Integrating Archival Research into the DH Classroom – DH@Guelph 2017
My time at th
The workshop was not entirely what I expected, but I brought back pages and pages of notes with new and interesting ideas that will be helpful in my graduate program. During the first day, I thought my limited DH understanding was holding me back – a lot of platforms, programs, and various DH terms were mentioned that I had no familiarity with. However, as the workshop continued, there seemed to be less knowledge among other classmates, which allowed all of us to learn together at a relatively similar pace. As I already said, the workshop I was in was small which really suited my learning style, as that is what I am accustomed to in my Huron classes.
I was the youngest in the class, offering a student-based perspective to the more teaching-based perspective of my fellow classmates. Being able to provide a student perspective was useful as I was able to share what students expect from a class, including structural items such as rubrics and details in a syllabus. Also, when discussing the platforms for DH methods, my classmates who were professors and teachers at American institutions wondered about software cost as they were aware that some students struggle financially, which I agreed with. As a result, we all tried to get the most out of free trials and web-based applications rather than paid downloads. The debate over whether software should be included as a textbook cost was not concluded, but we all seemed to sway with the argument that humanities have never had high textbook costs so why should we start that through digitization? So, we thought about the pros and cons of free platforms and trial periods.
Over the course of 4 days, we worked on the following:
- transcription and encoding via Juxta Editions
- text analysis via Voyant and data visualization via Google Fusion Tables
- spatial analysis via David Rumsey Georeferencing and ArcGIS online storymap
- temporal analysis via Timeline JS
Juxta Editions required data to work with, which I did not bring, but thankfully our instructor Diana Jakacki brought photos of 18th-century letters to transcribe. We found that Juxta Editions was a great tool to transcribe but it limits window size. Instead, we each tried different solutions, which I thought was easy, as Guelph provided us with a computer room. As we tried different platforms, we found these small hiccups and either found reasonable solutions or decided maybe it was a tool individual students may enjoy but are not worth incorporating into assignments. I thoroughly enjoyed this hands-on aspect of classroom and assignment. For example, using a platform such as Georeferencing, which allows a user to match points on historical maps onto a modern map, is a great way to see spatiality and the difference between time and location. But does it make for a good assignment? We did not discuss in much detail this platform as we all spent too much time enjoying its interface and user-ability, but the workshop has taught me what to look for to ensure DH methods are teachable and testable. So, in the context of Georeferencing, I would argue that it is a great tool to learn from and can be applied to theory or discussion, but the storymap in ArcGIS should be created into an assignment or presentation. For example, the storymap georeferenced on David Rumsey can be downloaded and used in ArcGIS which shows how accessible archives are these days.
CURL Travel Grant Reflection |17 May 2017