- 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?
I think learning how to gauge my abilities and interest in a particular facet of a project, and being able to communicate that accordingly with a superior or project lead. I think oftentimes I’m happy to do almost any task put in front of me, but I have stronger skills and interests in certain areas, and learning how to advocate for that when I’m lucky enough to have flexibility in my duties has been something that I’ve been learning this semester not just in Vivero but in my coursework, volunteer work and professional work outside of Vivero. So I think my advice would be to know yourself, your capacity to complete a task, and your interest in taking on additional tasks before picking up something new.
- 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?
I felt like I picked up quite a few new tools throughout the training period, but especially during the course period, the repetition of completing a tool training for Vivero to complete the same training in DST-295 sometimes got a bit old, and I wish that in those scenarios there were ways supplement the training to engage deeper, rather than repeating the same content multiple times.
- What are your next steps for project work next semester? What documentation have you created, and what documentation do you still need to create?
I’ve completed the digital glossary feature that was the primary objective of this year for me with the Native History Project as I go abroad to Berlin next semester. I’m working on creating documentation for the use of the feature, and documentation for keeping the internal database updated alongside the site to maintain redundancy and promote proper recordkeeping.
- What digital scholarship topics, methods, or tools might you be interested in exploring next semester, or in the future?
I’d like to get more experience with GIS tools and have an opportunity to mess around with textual analysis tools, but the thing I’d really like to build the skillset for is creating static sites because they require a small set of technical skills, can offer greater flexibility and are easier to maintain in the long run for some DH projects. I’m not really sure how that’d fit with something like the Native History Project next year but I’ll certainly try to squeeze it into some of the personal projects I have brewing.