As interactive and immersive narratives are increasingly incorporated into our academic experiences, we often miss that moment of critical awareness formerly framed by opening a book. Identifying an authorial presence and remaining mindful of that positionality in working with today’s interactive digital narratives is a complex task and requires a robust set of skills.

This workshop will provide an introduction to the academic use of interactive digital projects and together we will begin to develop a framework for critically examining these objects through the lens of digital literacy instruction. Participants will investigate one of four digital humanities projects from across Harvard and will come away with new insights into the ways that users identify and experience narrative elements in digital projects.

We’ll begin to address such questions as:

• What are the implications of the narrative perspective of an interactive digital project?
  • How does the interactive aspect impact the relationship between authorial and user agency?
  • How does interactivity fundamentally alter the experience from person to person?
• How can we critically examine the implicit and explicit biases present in interactive digital objects?
  • How can we identify the biases of an interactive digital object?
  • How do those biases affect the narrative and the experience?
• How does the interactive aspect affect the learning experience as a whole?
  • How does it impact learning outcomes?
  • How does it change or enhance the ways we (researchers as well as students) scan incorporate resources into our research and study?

Light refreshments will be provided.

Registration required by March 15th.

Please direct questions to etoker@g.harvard.edu