Blog Week 3: Neatline Reflection

Learning Neatline was pretty straightforward. It was very helpful to have tech staff take us through it at a relatively slow pace. . When first opening up a Neatline project, the first thing the user sees will always be a map with points on it highlighted to show where the research in the project took place. This is useful because it can give the viewer/reader of the project a visual element to digest as well as a verbal element. For many visual learners, this will allow them to interact with the project in ways the never could have by reading a traditional essay. Still, I am not sure about whether I will use it for my next research excursion because I felt quite comfortable writing an essay. I have been writing essays for years now and it feels like a safe option. I know what to expect. If my essay is not going well, I can reflect on past experiences and troubleshoot my way through to making it a well-revised paper in the end. 

With Neatline, it does seem like the map feature can accomplish a lot of writing within itself. This allows the creator to focus more on the substance of what they are writing and perhaps less summary of setting and location. So, for this reason, I might use Neatline in the future. It is just also a question of whether I would be willing to take a risk to try out a new format or not. With the previous research excursion taking me roughly four days to complete, it seems possible to try and use Neatline initially. If it does not work out, I could always go back to the essay format and still have a few days left in the week to try it out