Breakout Sessions

Mapping history with digital tools can make researching, analyzing and communicating about history incredibly engaging for students. In this demonstration session, we will use examples from class projects to walk through the process of mapping historical data and topics with easy-to-learn techniques utilizing ArcGIS Online and StoryMaps. We’ll show how spatial analysis unveils patterns of human history across time and place, and give you time to try it out for yourself. Bring a computer and ArcGIS Online login (if you have one.)

Alternative Text is one way to make visual content accessible to non-sighted audiences online. Often, accessibility practices like this one are seen as box ticking exercises required to meet legal compliance. It is possible to infuse the writing of alt text with creativity and fun! We will use this process of translation to strengthen critical thinking skills as well as digital accessibility.

This workshop will introduce the ‘Alt Text as Poetry’ project, a collaboration between artists Bojana Coklyat and Shannon Finnegan, originally supported by Eyebeam and the Disability Visibility Project. Using their workbook, participants will work in pairs to undertake a series of creative writing exercises and learn how to write better alt text for images. We will explore the intersection of A.I. and Alt Text. We will think creatively and critically about technology’s effect on society and how better alt text can make online communities more accessible, fun, and welcoming.

As their capstone projects for the Digital Arts & Humanities minor program, graduating seniors create an ePortfolio that curates and critically reflects on the digital processes and products of courses and co-curricular experiences they’ve had at Carleton, guided by readings on the current state of interdisciplinary digital scholarship.

In this breakout session, our senior minors will demonstrate and briefly present the digital portfolios they have been working on this year and answer questions about their work. Come say hi, see the amazing interdisciplinary projects our Digital Arts & Humanities minors have done, and get a sense of how ePortfolios can share academic work with audiences outside academia.