Reflect in a blog post on your portfolio site on the feedback you have on the training you selected: do you recommend any edits, additions, or subtractions to the training? What tasks and/or features would you recommend future Fellows focus on to “level up” their skills?

I have selected to review StoryMaps. I think the training is good and simple. This is good for StoryMaps, which I think is efficient and gets the job done. In particular, there are many design templates that one could use that could ease the making of a product with StoryMap. It reminds me of the Gutenberg editor in WordPress. I’ve personally not encountered many issues with this tool. Comparing my experience of the training and the training itself, I think I would make a quick note about the difference between “Create story” and “Create template.” My experience with both seems to be really similar. According to Esri, the company that owns StoryMaps, the main difference appears to be the “instruction” block, which allows templates makers to instruct potential users of their template on what to add or consider. I was working on the template mode at first, and I thought the instruction block could be good to intersperse questions StoryMaps as an educational tool. I also wonder if it would be fruitful to document the interaction between ArcGIS and StoryMaps. This geographical feature is unique and cool to StoryMaps, and I think highlighting the use of this in the training could be good.

I don’t know if this is possible or if I’m asking for an impossible task, but a “level up” task I would recommend for future Fellows is to create a StoryMap that almost doesn’t look like it was created with StoryMaps. For me, StoryMaps has a very recognizable look to it, even without seeing the logo. Because StoryMaps has very effective templates they provide for users, it is very easy for users . So I guess this level up task has less to do with practicality and more to do with play and testing the limits of this digital tool. Another task I think would be generative would be to have fellows review a bunch of StoryMaps and ask them to put these different StoryMaps into categories. This could help fellows begin to think about the different possibilities StoryMaps has and what which projects necessitate a StoryMap.