The Orlando Project: Margaret Forster

                When I first started to look through The Orlando Project my first thought was of how extensive and comprehensive the project seemed to be. My first goal was to browse through the project more to get a better grasp of what it was truly about which is when I stumbled upon the full list of Female British writers that were in the database. I was blown away by the number of woman in the list and I couldn’t help but think that this project is a true example of how digital humanities have improved academia in a very important way. This project focuses on a specific group of woman and their importance to history which is something that may not have been undertaken prior to the evolution of the internet.

                My knowledge of British female writers is not very vast, and I scoured the list for a name that I recognized but was unsuccessful. I decided to pick at random and landed on Margaret Forster:

 

Forster was born in May of 1938 in the city of Carlisle and was the middle child of her parents three children. Her earliest known records of writing are from her childhood diary which the Orlando project seemed to have record of even though I was unable to access it without a username and password. The diary entries are interesting however because they show Forster’s love for fiction, and much of her published work later on in life dealt with biographical materials. While she did publish works of non-fiction later in her career it was her earlier biographical pieces that were responsible for much of her success.

How have my studies at Guelph been affected by digital tools and approaches, and what future possibilities do I see?

It is my belief that any student who has spent time at the University of Guelph has found that their learning has been greatly impacted by the use of digital tools and approaches. In the arts and humanities discipline this fact is simply unavoidable as papers and essays are written while taking advantage of the online resources that are available through our library. By using our Guelph ID we are able to access a wide range of journal articles, newspaper articles, and other scholarly sources while also being able to electronically scan for any book that is physically available in the library stacks. Being a history major I have spent a great deal of time using the resources that are available to us though the University and in my mind it would be almost impossible to complete any assignment without having these tools at my disposal. When I try to imagine what research was like prior to the creation and widespread use of the internet it makes me wonder how any undergraduate student was able to survive.

 

Furthermore, while studying at Guelph, it would be wrong to discuss how digital tools have affected my studies without mentioning Courselink or the wide range of online classes that are available for students to take. Beginning with Courselink and D2L, this is something which has been prevalent in every one of my semesters as the majority of my classes have been completed using this online system in one way or another. Whether it was through online discussion, accessing syllabuses and lecture material, communicating with classmate and professors, or for submitting work, classes at Guelph would not be as convenient without the use of Courselink. Similarly the ability to take online classes through the Courselink system has been something that I have taken advantage of in every semester of my undergrad. While taking these online classes is something to get used to, as it is very easy to fall behind if one does not pay attention, the success that I have had, and the information that I have learned, has been extremely valuable to the overall learning experience that I have had at the University of Guelph.

 

Questioning what the future holds for undergrads and how technology will further enhance their learning experiences is something which is almost impossible to judge which is made evident by reading the excerpt from Susan Hockey. I found this piece very interesting to read as Hockey did an excellent job in showing the evolution that computers had in the study of humanities and how the discipline of digital humanities came to be. Beginning with Roberto Busa and his dream of creating a digital database, Hockey followed the evolutionary process of computers right up to the present day showcasing the way in which the field was able to develop and evolve. The options that we have available to us today are vastly impressive compared to what scholars dealing with information technology were privy to four decades ago and Hockey demonstrates that it really was not until the late eighties when personal computers became more popular that the field of digital humanities really began to prosper. No longer were people required to be in the field of computer sciences to access this technology as the average Joe was now able to purchase a computer and begin to discover its many capabilities. As is obvious however the greatest installment to information technology and its development was the creation of the internet as it allowed information to be shared at incredible rates of speed. No longer were academics required to be in face-to-face contact with each other as Email and message boards allowed for people to share and discuss information with people all over the world from the comfort of their own homes.

 

Hockey was able to explain to the reader how immensely information technology has evolved over the years which makes it incredibly difficult for me to imagine what the future could possibly hold. There are new technological inventions now that ten years ago would have seemed impossible as many people now carry phones in their pockets that are more powerful than a personal computer would have been in 2002. I think it is safe to say that as time moves on the internet will continue to have an incredible impact on the way students learn and experience university life. More and more scholarly papers and articles will be available for students as new databases are created for more specific topics, and existing databases continue to grow. Even in the four years I have been in school I have noticed that the amount of material available for student has increased since I first began my university career.  This is something which I can only imagine will continue to grow.

Works Cited
Hockey, Susan. The History of Humanities Computing. A Companion to Digital Humanities. Edited by Susan Schreibman, Ray Siemens, and John Unsworth. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2004