RELI/ENGL 39, Fall 2015, University of the Pacific

Author: g_pate

My relationship with technology

I have a really good relationship with technology when it is working. I am always on my phone and I always have it next me. I always play games, check social media, and rely on my phone. Except when it becomes faulty, I feel like I want to throw my phone across the room and at the wall.

When my technology is working I spend a lot of time on it playing games, chatting friends, and organizing my busy life of course, but I am also preparing my self for my upcoming classes, researching, and learning about miscellaneous topics. A lot of the time I will look ahead on the class schedule to research materials that will help me become prepared for the next class. In “When Women Stopped Coding” they explain to us that Ordonez thought that her classmate was some sort of genius because they knew how to do everything that was being taught. Ordonez said “I tracked him down. He’s now a tech consultant in Seattle. Lee remembers that time, and he says Patty was wrong. He wasn’t some kind of genius. He had something Patty didn’t – a home computer.” Having the accessibility and readiness of a computer allowed him to become successful. To me this story conveys the message that computers and technology can teach us so much. Even if individuals, like me, have a complicated relationship with technology we should get past it and appreciate what technology has to offer. The ability of having computers is a privilege and we can’t take them and technology for granted especially if they can help us become successful.

What is Digital Humanities?

When the question “What is Digital Humanities?” is asked we think it is the use of technology to explain humanities, but it is not as basic as that. This subject of digital humanities is still new and the discussions and debates to try to explain it is an on going occurrence. In “This is Why We Fight’: Defining the Values of the Digital Humanities” in Debates in the Digital Humanities they explain to us that there is a “community that comes together around values such as openness and collaboration (pg.16, Spiro).” Through my experiences in class, I portray digital humanities as a way to understand things using media and digital techniques. I think there is a crossroad between the two words “digital” and “humanities” and there are debates and problems that could arise.  The digital humanities department at UCLA attempts to define digital humanities as the interpretation of “the cultural and social impact of new media and information technologies.” I agree with this and I think that digital humanities can offer insight and explanations to things that we want to find out more about. http://www.cdh.ucla.edu/about/

In the article “The digital humanities is not about building, it’s about sharing,” by Mark Sample, explains to us that today there is debate “between those who build digital tools and media and those who study traditional humanities questions using digital tools and media (Sample).” I am in favor of try to build new technology to explain the humanities and to expand and explore not only the traditional humanities, but social sciences, arts, and natural sciences.

Voyant Tools

At first I was very intrigued by the program, I had never heard or seen anything quite like it before. At first the tool was very confusing and it didn’t make much sense to me, but as I used it and got more familiar I really enjoyed it and it was interesting. I thought the aspect of being able to view similarities in different texts was very fascinating, but as I used it more and more I decided that I would never really use this or need to use this tool in my daily life. Even though this is a new idea and innovation that I see being used for a research project, I wouldn’t need to use this in my daily life. In terms of using it as a research assistant, I like that you could analyze the text and other sources before deciding whether to use them or not. I also remember in class the professor saying that there are other versions of Voyant tools that are more sophisticated, and I think that would be a better tool to use in other aspects of our lives besides doing research. I did like the aspect of being able to learn the tool very fast and efficiently. I really liked this quality of the tool and if I ever did need it I would feel comfortable using it.