It’s easy to consider digital rhetoric and writing in terms of always-advancing computer technologies. This isn’t inaccurate, and keeping our fingers on the pulse regarding the rhetorical affordances of new software makes for innovative digital writing, research, and pedagogy. At the same time, however, it’s helpful to remember that digital rhetoric is more than what’s possible through recently released products. In “Wampum as Hypertext,” Angela Haas expands our digital scope beyond the computer screen by reminding us that “[a]ll writing …
Accessible Data Visualizations
Are you reading this blog post from computer screen or an screen reader? Did you need to adjust the font or text size, screen brightness, or filter the interface through a browser extension or rely on an app like Accessibility to access this information? In her entry on “Access” in Keywords for Disability Studies, Bess Williamson notes that despite advances in accessibility rights due to technology, “technical change does not necessarily translate to the deeper goals of openness, inclusion, or opportunity” …
When Data Visualization Goes Wrong and Numbers Mislead
Source image: The Most Misleading Charts of 2015 Fixed on Quartz To some students and readers, one of the rhetorical effects of data visualization is that the mere presence of a pie chart, graph, or timeline on a page confers “legitimacy” to an argument. At worse, this gesture attempts to obfuscate weak evidence. At best, the information conveyed may be correct but unnecessary to support an argument. In a piece for The New York Times, By the Numbers writer Charles M. Blow compared the …
Workshop Recap: Overdubbing Audio
The DWRL’s new recording room saw its first action in the Overdubbing Audio Workshop held this past Friday. Will Burdette was at the helm, and he began by instructing participants on both audio recording equipment and strategies, with particular focus on recording in studio environments. He then provided those present the opportunity to record in two distinct environments (one being the new recording room featured above) before uploading to Garageband, performing minor editing functions, and listening to the differences between …
Visualizing Data with Google Maps
Visualization: Sierra Mendez. Text: Amy Tuttle. It’s hard to believe that at one time, map ownership was a privilege reserved for the wealthiest members of a society. But thanks to modern surveying techniques and satellite systems, highly precise maps are widely available on the internet. As a result of this ubiquity, maps have become absolutely critical in many fields of human endeavor. With a few clicks of a mouse, Google Maps will allow you to explore the earth, the moon, …
Cool Tools: Tableau
Last Friday, the DWRL hosted another workshop in preparation for the digitally accessible map we plan to create for our diverse student body. In conjunction with a discussion of collecting and analyzing data, Amy Tuttle provided an excellent lesson on Tableau, an online service that allows users to re-present data in creative ways, like this visualization of the relationship between the numbers of students enrolled and doctoral degrees earned by Reinhard Mueller, one of our staff members.
Affectively Interactive
One of my favorite data visualizations concerns the Beatles. Created by Adam McCann from Dueling Data, the graphic, amongst other things, lets the user hover their computer cursor over illustrations of band members to see how many hit songs those members have written and when. I find the visualization memorable, no doubt, because I find the content interesting (e.g., the Lennon/McCartney duo falls off toward the end), but the graphic seems to resonate beyond that. This partly has to do …
Adobe Creatives: What’s the Difference?
We are interrupting our usual broadcast of highly-fluent research narratives and pedagogical concerns to address an issue of practical import. Many curriculums now require a segment on visual literacy and infographic assessment (understandably, with the daily assault of information-rich images on web and other media sources), but this is quite a challenge for instructors who may feel shaky about making visual media. For anyone looking to introduce infographics in a way that incorporates Adobe Creative Suite or anyone who just …
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Teaching Data Visualization: An Introduction
Team Data Visualization is proud to present a set of lesson plans that are ready to use in your classroom (networked or not). Whether you’ve been thinking about introducing a data visualization lesson of some kind, or have no idea what that would even look like or how it would fit in a writing classroom (or any classroom for that matter), we’ve got you covered. We’ve designed this set of lesson plans to be cohesive, but you can pick any …
#TBT: Multimediating
In today’s #TBT post, we showcase an episode of the DWRL’s rhet/tech podcast Zeugma. “Multimediating” considers the productive forms of risk and failure that come with introducing audio assignments into university writing courses. In the episode, Dr. Rita Raley, Associate Professor of English at the University of California-Santa Barbara, talks to our staff about tactical media and digital activism. Ryan Trauman and Harley Ferris explore ways of incorporating audio assignments into undergraduate rhetoric and composition courses. And various members of …
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