Hands on Lab #1 Reflection

In doing the hand on lab project, I learned a lot about finding data, sorting data, expressing data, and working with a group to put together a project. I was able to put some of the things I learned about getting data to the test, using what I knew to put the project together. It was interesting and helpful to have experience in coordinating a data projects with a group of people, seeing what strengths and weaknesses each person had in the group, and to then put that together to create the project in the best way.

Trying to code the data into a Python script, in a way that expressed the data in a way that could be analyzed, was a bit of a challenge. Having to progressively learn a coding language has been a bit of work throughout the semester so far, and putting those skills to the test proved to be quite a challenge. However, I feel that I have greatly improved on these skills and will be able to hopefully use what I’ve learned in further projects, especially the final data project.

If I were to do this project again, I would attempt to learn and understand more advanced code for the data to be collected and expressed. I feel that having a wider range of data of a larger quantity would also be beneficial in seeing more specific trends in the data, and give more to work with in the analysis of the data. Despite that, I feel the project did what it was supposed to do, and the data was expressed in a way that worked. The progressive attempts and assignments dealing with data have personally been beneficial to my progress in effectively using techniques applying to digital humanities, and through more experience, I’ll eventually see a large improvement in my skill set over time.