Category: Year 1

In order to create good documentation, the writer will need to describe each step that they took with a pretty notable amount of detail. It may also be necessary to add a visual aid, such as a video or images to the documentation in order to show certain steps that need to be done. For my own Vivero project, my project lead and I will need to create documentation on how to upload articles to our database, and how to extract metadata from these articles. However, I also would not be surprised if eventually we will have to provide more documentation in order to effectively communicate how to navigate our digital project. In order to make this happen, I will make sure to communicate often with my project lead when technical steps are implemented, and I will also keep a document that lists the steps taken for what is necessary.

Even as someone who has minimal experience editing videos, learning how to use WeVideo was relatively straightforward, especially after going through the training material. I would feel pretty comfortable helping someone learn how to use WeVideo, alongside helping them troubleshoot if needed. I think the aspect of WeVideo that I found most interesting was how much stock footage and audio was available to use. It makes me think that it would be a useful tool for a lot of courses at Grinnell that require video presentations. I didn’t find any aspect of the tool particularly frustrating, although I feel like it could have been clearer as to when videos would have finished uploading and were able to export.

I’m not sure which part of WeVideo I want to explore more deeply yet, as I kind of want to see more of what it is capable of when I have time. One thing I might want to try doing would be to create a longer video without the aid of any stock footage, and to use more of the cool transitions.

So far, I am really happy with how my project is going so far! As of now, the work that my project lead and I have been doing has been primarily parsing through the articles that will eventually encompass the entire database, and trying to categorize them by subject, keyword, and other methods. Along with this, I am also taking a look at other digital humanities projects, and making a mental list of traits that are in good digital humanities projects, and/or ones that have a long lifespan. My next steps would probably be to create the structure of the project itself, and right now I am deciding whether I should use Gale Digital Scholar Lab or Omeka, or both. Gale’s text analysis function and visualization capabilities are both things that I am thinking about when considering what I would theoretically be able to do with the text/information in the articles I have read so far. Additionally, with Omeka, while I still would like to do some more exploring regarding plugins and items, seems to be really useful in that it allows me to organize all of my files in a well thought-out manner.

In general, I am pretty proud of myself this semester. There have been times when learning about different digital tools has not been the most straightforward, but I have managed to work through any tough spots I have had. One thing that I am somewhat worried about as my project begins to ramp up is balancing everything in my life, whether it be academics, the Vivero Fellowship, or any personal extra-curricular activities I have going on. Moving forward, I would like to spend more time making my blog/website look better, as well as think about how I could theoretically implement the database I am making on my website. I will let my project lead know about Gale Digital Scholar Lab, and I will try to learn more about it after (or maybe even during) fall break.

Learning how to use Gale Digital Scholar Lab this week made me think about how I could use text analysis tools in not just my project, but other aspects of humanities research as well. I really liked how the platform walks you through the entire process, from collecting the data, to cleaning and visualizing it. Even if you don’t have technical experience with Gale Digital Scholar Lab, or tools similar to it, it still manages to feel approachable, which makes it a good entry point for someone trying to learn more about the “digital” aspect of digital humanities. One of my favorite things about Gale Digital Scholar Lab is the fact that you’re able to pull materials directly from the primary source archives, and then immediately begin working with them. The most interesting part for me was experimenting with all of the different analysis tools, such as topic modeling or sentiment analysis, and seeing how they could reveal connections that wouldn’t have been visible by just parsing through the text manually. The thing I found the most frustrating was definitely the data cleaning, which felt pretty time-consuming and rather confusing when deciding which filters to apply.

I think I would be pretty comfortable helping someone else learn the basics of Gale Digital Scholar Lab, especially since the process was pretty intuitive once I started to understand the workflow. Looking through the student research projects was really encouraging for me, because it showed me that meaningful analysis doesn’t require a super substantial dataset, or super advanced skills. It also made me more confident about using Gale Digital Scholar Lab in my own research, as the bulk of my digital project (right now) consists of me looking at a wide array of articles, and parsing through a lot of text. Going forward, I would really like to explore more of Gale’s visualization features, and see how I could combine it with other platforms like Voyant or ArcGIS StoryMaps.

Q: Consider some of the reflection questions embedded in the training. For example, what do you notice about the data and how it could be mapped? What do you notice about your visualization as you change its drawing style and customize its appearance?

