DigitalEd: How to Create Digital Maps

Title: How to Create Digital Maps

Instructor: Aleszu Bajak, Innovator in residence, Northeastern University

Three digital tools to make maps that complement your story

This training will introduce participants to three free tools for digital map-making. Following a discussion on geographic data sourcing, organization, and visualization, this training will conclude with instructions on how participants can visualize a simple dataset using one of three tools. Participants will leave understanding the data and story underlying digital maps as well as an appreciation of how to design maps and how they can be used effectively.

What you’ll learn from this training:

1. Geographic data sourcing
2. Data organization
3. Visualization design
4. Three tools to make digital maps

Handouts:

• Mapping Do’s and Don’t’s Worksheet

Who should take this training:

• Storytellers interested in mapping geographic data
• Journalists looking to complement their stories with maps
• Developers learning to work with journalists and their data

Date and Time: October 28, 2015 at 1 pm ET / 10 am PT

Price: $39

Note: If you can’t attend the live session, you can still register and see the archived video and ask questions of the instructor. Registration for BigMarker is required.

About the Instructor:

Aleszu Bajak is a journalist covering science, energy, the environment, and health across the Americas. He’s the founder and editor of LatinAmericanScience.org, a resource for science news out of Latin America. He is also the editor of Esquire Classic, a curated interface for Esquire’s digital archive. In 2013 he was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at M.I.T. where he explored the interface between journalists, designers and developers. He now teaches journalism at Northeastern University’s Media Innovation program and edits Storybench.org, an under the hood guide to digital storytelling. Before freelance reporting from Latin America, he worked as a producer for the NPR talk show Science Friday. He writes for Esquire, The Washington Post, Nature, and Science, among other outlets.