Introduction
This semester has been a big learning experience for me. I came into this course somewhat skeptical because of the perceived workload that I anticipated. On some counts I was right to be apprehensive about the workload, but this was mostly due to other responsibilities and events in my life that took away some of my attention from work in this class outside of the classroom. Although I may not have done as well as I would have liked to in this course, I still found the experience and in class work engaging and interesting since digital humanities is not an area of study I have dealt with before. I found that the note taking objectives I set for myself were not as difficult to keep as the technological goals since I am not great with technology, but I found both forms helpful. Overall, this has been an enlightening experience that has helped me gain confidence in how to use technology for analysis purposes.
Content (25%)
Goals:
- Attend all class meetings
- Complete assignments on time
- Ask questions and ask for help when needed
These notes demonstrate where my relationship and understanding of digital humanities began. This topic was such a foreign concept to me that I had to take extremely detailed notes about what I found online regarding digital humanities and any questions I had for class to better my understanding. Since this point, I have made good progress in my knowledge of this topic, due to both research on my own time and to in class discussions where we have looked at different tools and techniques that are used within the digital humanities to analyze and electronically store texts.
I was able to complete the majority of assignments on time in this course, but unfortunately as I said before, my attention was directed towards some personal issues in my life so some blog posts slipped through the cracks. I plan to go back and review my notes and complete these missed posts since it shouldn’t take a long time and I feel that I owe it to myself to give my all to this class now that some of my personal events have been resolved.
I found that throughout the semester, my fellow classmates were a great source to go to and ask for help when needed. I don’t tend to ask for help in class, and this course was not an exception to this. It’s a pretty common feeling for students to not want to ask questions in class out of fear of looking dumb, and I think this is why I didn’t ask many questions when I didn’t understand something we were talking about. I would try to work it out on my own outside of class or ask my classmates for help. Towards the middle and end of the semester I asked questions regarding my fellow classmates’ presentations, but I also think I had less questions in general as I became more familiarized with the tools and techniques we used.
Composition (10%)
Goals:
- Use multiple mediums in blog posts (writing, videos, pictures, etc.)
The pictures above display two of my blog posts. My goal with my blogs was to use at least two forms of media that connected to the subject of the blog post. The first blog is about the process that went into making a group timeline that was about the women’s rights movement. I used text as one of my forms of media and used a picture from a national women’s convention as my second media form since it was also the same picture that I used in our timeline. The second blog post is about communal reading and the pros and cons of annotating together. I thought the minion picture I used would be funny and relevant since annotating a text together is about teamwork. We helped each other to understand the text and clarify any points that may have been confusing, as well as relating how we all read the text and understanding that our reading styles may be different.
Presentation (10%)
Goals:
- Prepare beforehand for any in class presentations
- Evaluate self at the end of each presentation and work on improvement
Each time we did a presentation in class, I would take notes on what I was personally presenting with my group. These notes helped me to gather my knowledge beforehand and feel more prepared before presenting. Then afterward I would take notes about the good things I did during the presentation and also points on which I needed more work. A main problem that I have noticed I have while presenting has always been rambling. No matter how prepared I am beforehand, I seem to get extremely nervous while presenting and say whatever is in my mind. I have found that this feeling has lessened over the semester in this course as I got to know my classmates better and feel more comfortable with them. I think with the feeling of judgment gone, it’s easier to keep a clear head and say what I mean to without it all coming out like verbal vomit.
Tinkering (20%)
Goals:
- Do research online outside of class
- Find research through other resources such as the library
- Notes on progress of final project
When I started doing research on my own time during the beginning of the semester, I had absolutely no idea where to look. This was quickly resolved during one class period when we were introduced to the modern language association international bibliography. This is a source through our school library where anyone can find articles or other sources to help them with their research. As demonstrated in the notes above, this source was extremely helpful while finding resources for our final project. Even though my notes may seem a little crazy to most people, there is a method to my madness. By putting down all of my ideas and finding sources the correspond with these ideas, I can process what I am doing in a way I am comfortable with and that helps me to get my work done. I also provided a picture of a section of our final project to show what the end result was from all of this note taking and organizing.
Below I have provided a link to te pdf version of my papaer desribing different tools we used throughout the semester, what these tools are, and how useful I found these tools to be.
Collaboration (10%)
Goals:
- Being open to the ideas of group partners
- Explain my own ideas to my group
Group work was a huge part of this course. At first I was afriad when we learned how much group work we would be doing since you never what your other group members will be like, but everyone worked well together and each person did their part. The first picture that I have provided above displays a google document that my group and I created for one of our first projects, which was a timeline about the women’s movement. I set this beside two images that displayed the process of the final project of my partner and I. I did this as a contrast because, while I think that I was a pretty okay group member in the beginning of the semester, I also think that I improved over time and became a much more involved group member.
Participation (10%)
Goals:
- Comment on classmates’ blog posts
- Take part in class discussions
- Prepare notes to bring to class discussions
Throughout the semester we wrote weekly blog posts about what we had done during class and what tools we had used throughout the past week. Along with our own blog posts, we also needed to comment on the blog posts of our fellow classmates. I have provided pictures of three of my replies to other classmates’ blog posts.
I found that taking part in class discussion was a lot harder towards the beginning of the semester. At the time I only knew one other person in class and was uncomfortable speaking in front of the others, which was a bit of an issue since our class was so small. Over time and as I got more comfortable with everyone else, I began to speak up more and voice my opinions regarding whatever topic we may have been covering in class that day.
Student-Chosen Outcomes (15%)
Goals:
- Read books from class and other books related to those we use in class (early science fiction, steampunk, etc.)
- Ask for recommendations on texts to look at
During the beginning and middle semester, we read the book Herland. This novel was intersting and I thought it would be intriguing to read books from the same time period and of a similiar fashion to this nvoel. Luckily, for our final project we got the chance to pick and read such a novel. Above is a picture of novels that was provided for us on our class website. My partner and I went through this list and tried to find a novel we would be interested in. We eventually decided on Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy. After reading and analyzing it, we did a final project on it. Below is a link to a more in depth analysis that I did of the novel and wrote about.