When I began this course, I had never even heard of Linux or a command-line interface. I have to admit that I felt fairly out of my depth, but I am enthusiastic about learning new things and technology is an area where I would especially like to strengthen my knowledge. I have also genuinely enjoyed learning about these topics, and it has been exciting to have those moments when something finally "clicks."
I have worked hard at the concepts and feel that I now have at least a basic grasp of the command-line interface as well as how it differs from a graphical user interface, what Linux is and how it differs from other operating systems, what a web server is, how to create a web page with HTML, what XML is and what it is and isn't used for, how to develop a database, as well as a myriad of other technical information. I particularly enjoyed learning HTML and MySQL, perhaps because it was fun to see the immediate outcome of using them.
On a deeper level, I now understand so much more about why these different technologies are used and how they fit together in order to build a complex digital collection. It has changed my perception of digital collections being things that I could only hope to work with as an end-user, to seeing that I could learn how to work with them at a deeper level. It was helpful to be able to see the inner workings of a digital database. I am very grateful that I took this course and am really looking forward to 675 next semester. I can't believe how much I have learned in the last couple of months and how far my technical knowledge in general has grown.
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