Blog Week 10: Prompt 3

    The digital humanities component of this course has had a great impact on my learning because I found new ways to express information effectively other than an essay. I learned that not every research project can be best expressed in an essay form. Sometimes, a digital tool like Neatline can be more effective. For my final project in the fall, I had so many sources from different locations and times. In Neatline, I was able to express these sources through the timeline and map. My research had a more holistic representation by then because I was communicating my sources through multiple modes. 

    The learning curve to these digital tools can be quite steep. It was hard to get used to Neatline in the fall. As a consequence, I did not use it for any of my research excursions. Research excursions had a slightly more narrow focus so that contributed to my lack of interest in using Neatline for them. In other words, they had less need for a multimodal approach. I also learned how to use Omeka and StoryMaps. By then, I was already familiar with Neatline. Since each software shares some similarities with one another, it was not too challenging to get used to the new ones.

    I was expecting to use Omeka for my final project of the winter quarter. However, I found so much success in the essay format that I decided to stick with that. I think I still express my best work through essay form because I am so used to it. But thanks to the introductions to Neatline, Omeka, and StoryMaps, I will now have more multimodal approaches to future projects. Eventually, I will get comfortable with using them.