We empower students, faculty, and staff to take control of their digital lives through workshops, resources, events, and project support.
We can help you build a website using SUNY Create, Geneseo OpenLab, or static site frameworks like Jekyll.
Learn moreWe host events that give community members an opportunity to put their digital skills to work for the public good — like Douglass Day, a yearly celebration of Black history and culture focused on transcribing digitized archival documents.
Learn moreWe create resources that you can use yourself or share with others to foster digital practices that advance Geneseo’s values: learning, creativity, belonging, civic engagement, and sustainability.
Learn moreIn a world where all of us are increasingly pressured to adopt automated software “agents,” it’s never been more important to possess skills that enable us to be our own agents.
“Program or be programmed,” declared the media theorist Douglass Rushkoff in a 2010 book of that title. It’s a stark choice, arguably an oversimplified one. You don’t have to be a programmer to hold onto your digital agency. But at the very least, it’s important to understand some basic things about the computer hardware and software that so thoroughly pervades our lives, if only to distinguish the reality about that hardware and software from the hype. That’s the premise of the CDL’s self-paced course on Critical Digital Practices. (If you do want to learn a little programming, the course will help you with that, too.)
Our agency increases when we not only understand digital technology but know how to build with it: to create websites, for example, over which we’re able to exercise creative control — websites that live not on corporate platforms but on hosting we’re able to manage, websites built with open-source tools we’re free to inspect and modify. That’s the premise of Geneseo’s participation in the SUNY-wide initiative SUNY Create, which gives users on participating campuses the ability to manage their own bit of real estate on the web, where they can install open-source software like WordPress or Omeka, or simply host their own files built with Jekyll or another static site generator.
Our agency also increases when we have tools that enable us to work effectively with others. That’s the premise of the CDL’s virtual commons, Geneseo OpenLab, built with WordPress and the CUNY Graduate Center’s open-source WordPress plugin Commons In a Box. OpenLab is a social platform where groups can develop projects collaboratively, sharing the fruits of their collaboration on a public-facing website.
With empowerment as our goal, it wouldn’t do for us to build things for you. Come to us with an idea for a research or creative project; it can be your own project or one that you’d like students to engage in. We’ll help you select the tools best suited to it, get you set up, and send you on your way. But you don’t have to make the journey on your own. Call on us for support whenever you need it. We’re happy to help you troubleshoot when you get stuck or continue the conversation about the best path to realizing your vision.
Ready to book an appointment? You can do that on the booking site of CDL director Paul Schacht. (Tip: You may want to book two back-to-back, half-hour sessions.)
Have an idea for a workshop that would benefit you and fellow faculty, staff, or students? We’d love to run one for you! Pitch your idea in an email to cdl@geneseo.edu.