As a part of our work in the History of Texts and Technology course, students were tasked with learning about version control and how it is utilized in collaborative projects. In order to do this, our assignment was to work together to create a sample Introduction to Texts and Technology course syllabus and we had to create it by sending edits back and forth on GitHub so that our selected leader could compile the additions and changes into one final syllabus. This was an important assignment for me professionally because I am planning to enter the industry after completing my PhD, and being able to use GitHub is a key skill that most people within the industry assume its applicants are able to use.
In my future academic projects, there will most likely be a collaborative element in each project I will be involved in. My research interests include augmented reality, digital media and the work I am doing within both of these fields so far has been collaborating on larger project where I have a small piece of it. As I get involved in future projects, especially ones involving computer programming or some element of coding, those projects will most likely be worked on through GitHub. Also, a lot of programming projects are carried out remotely, so being able to use GitHub is an essential skill so that I can even be a competitive applicant.
While I am sure there are other collaborative platforms that are popular, especially within academia (such as using Google Docs for writing projects), I think GitHub can be used to accomplish a variety of projects. I plan to use the GitHub platform as both a means of contributing to projects and as a portfolio that I can refer potential employers to. The collaborative and individual projects I list on my GitHub account will show employers the level of my abilities better than my resume can.
Through the modules on version control (and specifically using GitHub) the main things I learned were why version control is important in a collaborative project and how to use GitHub. The modules explained clearly that using version control help to track the changes each person makes on a project – this can be most helpful when a project has been divided into pieces and the person in charge has to track who has made changes to each part, as well as which pieces have not been completed. Getting into the nuts and bolts of the modules, I learned how to actually use GitHub – creating an account, installing and configuring GitHub onto my laptop, editing a file, pushing my changes, and creating a pull request so my changes can be merged with the main file for others to see. Overall, this was a very useful assignment for me and helped me to build my skills and confidence so I am better equipped to work on Digital Humanities projects in the future.
Jesslyn Parrish 