For my final blog post, I decided to actually go back to week ten for a few reasons. The first was that it was one of. my favorite activities to do and one that I was good at. The second was that I see adding data visualizations to a project as extremely beneficial. The reasoning for this is because people learn and absorb information differently. This means adding a graph or a visual ad could help people who learn best from sight instead. Overall I see this as a pure benefit to the reader. no matter what this makes the information you are trying to present the easiest to grasp and most easily understood.
However, the primary reason I choose week ten was that it was the one project I thought I could definitely add on to and make better. The reasoning for this is because in my first blood post about the subject I only really looked at one data set. Nonetheless, I wanted to see how to data would look compare if I added in a secondary set of points from another time.
After making the two graphs I started to definitely see some differences in them. The first thing I noticed is the data from 1850 seems to be much more comprehensive than 1790. The data for 1850 included many more states. With some of these states not even being created until after 1790. Another quick thing I noticed about the data is that the scale for the graphs had grown significantly. I see these differences in a few different ways. One showed how America was going about the westward expansion and gaining new states and how those new states were dealing with slavery. The second being that close to sixty years had passed and America was a much different county with slavery and population. In these two ways seen from the data shows you some interesting things. With the last data set of 1850 being held close to the start of the civil war. It showed how different states were already choosing what sides they would most likely choose. With the states who had the most non-white free citizens choosing to join with the north. While states with small amounts of free non-white citizens having a higher percentage of join the confederacy. Overall it seems that the amount of free non-white citizens living in a state seemed too insignificant data however if you look at it with a broader view it seems to have a significant impact.
For the design of these graphs, I choose to try and make the cleaned and easiest to read graphs to make understand the information easiest. First I broke up all the information by two different years. The two time periods I was comparing was 1790 and 1850. Once I broke it by year I broke it down by each state. Then I put all of the data in and choose a bar graph because it was easier to read with the totals for each state. After that, I added small changes like colors and axis titles. Overall I think the graphs came out great and are easy to get information from.
Overall I enjoyed useing flourish to make my graphs. The interface of the website is set up really well. This made it very intuitive to make changes to the graphs. This definitely helped me make the graphs look better in less time it would take me on something like Microsoft word. However learning to use an entirely new website was tricking and definitely took me some time to figure things out.
As I reflect on the last semester there are a few key topics that will definitely stay with past finishing this class. One of the most compelling topics I learned was realizing that there is a lot more to history than what high school taught me. Overall all of the talks in the class and the reading I started to notice what I thought was black and white history is a lot more grey. The education I had previously had lead me to believe a lot of misconceptions about slavery and early America. Fixing these misconceptions helped me understand that time period better and makes me want to look deeper into other historical time periods.
Another compelling topic that will stay with me is the introduction of technology into my work. My previous work with history was most down with either a text document or some sort of quiz or test. However, the class showed me that there can be better ways to learn history and how to show what I have learned. The introduction of a few different types of technology it helped me become a better-rounded student. Now before starting a project I will try and see if there’s a beneficial way to add in technology to make the project exceptional.
Inconclusion I enjoyed a lot of this class. I was very unsure of how a history class that only met twice a week was going to go. However, not only was it enjoyable during class time it also helped me become a better student. I look forward to doing my own research into more historical time periods and places using the skills I picked up in this class. Finally, after taking this class I realized that the topic of race has long been a problem in America and needs to still be resisted against for the fight for equality.
I really enjoyed reading about your interest in week ten and producing data visualizations using Flourish. It’s one of the most versatile tools and can take a large quantity of two-dimensional data and render it into a beautiful, easy to read visualization. This process also helps us “see” the past differently by enabling us to use tools that read quantitative information. The two graphs that you demonstrated in this post are a confirmation of the power of visualization tools like Flourish. Your observations and interpretations about the data itself also raise good questions about historical context and the production of historical records like the US census. The country in 1850 was indeed quite different in 1790, and we see this reflected in the data which shows compelling regional characteristics that emerge in the early 19th century.
I also appreciated your reflections about the course content and the influence it has had on your worldview. I really appreciate your engagement with the course and how it will have an impact on your work. Thank you for all of your contributions this semester and I wish you the best in your studies and future!