This project didn’t stress me out as much as previous project, perhaps because I had Tabitha to help me. Tabitha is everything you want in a partner: she is smart, flexible, and creative. That made everything so much easier. When we ran into trouble (like we couldn’t git push) we just tried stuff until it worked rather than panicking. Every time, we were able to push through and get it to work.

We started by creating a Google document to write the “script” (different kind of script) for the presentation. Basically, Tabitha typed and we just tossed around ideas until we had a working text. We were lucky enough that what we put together matched the hourglass structure before we had even heard of it. At first, we were really intimidated because the Gettysburg Address presentation was so awesome, but then we realized that we had a lot to say about accessibility and screen readers. One of our classmates is visually impaired and uses a screen reader so it was interesting to understand the technology that allows her to keep up in class.

Our process was pretty simple. We wrote the presentation together, made the slides together, recorded the audio separately, then came back together to finish the project. One of the problems we ran into was that our git pushes and pulls were not in sync so we had to troubleshoot until whatever error message went away. Another problem was that the preview wasn’t working (most likely due to IT troubles) so we had to git push/pull everything to see the changes. Originally, the introduction slide had separate audio clips, but we couldn’t figure out how to get them to play one after the other so we just rerecorded together.

The presentation has a totally different vibe than most PowerPoints that I’ve seen. It doesn’t have a lot of words on each slide and the audio is prerecorded. I think it’s a lot less stressful to record your presentation in the privacy of your own home, but there are drawbacks as well. If someone has a question, they have to wait for the end. Also, if you were teaching, it would be a little weird to just press play and have your voice come over the speakers.

This project used the git commands that we learned early in the semester, as well as the CSS styles that we played with in Assignment 2. We also used our past experiences using git in a group format with all the pushing and pulling that comes with collaboration. I was a lot more comfortable trying things than I was at the beginning of the semester because I was less afraid of screwing everything up.

As a result of this assignment, I think of presentations differently and I will try to take this experience with me in my future endeavors. In addition, I now have skills that I can talk about when I apply for jobs. The most important takeaway from this class was the confidence I gained. I feel more assured when I work with disk images in the University Archives, even though we didn’t discuss archiving born-digital behaviors. I attribute that to this class.

Now what do I write on my resume?