Course Reflection
This course was a challenge for me. I had a bit of a rough start because I had travel challenges getting back to school for winter semester and so was late starting course work. It definitely took a while for me to find my footing as far as understanding expectations or even knowing what the course was about. Once I did figure out what I needed to do I actually enjoyed annotating the readings. The weekly assignments were easier than expected in many ways, but I really needed to step by step instructions as I am not confident with digital work and do not have the skills to even starting figuring things out on my own. I do feel that this course has given me a lot more confidence with digital tools.
One of my biggest challenges with this course was remembering to make time for it. I much prefer in-person classes. Having everything online and no assigned meeting times meant that I would often forget that this class was a part of my schedule. This meant that I did not always give myself enough time to do assignments as well as I could have or ask for help.
I have enjoyed using this website. Weekly reflections have been enjoyable to write. It is fun to have something less formal. I love writing and this has been a good opportunity to just let my reflections flow. I also really appreciated and enjoyed being able to see what other people have done for different projects! There are some really cool ideas that have been shared and it was also helpful for figuring out what projects could look like.
The course material was also so interesting. The readings helped me to understand what ‘digital humanities’ is and how to apply different concepts and tools. I learned about the benefits of digital humanities techniques as well as limitations or challenges to look out for. I love that there is so much opportunity for creativity. There are so many different kinds of people and so it makes sense there should be just as many opportunities for self expression and story telling. I think digital humanities will have an interesting and evolving future and we continue to explore opportunities for social, cultural, and political investigation using digital tools and concepts.
I did feel that the feedback I received could have been more specific and clear. For the final project, I did not really feel that my project had been thoroughly read. I said repeatedly that the information for the project entries would be sourced from the communities themselves but was still asked whether or not this would be a crowdsourced project. I also do not feel that expectations for the final project were as clear as they could have been. I was confused by how much detail was wanted and how to include that proof of concept. I also was told that I did not use two digital humanities methods. I understand this partly, but the idea for the project meant that evidence of the timeline side of the project would develop over time as information was added. I also included many of the concepts of accessibility, data collection, and diverse storytelling we discussed in the readings throughout the year when designing the project. It was not clear to me in the project description that these would not count toward integration of digital humanities methods. Perhaps I was confused on the definitions? Oh well. I am excited to summer and leaving school behind for a bit, but it is also nice to know I will be carrying many of skills learned here into my work. Thank you!
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