On March 4, 2025, the NULab for Digital Humanities and Computational Social Science hosted an online workshop focused on mapping tools. Led by Claire Lavarreda, Assistant Director of the Digital Integration Teaching Initiative (DITI), the workshop was attended by several CSSH from various Northeastern University campuses, including Boston and Oakland.
Claire began by introducing the DITI and explaining how its team supports humanities and social science professors in teaching digital tools to their students. She then highlighted two mapping tools–StoryMap and Google MyMap–as examples of the digital tools that the DITI helps integrate into classrooms. Rather than detailing how to use the tools, Claire shared the DITI’s StoryMap and Google MyMaps modules to show how DITI would teach them and adapt them to different courses.
Claire emphasized that the DITI customizes each of its modules to suit the needs of instructors and their students. As an example, she showed that the StoryMap module was tailored for a Public History course, highlighting adjustable components such as examples and discussion questions given. She also noted the different formats of DITI partnerships. These include a hands-on demo, a brief 30-minute introduction to a tool, or a more detailed hour-long presentation, depending on the professor’s preferences and the students’ levels of familiarity. Claire also mentioned that the DITI can visit the same class multiple times throughout the semester to provide deeper instruction on a single tool or introduce a different tool in each visit.
After Claire’s presentation, many of the present educators had questions about how the DITI might be able to tailor their modules to their specific courses. One professor asked about what types of tools might be used in a creative writing class. Claire shared that past DITI partnerships with creative writing professors included introducing students to making artist websites to showcase their work and using podcasts as a medium for their short stories. Shannon Peifer, the NULab Coordinator, shared a link to all of the available tools that the DITI has taught.
Others asked whether the DITI works with asynchronous and online courses or courses based at Northeastern’s Oakland campus. Claire confirmed that although the DITI team is mostly based in Northeastern’s Boston campus, they often remotely visit classes in the London and Oakland campuses.
The workshop concluded with an encouraging comment from one educator who thanked Claire and the DITI team for “pioneering and connective work.” In these times, he noted, anything that teaches students to use tools for good is valuable.
