Tag: Technology

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Blog #4

The process of marking up the Esther Latrobe memoir transcription was certainly a tedious process, but definitely did affect the way I understood its content. When considering when to tag things like emotions, our group had to work closely to decide what we would qualify as an emotion and to do our best to keep the tags consistent throughout the transcription. Just as Pierazzo claims in her article, with each decision about what kind of things would be marked with what tags, we were forced to deeply interpret and contemplate what the text was communicating and through this we were able to understand the text in a much more elaborate way. Because our text relied so little on travel and so heavily on emotion and prayer, we had to depend a lot on each other to maintain the use of certain tags. After the markup was complete, it was really interesting to be able to see how often certain things come up and see what points in the transcription were more eventful. We were much more clearly able to see the points of illness and of great emotion in Esther’s life and see how proximal they were in relationship to other events. It was also valuable to learn about the XML markup system and seeing the process of our transcriptions becoming viewable web pages. One of the main points that is referenced numerous times in Pierazzo’s article is about the ability of the markup to capture as much detail from the original document as is possible on a digital setting. We were able to understand this idea by learning that each character serves a purpose in a markup and by moving one piece out of place, the whole thing changes. Lastly, we were also able to experience the back end of something used in everyday life, that I have personally never seen. To experience just how elaborate encoded material is and how different it is from what actually appears on a screen is eye opening to students like me who use their computer and phone every day without much thought about what is making it work the way it does. Overall, through the markup of the Latrobe transcription, we were able to not only gain a deeper understanding of the text but also learn about the process of encoding and the way that it plays into our everyday life.

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Blog #1

Blog #1

After analyzing several digital humanities projects, I have come to see the importance of DH. Digital humanities brings texts and other humanity studies to life, providing a new way study more words than ever before possible. Perhaps the best part: digital humanities makes these works available to EVERYONE, not just scholars. This is a huge deal; even some scholars struggle to access archives because of their demanding requirements. With methods like visualization and mapping, scholars have been able to make humanities more interesting and easier to study for the masses.

Although digital humanities come with several benefits, there are still many skeptics/objectors. Many people, oftentimes scholars, argue that digitizing these works takes away its essence, the beauty of analyzing them in person. They point out that moment of serendipity that comes with analyzing a 200 year old map or reliving a pioneer’s life through the same journal they’d record their thoughts and feelings in. Many people also feel that the elements of DH can take the meaning away from a document. For instance, it could be argued that visualization distracts from the true meaning of its work, making the reader analyze vast amounts of information when they should instead be studying every word,  contemplating its meaning.

For me, digital humanities is just like anything else in modern society, a product of evolution. In a world that is constantly improving, it is not surprising to see the digitization of archives. This “Age of Technology” that the world is going through mainly centralizes around one idea: convenience. DH is convenient. Instead of searching for an archive, traveling to it, gaining admittance, searching for materials, and then trying to study materials that are more often then not too worn down from use over time to even read, you can simply open your laptop and go online and study virtually anything. In my opinion, all scholars should really be embracing Digital Humanities. I understand the reliance and comfortability with traditional ways of studying archival materials, but the digitization of these materials has made them more available to the world, making the scholar’s job more efficient and sometimes providing them with jobs. Although, yes, I’m sure falling in love with a historical document in person, being able to touch it, is an ethereal experience, DH provides new ways to fall in love with humanities. Whether it be seeing a document or study in a new perspective because of visualization 0r being able to better understand the travel patterns of a specific group because of mapping, digital humanities is packed full of information that can inspire.

As with anything, digital humanities comes with its pros and cons. Although the world is shifting away from tradition, away from the physical and more towards the digital, these works are still valued and loved. There must be an understanding that the way we study the humanities must evolve with society or they will become irrelevant and forgotten. In a world that is moving ever-so-rapidly, the benefit of having these archives just a few clicks away at the tips of your fingers is a huge accomplishment in the world of humanities. The blend of a modern study with a classical one is something that needs to happen more often and hopefully will because of the example that DH sets.


