Week 12 Practicum

In class we played with several tools: IFTTT, Monkeys Writing Shakespeare, a Twitter Bot and a re-mixing of Emily Dickinsons. I want to begin by talking about the tools IFTTT. It essentially connects services you may have together by using Applets. These Applets help your apps do things that they wouldn’t normally do on their own. I was able to connect my Google Assistant to my iPhone calendar which has been very helpful especially during finals week. There were a variety of ways I could have connected my Google Assistant, and I have included a screenshot of those varieties below. I have learned that sometimes it’s necessary to break things in order to build new things. This activity was a perfect example of that. 

Another tool we played with was Monkeys Writing Shakespeare. This was helpful to just look at to get familiarity with how the site works. It essentially replaces words in the simple script with common words and words found within the text. Later in class we used this as an avenue to practice and learn how to code. We used JavaScript and GitHub to add words to arrays and switch out the source text with a new block of text. Even though we worked in our small groups, I think this is a great introduction for anyone wanting to learn how to code on a basic level. 

Another tool we discussed was a Twitter bot which can be used very playfully or as an actual tool to revise things. However, the instructions to complete this were a bit too over my head and I also don’t want to break any terms of service with the app. After reading professor Remys “CREATING AN ACTIVIST TWITTER BOT”, I do think that this tool can be used for good on a platform that often has cycles of negativity if coders choose to use it in a similar fashion. I can totally stand behind that! 

To relate this to class readings, I do think breaking things is necessary in Digital Humanities in order to build new ideas or projects. Our class reading, The Digital Humanities is About Breaking Stuff by Jesse Stommel, is a great source that introduced me to this opinion. I learned that “digital humanities reframes the work we do…” in order for it to be more “collaborative” (Stommel, 2013).  This gives us an opportunity to take something already known or created and develop a deeper understanding of it in a new way. 

In regards to the other reading, Think Talk Male Do: Power and the Digital Humanities by Miriam Posner,  I think that coding should be more accessible and approachable to women. Most of our class is female and if I learned anything from our most previous meeting time, it’s that women can code! We can do it just as fast and well as our male classmates. I think overall it is something valuable to learn if that interests you, but I don’t find it necessary to be successful in Digital Humanities. There are many avenues to take to create and explore different projects without those skills, as long as someone on your creative team does know how to execute them if you do not want to. 

Cited Sources: 

Stommel, J. (2013, September 02). The digital humanities is about breaking stuff. Retrieved May 03, 2021, from https://hybridpedagogy.org/the-digital-humanities-is-about-breaking-stuff/

Think talk make do: Power and the digital humanities. (n.d.). Retrieved May 03, 2021, from http://journalofdigitalhumanities.org/1-2/think-talk-make-do-power-and-the-digital-humanities-by-miriam-posner/

Miriam. (2012, February 29). Some things to think about before you exhort everyone to code. Retrieved May 03, 2021, from http://miriamposner.com/blog/some-things-to-think-about-before-you-exhort-everyone-to-code/