A4.7: Week 4 Reflection September 19, 2006

Aims & Objectives: This week, through my weekly assignments, I wanted to learn more about my chosen topic, dysphagia.  I wanted to learn more ways for me to be able to search online and through other resources to find credible, helpful information.  I also wanted to be able to understand how to narrow down my topic so when I began to find a plethera of knowledgable data, I would know how to sort it into a usable focus.

Declarative Knowledge:By completing the assignments for week 4, I learned a lot of information about how to search for data on a particular project.  I learned that when you have a very broad topic, such as the question I had before, it is too hard to find an abundance of detailed information for one subject with a very broad scope.  I learned how to brainstorm for content words and additional terms that may help to narrow down a very broad topic into something more narrow.  I learned how to revise a question, for terms of researching, to focus more on the details of a topic.  I also learned how to write foundation questions.  In order to answer a very large question, you must first tackle the small ones that come with your broad finding.  A specific essential question should entail around 3-6 foundation questions.  If you have too many, your topic is too broad.  If you do not have enough, your topic may be too narrow.  I learned how to create a search strategy to formulate how you will begin finding information for your topic.  By creating this strategic plan, you will be able to find information faster and more efficiently and even information that is more credible to your focus.  Collaborative software is also known as “groupware” and is a way for different groups of people to work together, through technology, going towards a certain goal.  By evaluating resources, you are able to look at websites on the world wide web and determine if the document that is being shown is credible to your focused goal and find if it is a trustworthy site worth your scholarly use.

Procedural Knowledge: To revise your research and create essential questions, you must first write down your research question that you have already developed to break it down into various parts.  Brainstorm various content words and additional terms that relate to your topic and sentence that you have already formulated.  Rewrite your question trying to be much more specific and narrow using these words you have came up with.  If needed, rewrite and revise your question a number of times to ensure that you are breaking it down as much as can be, while staying specific to your focus.  To write foundation questions, you must focus on your question that you have formulated and come up with 3-6 foundation questions that will help you to answer your essential question.  You start by looking at your newly revised essential question and then break it down into different areas that you may first have to approach and answer before your essential question can be evaluated.  To develop a search strategy begin by actually researching your topic and evaluating the results that you come up with.  Think critically about what you are searching for and where it is best to look for that knowledge to be found.  Think about the keywords that you should use and make a list of places (resources) that you should search.  To evaluate various resources, you should begin by looking intently at the resource that you will be reviewing.  We used Evaluating Information Found on the Internet, to look at our resources.  There are a number of question to answer such as the categories authorship, publishing body, and currency.  By reading the questions and searching around the website intently, various information can be found such as how the site is set up, if it is credible, where the information came from, and when it was last updated.

Conditional Knowledge: I need to understand how to revise my research and essential question to ensure that I am focusing on the best search approach that I can.  By knowing how to use content and additional terms I am able to pinpoint what and how to be searching for my research.  By knowing how to formulate and research foundation questions, I am able to answer these primarily, leading me to more indepth searching and knowledge.  By developing a search strategy I will be more equipted in staying in tact with what I am looking for and how to find it.  This will help me stay organized and on target for my researching and probing for answers to my essential question.  By understanding how to evaluate a website and what to look for to ensure that the document is credible will help me understand what information what to use and what to disregard in terms of validity.

A3.8: Week 3 Reflection September 12, 2006

Aims & Objectives: This week I was striving to do better in terms of not doing so much of my work at one time.  By spacing it out, I want to be able to think more clearly about my assignments.  I wanted to learn more about how to use various search engines and choose a topic for my research project that was easy to research and had an abundance of credible information about and that I was truly interested in.  I wanted to learn more about my blog and how to make it more individual to my liking and personality.

