Planning, Communications, and Digital Media
MIT's graduate planning course teaches digital visualization and communication methods used to describe places, simulate change, and present future scenarios to communities and decision makers. Lectures cover recurring planning themes such as place, race, power, and environment, alongside the role of digital tools in representing and mobilizing communities. Lab exercises walk students through MIT's computing resources, including the Athena system, the ESRI virtual campus, and the GIS Laboratory at Rotch Library, while teaching software such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, ESRI ArcView, Microsoft Access, and Macromedia Dreamweaver. Students apply these tools across the semester to build a web-based portfolio that doubles as a repository for other coursework in MIT's Master in City Planning program. The course materials, published through MIT OpenCourseWare, include lecture notes and assignment descriptions covering database work, image editing, and website construction, aimed at planners who need to translate spatial and social data into public-facing digital narratives.