My experiences this year have changed the way I think about doing many things, but the way I do history has probably changed the most profoundly. Initially, I did not think much of the digital format, especially doing digital history, however this course has shown me the way I will move forward doing history. I have only really thought of these digital tools I have learned in the scope of history and my readings however, so I wonder how I can apply the tools to different topics. Going forward, I would like to pursue the digital format in other areas and see how effective it can be else where.
My first portfolio activity was a necessary step to lay down the foundation of what I had learned during the course. Getting myself acquainted with primary resources and how to set up my own research inquiries was a tool I would need for the remainder of the course, and I think I did a fine job. In retrospect, my third portfolio activity, the website review on Nat Turner’s rebellion, was very similar to my first portfolio activity. It had catalogued primary resources, I had asked questions and found interesting information, and I analyzed that information to come to my own conclusions. However, this activity familiarized me with digital history concepts like metadata, and it make me think more about site functionality and aesthetics. I think what I learned doing this portfolio activity will help me the most out of all the activities that I did during this course. Computational text analysis, which was the concept in portfolio activity four, was probably the most interesting digital history concept in the course. Computational text analysis is an amazing tool for historians, it speeds up the research process and can generate questions and inquiries that can reveal fascinating conclusions. Even if computational text analysis can not retrieve true understanding from the text, I find it to be an invaluable tool that I would be excited to work with in the future. The geospatial work I did in portfolio activity six is definitely a more visual digital history tool than computational text analysis, and while I find it less compelling, I think it is a great tool to connect historians with others. The visuals combined with the narration of geospatial visualization creates a great way to get people interested while getting across key ideas. My narrative map of Fredrick Douglass from portfolio activity seven was a combination of the digital tools I had learned from many of the previous activities. Researching Fredrick Douglass, creating a geomap and widgets, and creating a aesthetically pleasing website were all processes that I could do due to my previous portfolios.
The portfolio activities refined and improved previous skills that I had already acquired. Many of the portfolio activities required research of primary resources. Prior to the course, the types of resources did not really cross my mind or seem that relevant, however I now see that the type of resource can change the quality of what you are creating. The portfolio activities also showed me the importance of diversifying your sources to strengthen your product. Another skill that the portfolio activities helped me improve on was annotating. Prior to the course, I was a lousy annotator and did not commit much time to the act. However, after doing the second portfolio activity I committed to annotating the rest of my readings and I saw some pretty good improvement. I have become more thoughtful and analytical in my annotating, and I definitely get more out of my annotations now than I had previously.
The course readings were just as important as the portfolio activities. It was the readings that really made the activities digital history. One of the readings that really made me think about history of slavery was the website that discussed the landscape of early Baltimore. The project really made me think about the complicated entanglements of slavery and how it reached every where in the city, down to the individual. The readings really brought meaning to the digital tools I used. While the statistics do not lie, the readings gave meaning to all the numbers and the activities.
I decided to revise and improve my second portfolio. I went through the metadata and filled in some missing entries and made sure that everything matched the sources. The annotations in my exhibit about my primary sources were missing so I made sure they were included.
I had always considered history to be studied straightforwardly with books and recordings, but this course has shown me a completely different approach, and a very deep and complex approach at that. While I will not be pursuing being a historian in the future, the kind of work I have done in this class has certainly piqued my interest, and I think I can use these tools in the future. Geomapping is especially an interesting tool that I can use to bring better quality to my future work. Learning to be more proficient with geospatial work, metadata, and maybe learning more about computational text analysis are all approaches I would consider in my future.