Augmenting Realities Tool Tester Lab

September 19, 2014

Preliminaries:1) Everyone brings a laptop

2) Upon entering the class, sign-in to the Google Doc that I’ve shared with you. The Google Doc is where you’ll post your results to the test modules you’ll complete in class. The Modules are posted here and are posts also on the Google Doc.

Tool-Tester Lab
3 Modules

Purpose: 1) explore the tools used to create #dh projects 2) explore tools you might want to use for your final project

  • Genius Tester Module
    1. Sign into Genius and go to our course page. (I’ll be there too, waiting for you). We will be digitally annotating Mattern’s Evaluating Multimodal Scholarship Criteria. From these annotations, we will cull our own collaboratively-authored criteria for the assessment <ahem, the grading> of your final projects.
    2. Add at least three considered annotations to the document and/or to your classmates’ annotations.
  • Twitter Tester Module
    1. Sign into Twitter using your new @Persona account. (I’ll be there too, waiting for you) **before leaving class, tweet your first tweet using your new @Persona to @stargould. Use the hashtag #augrealities in your tweet. If you do not get to it today, over the next week or so, send a tweet with a link, send one an image, tweet using a variety of hashtags, and tweet @ one of your classmates.
    2. Everyone add your @Persona name to the Google Doc
  • Tool Tester Module
    1. On your own or with a partner (a partnership will probably be more fun than a solo-gig but it is entirely up to you), start working through the DH tool tester list. In addition to the three required, you’ll choose three of the optional nine.
    2. Post your results, or links to your results, on the Google Doc so that I and your classmates can see what you are up to. Each of you should post at least one of your favorites to the blog. If you’ve worked collaboratively, each partner should post a separate ‘result’ but be sure to properly acknowledge your collaboration. For example, if you post an annotated video you’ve created collaboratively say “collaborative created by x and y”.

 

  • As you create, think about if/how you might like to use these for your own final projects.
  • Use data that is directly from or related to our course texts.
  • Feel free to dig around a bit. Take this opportunity to find a tool you’d like to use yourself.
  • Interested in something a that requires a bit of coding? Try some of the more sophisticated tools.

 

Tools Tester Modules:

  1. Required: Choose a video annotation tool and annotate a short clip. Try Vidbolt or VideoAnt to annotate videos that are not yours. Use YouTube to annotate your own videos. Use Screencast technologies to annotate (with text or audio) videos you’ve created. If you need more options, there are more video tools here – (Harvard’s Page on Video Annotations) each has a description, some are unavailable to us, some involved extra downloads or coding skills – and you are free to use any others you might have access to. This Lab module is preparing you for our upcoming video annotation blog. Post results on the Google Doc and/or on the blog.
  2. Required: Google Ngram viewer, try at least three provocative tests on Ngram. Post all results on the Google Doc.
  3. Required: Use Voyant Tools to “see through” a text. Try at least one test using Voyant tools. Post results on the Google Doc.
  4. Optional (Choose Three):
    1. Diagram with Gliffy.com
    2. Perform Text Tricks with Wordle.com (or with one of the Wordle Alternatives)
    3. Mapping with Google Fusion Tables: See Duke’s How to Make an Interactive Map in 30 Minutes or Less  and Google’s How-To for Fusion Tables
    4. Try a Screencast. There are many tools to choose from and you can find a list here: Screencasting Tools.  Screencasts can be hugely impactful for a small amount of tech savvy.
    5. Create a moving image gif. Here’s a list of five free online gif-making tools but feel free to use any method you’d like.
    6. Visualize government data using MIT’s DataViva. A great write-up about the tool can be found here: New MIT Media Lab Tool Lets Anyone Visualize Unwieldy Government Data
    7. Create a Timeline using Timeglider
    8. Create an animated maps using Animaps
    9. Anything you might dig up on TapOr Tools (Text Analysis Portal for Research) which allows you to search tools by type