The aim of this workshop is to train students and educators in techniques of data collection and digital verification using open source web tools. This workshop is inspired by the increasing use within journalism and social media cultures of digital forensics; that is. the tools and techniques for compiling, confirming, and combining distinct elements of digital evidence. By inviting experts in digital verification techniques to deliver hands-on training sessions, this workshop is designed to explore the pedagogical possibilities opened by the rise of digital evidence, while raising larger questions about the role of data collection in civic life and participation. Participants will receive training from key thinkers and practitioners in digital forensics, who will explain the technologies and scientific theories that have shaped digital forensics as a method for carrying out investigations, as well as how to use open source digital forensics tools.
This workshop has the potential to advance digital forensics as open source pedagogy and promote active learning strategies within STEM and Media and Communications teaching communities. It will encourage teachers and students to critically engage with open source digital forensics tools in the classroom, and it will help them to develop a more robust understanding of how digital tools produce ways of knowing that increasingly impact how journalists and other investigators approach core societal ideas of accountability, justice, and human rights in the digital age. The workshop will also serve to advance knowledge of how digital forensics is increasingly impacting a range of fields including Science and Technology Studies, Political Science, Journalism, Data Science, Computer Science, and Media Studies.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