A: When working with ArcGIS, one of the first things I noticed was how much the way data is mapped changes depending on what visualization style is used. A dataset that looks overwhelming in spreadsheet or table form becomes much clearer when plotted on a map. However, I think the effectiveness of what you are trying to represent depends on what you choose to use, whether it be a heat map, symbols, or even color-coding. For example, heat maps would be useful to show numerical data over time, such as household size, because the distribution is immediately visible. On the other hand, qualitative data, such as countries of origin, would be more effectively represented with a distinct color code or symbols. Something else I realized was that while popups are not always necessary, they can be helpful for accessibility, or when something on your map needs additional context.

Q: How would you feel about helping someone else learn how to use ArcGIS Online? What did you find most interesting? What did you find most frustrating? What questions do you still have, and what parts of the tool do you want to explore more deeply?

A: As of writing this, I think I would be reasonably comfortable helping someone else learn the basics of ArcGIS Online, especially in terms of uploading data, applying different styles, and experimenting with map design. The thing I found most interesting was how customizable the visualizations are, as small changes in style can completely change how a dataset is interpreted. One thing I did find frustrating was when I was trying to layer different data points on the same geographic location. It also was not always obvious how to achieve the layout I had in mind. Moving forward, I would like to explore more of ArcGIS’s advanced features, like mapping borders/boundaries or highlighting entire areas instead of just individual points.

If I am being completely honest, I think that I will still need some more time to fully get used to using Omeka, as it is a pretty awkward software to use. Right now, I think I understand how to upload images/items, and add metadata, but I am still trying to familiarize myself with some of the site customization aspects, such as editing themes. That being said, I think I would be pretty comfortable showing someone how to use Omeka, although I may not be able to show all of what Omeka is capable of.

I am curious as to how to use Omeka for non-image files, such as the studies that I am currently looking at for my digital humanities project. Recently, my project lead (who’s super cool by the way) and I discussed some goals in mind regarding creating the organizing structure of our project, with the hopes that the organization of the project database would be as user-friendly as possible. I am probably going to explore Omeka a lot more (specifically experimenting with how different plugins, item types, and collections can be used to organize non-image materials like PDFs and texts) , with the hopes that it would be a good software to fulfill the goals that my project lead and I have.

By using PivotChart, we were able to visualize the discrepancies between each of the fields that we were given, specifically with the comparison between male and female (whether it be for average age, occupation, etc.). We can also use PivotChart to compare different fields as well, such as the value of the real estate versus the total number of people in the household. While I did not generate any visualizations that were confusing or misleading, I feel like it would be meaningless to compare the occupations of male householders to female householders, since female householders all were “keeping the house”, and the male householders were primarily farmers.

For this week, we learned about web accessibility and its importance. From watching the videos provided, something that I learned from the people sharing their experiences is the importance of keyboard compatibility, as one person described how users who rely solely on their keyboards (whether because of permanent or temporary accessibility issues) experienced websites that either trap focus or require mouse interactions. This made me realize how common assumptions about mouse use can exclude many users, which reminds me to be thoughtful about tab order and keyboard operability when creating my own site. Another person shared how they had issues with low contrast text that blended into the background of the site, which made content effectively invisible, not due to the screen size or resolution, but simply because of poor color choice. Prior to watching these videos, I had not realized how much the color palette of a website could affect users, specifically those with color blindness.

Looking at the WCAG checklist, a technical feature that stood out to me was the all img tags having alt attributes. It could be directly implemented in editors or CMSs, which can help clarify the meanings of images for users. A conceptual design feature that I looked at was to properly structure headings, or deciding whether or not to use a table versus a list. This requires thoughtful content planning, rather than just randomly placing elements everywhere. Lastly, a feature that I had not considered before as a part of web accessibility was the point about non-text contrast, i.e. ensuring sufficient contrast for user interface components beyond plain text (such as form controls, icons, focus indicators). Previously, I looked at text legibility, but like I said before, I had not realized that contrast issues can also make interactive elements difficult to see.

When I put my site through the accessibility checker, I noticed that I had an empty heading, and a redundant link. To fix these things, I removed the unused heading to avoid confusion for screen reader users, and deleted the redundant link so that navigation is clearer, and less repetitive.

I am really excited to begin talking about the things that I will learn this semester. I am also excited to post about how the tools and technology that I learn how to use can be applied to my particular project, and what I will be able to use these tools for in the future. There is a lot of new information that I need to learn somewhat quickly, and I feel kind of overwhelmed and intimidated by the concept of learning all of these tools. I think I need to remind myself that sometimes, it is okay to not master everything right away, and it’s also okay for me to not know something initially, and ask for help.

I am really looking forward to sprucing up my website. I looked at the websites of past fellows, and I think they did a really good job with their website designs! Right now, my site isn’t too pretty, but like most things in life, it’s a work in progress, and that’s ok.