Today’s Reflection Question:
- Looking back on learning: what are the most important things you’ve learned this semester? What advice would you give your past self about becoming a Vivero Fellow and learning how to do this work?
Besides techniques and practical aspects, the most important lesson of this semester was the importance of frequent communication; including updating and asking for feedback from the project lead, sharing progress with and hearing insights from the Vivero Co-Leads, or communicating with my future self through documentation and planning. This helped make the project work flow smooth and helped me feel supported throughout the semester.
As advice to myself starting out as a Vivero Fellow, I would say to try to think of my Vivero Fellow as a part of the team, instead of the project being solely my responsibility. The project work helped me define what I can support and proactively work on for the project, as well as what would be best dealt with other people on board.
- Reflection on the training model: what worked and what didn’t work for you? What stuck with you? Are there things you found confusing or not helpful?
The trainings were very helpful because I learned the structure and the functions of each tool through a hands-on task, while critically thinking about the strengths and limitations of the tool, as well as how to become confident in helping someone else use the tool. While I found all training to be useful, I found Omeka to be more challenging to master and commit to memory than other tools because of the way it is set up, and how the properties are defined. I am looking forward to continuing to explore this tool, to build more confidence to help someone use the tool.
- What are your next steps for project work next semester? What documentation have you created, and what documentation do you still need to create?
My goal next semester is to complete the list of recommended films for the event/website, and transition to supporting with the DAR online event and the website. While I planned on completing the database work by the end of this semester, working with files from certain (about 10 years of footage) have taken a lot longer than expected, slightly delaying the process from my expectations. I will be discussing my documentation about the database (which is the ‘heart’ of the project work, and what I spent most time working on this semester) and finalizing it with my project lead. I look forward to mapping out the new semester’s project work with my project lead in the first weeks of the semester and exploring the possibility of using OmekaS for the website portion of the project.
- What digital scholarship topics, methods, or tools might you be interested in exploring next semester, or in the future?
One unique feature of my project is how the theme of Titular Head is expressed and communicated through different mediums (database, virtual event, and website). This reminds me of the topic of using digital tools as a way of conserving memories, as well as encouraging group and live participation through an event. I am looking forward to exploring this different medium and purpose of digital tools, and deciding on using different tools and practices to meet different needs for each component of the project.