all, as critical practitioners of visualization, to think about the practical relationship between data visualization and information literacy more generally.

Making and Breaking: Teaching Information Ethics through Curatorial Practice

Christina Boyles, Michigan State University

Abstract [en] For many years, digital humanists have responded to Alan Liu’s call for critical digital humanities. Projects such as #TornApart/Seperados and #PuertoRicoMapathon and pieces like “Where is Cultural Criticism in the Digital Humanities?” , “All the Digital Humanists Are White, All the Nerds Are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave” , and “Beyond the Margins: Intersectionality and the Digital Humanities” have paved the way for socially conscious developments in the field. At the same time, pressures from administrators, institutions, and funding agencies often discourage critical engagement in favor of tool development and/or “high tech” projects . As such, we often attempt to adapt highly rewarded tech skills, like text, sentiment, and big data analyses, for use in social justice projects. While it is possible for these two aims to be compatible, we do ourselves a disservice when we try to force them together. So, how should teacher-scholars implement an intersectional digital humanities framework in the classroom? Using my own classroom as a case study, I assert that one effective strategy is through curation, which helps students investigate topics such as race, gender, sexuality, disability, and socioeconomic status through the careful selection, arrangement, and presentation of materials. Doing so teaches students to think more critically about the act of curation, by encouraging them to participate in knowledge construction as well as the dismantling of harmful narratives and power structures. While this approach differs from the tool-based pedagogy often utilized in the field, its emphasis on knowledge production, critical thinking, digital literacy, and social justice gives students proficiency in socially conscious methodologies that can be applied to any project. Linking curation to making and breaking, two digital humanities approaches to meaning-making, provides a method for interrogating “archives of humanity” and developing a pedagogy grounded in cultural critique and social justice .

Placing Graphic Design at the Intersection of Information Visualization Fields

Yvette Shen, Ohio State University

Abstract [en]

Best Practices: Teaching Typographic Principles to Digital Humanities Audiences

Amy Papaelias, SUNY New Paltz

Abstract [en]

Articles

Defining scholarly practices, methods and tools in the Lithuanian digital humanities research community

Ingrida Kelpšienė, Vilnius University, Lithuania

Abstract [en]

Case Studies

Renaissance Remix. Isabella d’Este: Virtual Studiolo

Deanna Shemek, University of California, Irvine, USA; Antonella Guidazzoli, VisitLab - Cineca Interuniversity Consortium, Italy; Maria Chiara Liguori, VisitLab - Cineca Interuniversity Consortium, Italy; Giovanni Bellavia, VisitLab - Cineca Interuniversity Consortium, Italy; Daniele De Luca, VisitLab - Cineca Interuniversity Consortium, Italy; Luigi Verri, VisitLab - Cineca Interuniversity Consortium, Italy; Silvano Imboden, VisitLab - Cineca Interuniversity Consortium, Italy

Abstract [en] Among the most elaborate and coherent instances of Renaissance self-fashioning and female self-determination through culture was a suite of rooms designed by Isabella d’Este in what is now the Ducal Palace museum of Mantua, Italy: a full-blown personal studiolo (study) and an adjoining smaller chamber she called the grotta (grotto). Isabella’s studiolo is a regular point of reference in the study of Renaissance history and art, yet for centuries it has been accessible only in dispersed pieces and in spaces depopulated of major works and artefacts. Digital technology offers the possibility of creating a “remastered” studiolo, a virtual space in which both visual and acoustic elements may be enhanced with respect to previous attempts at its representation. At the same time, historical uncertainty about numerous details in the arrangement of the objects in this collection requires a high level of flexibility in the digital remix, allowing for the programming of a customisable virtual environment. In anticipation of the project’s full construction and in order to facilitate discussion with potential users about the Virtual Studiolo’s backward design, the authors have developed a concept-demonstration video within the open-source Blender environment (www.blender.org). Among the concerns we aim to address in this phase of the project is how to combine historical accuracy, emotional power, and creative possibilities for users. This case study presents some of the opportunities, constraints and challenges we confronted during the production of our video as we strove within the Blender open environment for a result that will be historically accurate, emotionally compelling, and creatively flexible.

Issues in Digital Humanities

Racism in the Machine: Visualization Ethics in Digital Humanities Projects

Katherine Hepworth, University of Nevada, Reno; Christopher Church, University of Nevada, Reno

Abstract [en]

Announcements

2018 12.4

Information Visualization Pedagogy

Editor: Steven Braun

Articles

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Case Studies

Issues in Digital Humanities

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