What are the most important things you’ve learned this semester? What advice would you give your past self about becoming a Vivero Fellow and learning how to do this work? What worked and what didn’t work for you? What stuck with you? Are there things you found confusing or not helpful? What are your next steps for project work next semester? What documentation have you created, and what documentation do you still need to create? What digital scholarship topics, methods, or tools might you be interested in exploring next semester, or in the future?
One of the most important things I’ve learned this semester is how to use WordPress and how to become more of a problem solver. Most of the tools are actually pretty intuitive once you start exploring on your own. I learned not to let the fear of unfamiliarity hold me back. If I could give my past self advice about becoming a Vivero Fellow, I would say to not stress too much beforehand—it’s okay not to know everything right away, and you’ll learn by doing.
Through this experience, I also discovered how I learn best. I’ve realized that I retain information more effectively by actively using the tools, rather than sitting through tutorials or following step-by-step instructions. For instance, when I was learning WordPress and Audacity, it made a big difference to simply click around and experiment on my own. Although I found some applications confusing or even frustrating at times—especially WeVideo and occasionally WordPress because of their UX and interface design—I still managed to figure things out eventually by tinkering. The tool that really stuck with me the most was Audacity, partly because I completed the training twice, which gave me extra time to internalize how it works.
Next semester, I’m especially curious about exploring Beaver Builder. I’ve heard it’s a more user-friendly and flexible alternative to WordPress, and I think it might suit my style of learning and creating better. I’d also like to explore more tools related to web design and layout—something that will give me more creative freedom without being annoying to use. I enjoy platforms that allow for a bit of coding or logic-based thinking, but are still manageable without having to write code from scratch.
In the future, I’d like to explore more digital scholarship tools and methods that involve building or customizing websites, as well as those that allow for creativity and flexibility. Maybe something that will allow me to code more, but is maintainable without code? I’m especially interested in tools that let me experiment visually and figure things out through trial and error, since that’s how I learn best.