Intro/Background

Prior to starting this course I had rarely (if ever) thought much of digital literature in the concept of itself because of how technologically reliant we are as a society and how normalized it is for everything to be digital. As I look back through my previous learning experiences in this course, it reminds me of Lab Notebook 1. What seems like days ago but in reality was months ago, a prompt seeming like an innocent question and a lot of growth in between, “Lab Notebook 1” demonstrates a great deal of personal growth throughout a term of developing digital competencies and gaining new perceptions of digital culture. As I go through previous assignments like Lab Notebook 1 to the reading of the famous novel “Frankenstein”, and the work we’ve done on it, to the assigned texts we explore in and out of class, my understanding for digital culture has shifted and caused me to think more about it as well as my ability to apply the use of digital competencies. Through this final lab notebook I will review my experience throughout this course relating to the material covered.

Developing and Changing Digital

Throughout this course my overall perception of digital literature has matured and my understanding has grown. From lab notebook 1 where I shared my experience (or lack there of) using digital tools and how I struggled with basic competencies such as locating files on my computer and the complexities contained in modern technologies, to using websites such as Voyant to learn about literature through a complex digital lens and use technologies to our advantage as a tool to further understanding for texts like “Frankenstein”.  Using Voyant shaped a new understanding on digital culture for me because of its initial confusion and seeming complexity. As I played around with it more I was able to see the many ways to use it and compare texts such as two different versions of “Frankenstein”; Seeing writing patterns and applying it to analysis of text. Looking at tools like this while also reading a classic novel like “Frankenstein” shows how deeply literature and its interpretation can change in a always-growing digital time. Seeing literature through a digital culture lens has made me think a lot more about my automatic reaction to consuming digital literature and how this course has shifted my thinking of digital literature as a simple, normal, every day thing to how we don’t even realize we are subject to such inventive tools and open possibilities that people before us couldn’t even ponder. This course has provided me with a new appreciation for our new digital world in literature but also brought to light the dark side of digital culture. As seen in “Are We Automating Racism” we learn of biased algorithms seen in AI and digital that can contribute to things such as sexism and racism. This doesn’t make me want to instantly differ from the future of digital and AI, but learning this makes me think harder about how AI is developed and to be constantly weary for bias when taking information from AI based digital sources.

Digital Competencies

As I write this final Lab Notebook, I am using several new digital competencies I have learned. Before this course I had no concept of what Alt text even was, let alone how to create it. Now I can confidently use this function to credit creator’s of images and the creative commons license. As well developing these needed copyright skills, I learned how to make a blog. Im sure at some point in the future I will make some sort of blog or something related, so having the basic knowledge for how to organize and create a blog is a digital competency I consider vital, as more literature becomes digital. Throughout the process of writing lab notebooks and establishing my blog I was given insight on how to create an effective piece of digital literature. With the use of appropriate headers, free of mechanical errors and authentic writing. Another digital competency I learned was through the project of Lab Notebook 3 where I compared 2 separate texts on different websites of “Frankenstein” and experimented with different tools to interpret the different texts. This gave me practice on using forms of digital literature to establish more understanding and a more efficient approach to reading. Through all of the content and digital skills I have obtained I think this course prepared me to be more digitally competent and helped establish a baseline of a basic digital skillset.