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Blog #1

Pros and Cons of Digital Text

The concept of creating a highly digital world is something that is very prevalent in society today. Personally, I believe that if these digital archives are created correctly they can be incredibly useful and elevate the efficiency in which people study, but the digital texts that we mainly use in school I find slightly aggravating. In school, from a personal experience, if the material is online it is simply a picture of the text. In this very scenario I will go to the library and print out the reading so I believe that today we still see majority of the resources on paper. I do however see a trend that is shifting with the waves of better technology. As time goes on more and more school will be done completely digitally providing easier access for students.

The advantages that come with creating digital artifacts are obvious. For one, the majority of people on the earth today own a smart device. A smart device is defined as an electrical gadget that will allow an individual to access the internet, surf the web, and connect with others. With the majority of text becoming digital and the overwhelming ownership of smart devices these digital texts become far more convenient for people to access than the actual written text. Furthermore, the more advanced digital archives allow a much easier way to dissect the information making studying easier and easier. If a digital archive is paired with some sort of visual analysis it allows the viewer to gain a broader understanding of the information before diving deeper into the real material. For this very reason I think that most school readings are done and distributed digitally. That being said, all digital readings I am given I will still print out because of personal preference While there are obvious positives, there are also some serious negatives. I personally find it much harder to retain information from a digital source than the physical text. While sifting through an actual book it is much easier take notes in the margins or even underline meaningful information. For those very reasons I still much prefer physical text to a digital version.

There is a lot of room for digital archives to grow and when they are perfected they will provide an efficient way of portraying information that hasn’t been seen before. The aspects of actual text that I find most useful are the abilities to take notes and highlight the important information. I understand that certain sites allow you to highlight the digital text but I still find it less than useful. If the archives kept a record of which pages you highlights it would make it much easier to go back and sift through the work you had done before much easier than archives I have accessed in the past. Another adjustment that I believe needs to be made is the use of margins. Today, we see a spaces underneath the test that allows you to take noted for the entire page, but with the actual text and a margin you can take notes directly next to the section of the reading you find important. With the addition of a visual component that provides a brief summary of the information and the ability to take clear concise notes on the digital texts I could see written texts becoming obsolete.

                                                

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Blog #1

After visiting several websites based on archival materials, I realized that there are both advantages and disadvantages to creating a digital artifact. One advantage to creating a digital artifact is the fact that it is progressive. At this day in age, technology is increasingly growing and becoming more and more important to our daily lives in many respected aspects. Physical and tangible manuscripts are going ‘out of style’ because there are so many virtual tools. Another advantage is that with technology comes increased productivity and speed.

According to Jane Austen’s Fiction Manuscripts “many of the Austen manuscripts are frail; open and sustained access has long been impossible for conservation and location reasons.” Another line that stuck out to me as an advantage was “digitization at this stage in their lives not only offers the opportunity for the virtual reunification of a key manuscript resource…” What a lot of the projects have in common are that they are a collection of a bunch of manuscripts. Also, the artifacts are usually kept in an important library or museum.

Some of the disadvantages to creating a digital artifact is that it is digital. To some people, they do not like change (change being the technology in this case). Technology can be extremely helpful but also has its cons. It is expensive, takes time to learn how to figure it out, and can have bugs and crash especially when first starting up. Another huge disadvantage in my opinion is getting rid of the tangible aspect of an artifact. For example, there is no more “flipping the page”.

Are our physical and emotional relationships to our objects of study shifting in a digital age?

I think that our physical and emotional relationships to our object are both changing and staying the same. An emotional attachment and relationship to an object in my opinion does not change just because technology comes into play. However, our physical relationship with an object does change because of the tangible aspect of it going away. Reading on a screen is much different then reading off a physical object.

Do digitized materials supplant our need to view the physical originals, or enhance the necessity of and desire for archival work?

Digitized materials enhance the necessity and desire for archival work. With new technology, there is new publicity, and this is how word spreads which may create a higher desire for archival work.

Are we interacting with textual material on the screen more than on the (manuscript or printed) page, and if so, how are our research practices changing?

I think that we are interacting with textual material on the screen more than a manuscript or a printed page because a lot of the manuscripts are very old and hard to read because of the damage done to them just naturally weathering over the years. With technology becoming a bigger part of our life, it is easier to interact with the textual material as a lot of educational tools and even work-related items are online.

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