The Journey of a student

While whoever is reading may not know who I am, this is a quick introduction to my site and myself. This site was created to show how I have become a DH scholar and found a new community. That is the reason for the background image. It describes how I found a light in the middle of the year for this class and it has made me find a passion I would have never imagined. To access my site there should be no password and here is the link: https://blogs.uoregon.edu/benboydendigital/why-are-you-reading-cover-letter/. I have decided to put my cover letter on my site because I feel it is a part of this class and me. All of my requirements for the site will be found in the blog posts. While there will be a lot of good information on the pages I hope you enjoy reading.

I feel I have earned an A grade pathway for this class. When I was at the midterm part of this class I reflected and gave myself a C but I feel I have done so much more now and have completed all required elements for the class. I completed 7 total blog posts which all are uploaded, 10 social annotations completely done, one project prototype and will hopefully hit all the requirements for this final project. All comments that were made for my blog posts I went on to correct and improve on. I read all of the feedback I have been given and I feel have taken it positively and helped me improve in this class. But not only that I have gained something from this class. I never thought I would take so much away from a class like this but I have learned more then I would have ever imagined and hope to continue to learn about in the future. I am not going to get into all of the details I have taken from this class because they are all over this website but hopefully through reading this site it is clear how much I have taken away.

What I have learned from this class can be written for days but I will try and tackle everything and finishing with my take on what digital literacy is now to me. I set three goals at the beginning of this class and that was to be comfortable in digital literacy, to troubleshoot online issues, ad find communication I want to be apart of which I feel I greatly accomplished. I learned about digital humanities and how it combines the strengths of both the humanities and the digital world to provide a unique perspective on human culture and history. Digital technologies such as databases, text mining tools, and visualization tools are used to analyze large amounts of data and uncover new insights and patterns. This allows researchers to study complex cultural phenomena in ways that would not be possible with traditional methods. It is something I want to get into even more. I learned how to create a website and why websites are important. Having a website can be a valuable asset for anyone who wants to promote themselves or their business, share information, or connect with others. A website can help you to establish your online presence, build trust and credibility, and provide a convenient platform for sharing information and connecting with others. I learned about my internet habits and biases and others on the internet. The internet has become an integral part of our daily lives, providing us with access to vast amounts of information and connecting us with others around the world. However, the internet is not immune to biases, which can impact the information we access and the way we perceive the world. Through this class I have realized to combat these biases on the internet is to be aware of them and to actively seek out diverse perspectives and information. This can involve using multiple sources when researching a topic, considering different viewpoints, and challenging our own assumptions and biases. Additionally, using critical thinking skills and fact-checking information can help us to avoid falling victim to false or misleading information online. I learned about how Digital Scholars have to use all of these skills constantly to make sure they are not falling for many of the internets traps. Digital Scholars use data to inform their own work. If these scholars do not use data from prior experiences they will make mistakes that have been made before. If scholars can use data from the past they can continue to improve and evolve very similar to how humans evolve. They have to use databases, metadata and so much more in their research to truly feel comfortable with what data they are looking at. I have learned how to make annotations and just how important annotations are. For me annotations are valuable tools that can help to provide additional information and context, to make a text or document more accessible, and to organize and structure the information it contains. Whether used in academic research, literary analysis, or professional writing, annotations can play a critical role in enhancing the clarity and usefulness of a text or document.I learned about Digital Text analysis and how DH Scholars get data sets and use computer programs to create visualizations of the data. I learned just how many tools there are online for me to use and create different visuals for myself. One of the key benefits of digital text analysis is that it allows researchers to quickly and accurately analyze large amounts of data. Another benefit of digital text analysis is that it can be used to uncover patterns and trends that would not be apparent with traditional methods of analysis. I learned about all the different ways data can be formed and my favorite being mapping. I felt mapping was extremely helpful in gaining the audiences attention with a concise image. One benefit of mapping is that it can help us to communicate complex spatial information more effectively. Maps are a visual medium, and they can provide a clear and concise way to represent spatial information.

For my S.M.A.R.T Goal I had four main ideas which were help when you can, question everything, learn the difference between unreliable and reliable data, and learn to accurately search for articles using metadata. Using the smart strategy, my goal was to study these 4 tips. “I want to accomplish completely understand these tips and add them into my daily life, I only need myself to be included in this process, I want to do this as soon as possible, and it is a goal of mine because these are aspects I had never thought of. I can measure this goal by every week seeing if I have thought of these bits of advice. I have the skills to complete this because of how much I have learned. My motivation is just how helpful this skill will be for me and I do not think it will take too much effort for these goals. I am setting this goal because I think it will help an incredible amount on my road to becoming a great digital citizen. I want to complete this by the end of the term.” This was my entire plan and I feel it has been accomplished. I have helped a friend of mine in this class along the way and reached out to a few others in this class, I am extremely specific when it comes to all data now and will research other sites to see if the information is correct, I have been able to find out the difference between unreliable and reliable data, by looking for sources, checking the data, considering the context, and asking questions, you can evaluate the reliability of data and make more informed decisions based on the information it provides. Lastly, I have been using metadata as a valuable tool that can help to organize, contextualize, and analyze data. By providing information about the characteristics and attributes of a particular piece of data, metadata can make it easier to find, understand, and use the data in a variety of contexts. Next I am going to be taking English 470. I think it is the next step in my journey and I feel it is the perfect time to take it next spring. 

The three Core Education skills I am going to be taking about are

• Discern the influence of context and assumptions on one’s own and others’ positions.
• Learn strategies and skills for problem-solving within a particular domain.
• Take risks by, for example, going beyond original parameters of assignment, introducing new materials and forms, tackling controversial topics, advocating unpopular ideas or solutions.

In this class I have tried to avoid my own assumptions however that is always difficult and I will find myself making mistakes. In this class I had assumptions of my classmates because of what I read on their social annotations. I have assumptions of what the teacher expects from me for the work I am doing. I even make assumptions about myself and how quickly I can get the work done in this class. For me, this is very similar to my Econ class. I feel the assumptions I make are similar in the way I have a group and I feel I almost know them through what they write but it can turn into assumptions. I feel I can occasionally catch myself writing a certain way for the teachers to enjoy and it is a class I always feel I can do quicker than I can. Context can have a significant influence on my own and others’ positions because it can shape the way we perceive and interpret events and information. Because of the context of this class sometimes I feel I can lose my voice in writing where in math the context of just writing numbers I feel is more of my voice. I had felt like this for awhile but I feel I now starting to write in more of my style. Learning problem solving skills in this class has been vital for me. I compare it to my stats class because there are formulas for everything in that class so I have used that strategy for here. Whenever I am struggling I will think of it as a formula, I will write down what I am trying to accomplish then the small variables I need to do first and it can help me plan out the week much easier. Lastly taking risks, I feel I have just started to truly take risks in this class, like at the bottom of this massive Essay I wrote is just an explanation of digital literacy from me, it may not be necessary and could be just a waste of time but I feel it is helpful. I do not have a class similar to this because all of my other classes are math so it is difficult to take risks in those. But I feel I have started to take risks in my writing by writing much more and getting much ore concise details.