I’m so glad to be back in class with all of you, and I can’t wait to hear the pitches and get started on a project.

My professional background is in education, writing, and instructional design, and my central humanities interests are literature, history, and archival practice. I hope to use what I learn in this program to help create public history projects that include open educational resources.

Here are the skills I could bring to a project:

Writing and Editing: My day job involves a lot of instructional writing for a general audience, as well as editing (for clarity, style, and accuracy) others’ work. I’ve also scripted videos and written website copy.

Project Management: I have experience managing my own freelance projects, as well as complex team projects. My work projects usually involve dozens of interconnected assets that need to be created or revised using a multi-step process that includes interviews with subject-matter experts, multiple rounds of drafts and revision, stakeholder and compliance approval, and publication. I’m not naturally detail-oriented, but I’ve learned to keep track of all the pieces, and I know how to structure a project with meaningful milestones and deadlines. I’ve used Basecamp and Excel/Google Sheets for project management.

Research/Information Gathering and Synthesis: My instructional design work requires me to teach myself about a process or concept, then synthesize the information and figure out how to teach it to others. I would enjoy doing background reading, finding relevant academic papers, locating and reading historical documents, etc. — anything needed to help build the humanities foundation for a project.

Instructional/Learning Design: I would be able to create educational materials or lesson plans/ideas as part of the outreach for a project.

Web Development: I have basic skills in web development (HTML and CSS authoring) and am very comfortable with web authoring/WYSIWYG tools like WordPress, Squarespace, etc.

Graphic Design/Illustration: Digital illustration is a hobby of mine, and I’ve designed logos, marketing materials, and show posters for friends and family. I’m not a professional illustrator or designer, but basic graphic design is part of my day job, and I know how to select design elements and give projects a clean, cohesive look. I’m proficient with Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketch, and Procreate.

Hi all!! It was great to see so many familiar faces after the break.

I am Zico, a DH practitioner by trait, a tech nerd by nature. Below are some of the qualities I have to offer.

Developer: I do a fair bit of programming whenever I can. Got rejected by DRI Summer Institute because the selection committee thinks that I am over qualified. I consider this as a recognition. Hey, at least somebody thinks I am good at programming!! This is probably my strongest suit i.e. learning programming languages and building projects. I use Python a lot because of its versatility and simplicity. Apart from that, I am interested in the web. Last semester, I designed websites using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. This semester I am planning to level up and learn a JavaScript framework like React with a vision to break into the decentralized web. I have a growing number of Github repos. 

Project Manager: Although I lack experience, I typically manage my projects quite well. Managing resources, judging feasibility are some of the things I am good at. In addition, I am pretty good at maintaining deadlines. Being a developer myself, I am blessed with the ability to work closely with developers. This allows me to make time sensitive decisions. I am looking forward to leveling up my communication skills as a project manager with the non tech people.

Designer/UX: I love minimal design concepts. I have not done any professional designs. However, I have used photoshop and after effects based on demand for my project.

Research: Although I suffer from laps of concentration, my management skills always save the day. Pretty good at finding data and resources based on requirements.

Outreach: Not a social media person. I suck at convincing people buying into my ideas. I am trying to improve in this regard.