Introduction

[1] =Mid-semester, [2] = Final

This semester I’ve worked hard to gain an understanding of Digital Humanities and its importance. The intersection of media and humanities is not something I’d given much thought to in the past. To me, it was nothing more than typing a research paper in whatever word processing application is preferred. While I understand the importance of using media to show and explain important topics in literature, the aspect of Digital Humanities I find most interesting is its use in archiving projects and presenting them digitally. I feel that I have fulfilled my learning contract. I feel I’ve done my best work in the Content and Tinkering topics. Some topics have taken new directions during the last half of the semester as explained below.

Content
Composition
Collaboration
Presentation
Tinkering
Participation
Student-Chosen Outcomes

Content (35%)

Goal: Lean how new technologies impacted authors and how this was portrayed through their characters.

[1]     While I haven’t learned how technology impacted Charlotte Perkins Gilman specifically, In the post for TimelineJS, I’ve highlighted how technology builds upon itself. If it weren’t for the internal combustion engine, how Perkins got her characters to Herland would have been quite different.

[2]     As my project changed from literary to archival, I did not glean much in the way of how technologies impacted authors, although; I did learn about the Ruhmkorff Coil while reading Journey to the Center of the Earth. This invention seemed to impress Jules Verne immensely as he made its use important to the story. It also felt that he was mentioning it more frequently than necessary.

Goal: Learn how different tools interpret a text in distinct ways.

[1]     Annotation Studio’s ability to share comments for the entire class helps considerably. Being able to see if my comments match classmates and seeing where I’ve missed important concepts that others did not help me develop my close-reading skills.

Voyant’s statistical approach to analyzing a work gives an overall feeling of how the book will read. The wordcloud visually displays the most common words (hinting at important characters and concepts), while the trends show where topics and characters were most important throughout the text.

[2]     The use of Object Character Recognition (OCR) on the images scanned for my project was amusing and aggravating at the same time. The amount of errors created from a slightly faded document felt like a huge obstacle. The more unrecognizable documents I have not been able to complete the OCR, since there is no context or reference that I can find to complete some of the missing characters and words. The military’s use of abbreviations makes this difficult.

Omeka was a good platform for this archive. As I discover more documents related to these, I plan on making my own website and continuing this project. The ability to archive these documents for my family and the families of others that served has become rather personal. Maybe I can help someone learn about a member of their family the way I learned about my grandfather.

Composition (10%)

Goal: Improve my argumentative skills and rhetoric.

[1]     I have made some improvement here, as seen in this Voyant post. When discussing a tool for digital humanities, it’s important to provide examples of your ideas. Words lose their authority with no supporting evidence.

[2]     The presentation at the Digital Humanities and the Undergraduate Experience conference I gave would be the most obvious example of how my rhetorical skills have improved. While I would have benefited from more time, I think my points came across concerning the necessity of archiving documents due to their importance in history and to individuals. I would rather be judged on the presentation run-through that we had during class. I was able to fully explain the project and its importance in digital humanities.

Collaboration (5%)

Goal: Take more of a leadership role in group projects.

[1]     The opportunity to achieve this goal hasn’t really presented itself as of yet. The collaborative projects have been relatively simple and not exhaustive in length or scope. The only situation that may be close to leadership would be emailing a group member to see if they were going to add any more content to the project or not.

[2]     The last half of the semester did not present any opportunities to take a group leadership role. While I rarely look to be a group leader, I understand the importance and benefits or collaborative projects. Working in the various groups during the course I was able to listen and learn how to interact more productively in a team environment. Having a team where each member listens to the others and does their respective work on time is always a nice alternative to the usual research papers completed alone.

Presentation (5%)

Goal: Become more comfortable speaking in class.

[1]     I’ve spoken in this class more than I’d imagined I would. Part of the reasoning for that is my familiarity with technology and the interest in new forms of technology. I have been prepared for class discussion and voiced my opinion frequently.

[2]     I’ve done well in this area. I haven’t been hesitant to speak up in class although, I try to make sure my input is constructive and on topic. I’m surprised at my presentation at the conference. Looking back, I was much more nervous that I expected. This probably showed through in my fidgeting and stumbling on words. I was focused on trying to make time rather than relaxing. I become more comfortable as presentations progress. I believe if I had more time I would have gotten into the groove and performed better.

Tinkering (30%)

Goal: Become relatively adept in the software used.

[1]     I enjoyed learning the new applications. Voyant was confusing as to how it related to literature at first, but looking deeper, its benefits became apparent. I really like Gephi and its visualizations. Its use of elements and their attributes reminded me of my old CAD days. Being able to help classmates with the errors Gephi showed upon installation was nice.

[2]     I did not have the time to tinker with Scalar, but intend to when the semester is complete. Omeka was the proper tool for my project. The ability to set up exhibits ensured all the pages of a document were presented together. I regret not having the ability to play with additional plugins. Batch Uploader and Bulk Metadata Editor would have been be very useful for my project.

Goal: Use the internet to find how the tools are being used by others.

[1]     I did have some free time and poked around the web. New York University has a comprehensive page on tools for Digital Humanities. Neatline looks to be a mashup of TimeLineJS and StoryMapJS. It would be a great tool for a project on “Dracula”. The NYU page is a resource I have bookmarked and will be of great use in the future.

[2]     I looked at other projects that used Omeka to see how others used the functionality. Colored Conventions is well curated and informative.  Justine’s Stamps, while fairly basic, brought up several questions concerning copyrights. The Scott number is a numbering system for world stamps that is copyrighted by Scott Publishing, a subsidiary of Amos Media. Is this considered fair use? I do know that Amos Media has filed suit against people creating cross-reference charts that use Scott and other cataloging systems. The image is of a stamp, and the USPS copyright is listed on the page, but can the image be used with just acknowledging copyright, or must permission be granted?

Participation (10%)

Goal: Help others with new concepts and procedures.

[1]     I’ve been an active participant during discussions concerning how the new applications work and relate to the text. My blog on the Windows Snipping Tool highlights my efforts to help my classmates learn new tools.

[2]     Since the class was sequestered into group and solo projects, not much presented itself in the ways of helping others. I did try to keep my ear out for anyone that had questions I could help with.

Goal: Be an active class participant.

[1]     I’ve been an active participant in all class activities. In group work, I can be a bit shy, as I’m more one-on-one with someone else. I need to work on communicating during group work.

[2]     I’ve tried to stay involved during class, when we weren’t having “work days”. It’s been difficult near the end of the semester as everyone had their own things to do and project to complete. I’m fairly sure I stayed on top of the blogging, although, it got a bit confusing as the schedule was revised and shifted and thrown out the window.

Student-Chosen Outcomes (5%)

Goal: Learn more about data-mining approaches and their usefulness.

[1]     Before this class, I’d never thought of data-mining literature. Through the resources provided and a bit of exploring on my own, I can now envision how different tools will help with different texts. For instance, mapping and timeline tools would be very helpful for historical fiction. Tracking movements, locations, and events of characters provides a visual representation of the text. 

[2]     Data-mining was not something I could work on with this final project, but metadata was important for the images I was uploading. I can see how the accuracy of metadata would be essential to cataloging and for future research. Being able to sort through a database of images relies on proper metadata to retrieve the desired file efficiently.