This term taught me the importance of asking questions and reaching out to people for help. From the beginning of the term, working remotely, I learned how to use Teams for video conferencing, sharing my screen, opening the chat during the video conference, and other tech tools. I asked questions about each of these aspects since I knew they would each be important tools throughout the term.
My meetings with Gabrielle and Azle taught me a lot about website translation and the necessary steps that go into translating such as creating a data management plan and wireframing the site. I did my own research as well but learning from professionals was really beneficial. The meetings provided me with more confidence as I approached the actual translation process. For example when I attempted to create my data management plan on my own, I was given instructions such as, “describe how you will document your data, including metadata standards and tools.” I did not know what some of these terms meant. During my meeting with Gabrielle, I got all these questions answered and she also provided me with a platform where I could easily plan out my data management. We went through the questions together so I knew what they were asking because many of them had some jargon that I was not familiar with. These initial steps helped me understand what I was doing and how I would start the process.
By asking questions, it also relieved any stress I had about the project. Specifically, I was mostly concerned about the story map because after multiple tries I could not get the map to function properly on the site. I was not familiar with how iframes worked before I met with Azle, and even after research, it still would not function on the site. After asking Azle, what an iframe was and its purpose and how to properly embed it on to my site, I found the correct iframe code and embedded it into the site, and it worked. I was relieved because the story map was hindering me from moving on with the other components of the site. When I met with Azle, I asked her why it was so difficult to edit my site and it turns out I hadn’t even applied the Divi theme to my site. This is the main component of the designing the site, so after I applied the theme, putting the site together became a lot easier. Once we applied the theme, Azle demonstrated how Divi worked and explained what the important tools did so that I had some understanding of how to start translating with Divi. She advised me to work on the front end of the site, which was extremely helpful for me as I am a visual learner.
During weekly check-ins with Kate and Franny, I asked them specific questions on how to add different components to my site that I was unable to learn from Google. They always knew the answers and I was able to move forward with other parts of the site. Asking questions helped me move at a quick pace as I did my translation.
Image Credit: Question mark neon signage by Emily Morter