Declarative Knowledge:  This week I learned a lot about the internet and how to look for information on it that is credible and helpful to your search.  I discovered how to search for journals, articles, and publications online for research that you are completing.  I learned about a number of various search engines that are available for your personal use to grasp information on the World Wide Web to increase your knowledge on a familiar topic.  I also learned how to become a member of a professional mailing list so that I am able to recieve information on a topic that I am interested in by email and conversations with others who are also interested in the same topic as myself. I was able to learn about my own learning style which was Kinesthetic; I learn the best through hands on materials and activities.  I am a “doer” and thats how my potential is fulfilled the best.  I gained information and tips about how to increase my learning skills such as talking to others about what I am learning, using diagrams or hands on models, and being around those who learn the same way as I do.  Another very helpful topic that I learned about this week was how to right a valid research question.  These are questions and inquiries that help to make an investigation and serve as a purpose for the search.  These questions should be researchable, precise, lead you to more information (knowledge) and should be inquires that are interesting to others.  When making a question that is “researchable” you have to be detailed, but exact.  When searching for dysphagia my question was, “What are good assessment tools and processing for dysphagia.”  To make this question researchable, the question became, “How is assessment of dysphagia completed?”  I also learning some about myself and my experiences and history as a learner.  I learned that I have some boundaries, griefs, and obstacles as a learner that I had never considered before; I also learned about my good friends and that most of the time, the way I feel, others feel the same.

Procedural Knowledge: The first thing that I did this week to help me complete my weekly assignment was to visit the page on our class homepage “Finding Things on the Internet: A Tutorial.”  By reading about this information, I was able to read a list of various search engines that I am able to use and take advantage of when researching a specific topic.  To become a member of a professional mailing list, I visited the site Net Connections to Communication Disorders and Sciences (http://134.29.1.130/dept/comdis/kuster2/welcome.html).  I chose the subject that I found the most interesting to me, Dysphagia, and sent a request to join the group through email.  Soon after, I recieved information, through email, telling me that my request had been accepted.  To find out what kind of learner I was, I visited the VARK Inventory site and completed a questionaire about your personal inventory.  To learn how to create a valid research question, I had to first make a list of areas interesting to myself (10).  I chose one of these, Dysphagia, and thought about some issues that were of the most inportance to me and then tried to formulate it into a question.  You must contemplate making it into a questionable statement that is web searchable. To learn about myself and the way that I learn and think I had to brainstorm about the way that I react to different things and experiences and worked to formulate them into words.

Conditional Knowledge: I would need to know how to complete valid searches for material when looking for information online when researching anything.  By knowing about various searches when trying to find something, I will know many different places to look.  By being on a professional mailing list, I will be aware of information constantly because it will be sent directly to me automatically.  By being able to know about myself, It will enable me to become more prepared for many things such as test taking and learning difficult material.  By learning how to write an appropriate research question, searching for various information will be easier because I will be able to word it better. 

A2.5: Week 2 Reflection September 5, 2006

Aims & Objectives: My goals for the week were to learn about the internet and the applications/programs that we were going to be using for this course and become familiar with them for future use.  I wanted to ensure that all assignments were complete on time, or even early, to be sure that I was able to submit them correctly and accurately.  If any problems had arose, I wanted to be sure that I could ask for help from Mrs. McComas or from other classmates in a timely fashion.  I also wanted to become familiar with my own weblog and how to use it; ensuring that when assignments come up that need to be completed, I am able to do it competently.

Declarative Knowledge: Through my Week 2 assigments, I learned how to create and maintain my own personal weblog.  I learned how to join and create my own membership through a number of sites and maintain checking on those sites periodically.  I was able to learn how to make changes to my weblog, post writings to my weblog, and how to look at/comment on others weblogs.  I was also able to learn a number of things about myself in terms of why I have chosen the profession that I have and how my parents’ attitudes and values have helped to shape my own.

Procedural Knowledge: To create my own weblog, I created a membership at www.wordpress.com.  I was then able to set up an account, personalize it to my own liking and play around with it until I felt comfortable.  I made changes to the style of my weblog by clicking on the heading:Presentation and choosing a theme.  I also made changes by adding categories to the side panel of the screen.  I did this by going to dashboard, manage, and then catagories.  I clicked on ‘add new’ and created the catagories ‘week 2′ and ‘online journal’.  I learned how to post my own writings to my own weblog by clicking on Write and New Post. I typed what I wanted to add to my weblog on Notepad and then copying and pasting it to the blank post section on the weblog.  By creating an account on writely.com, I am able to see the weblog addresses for the others in my class to view and make comments on the posts they have made on their own weblog pages.  I also created membership accounts at tapedin.com for online chat sessions with the class, bloglines.com for my own internet search use, and del.icio.us.com for other web searching needs. 

Conditional Knowledge:  It is very useful for me to be able to know how to create my own blog page to share and seek new information for my own learning and to help with the learning of others.  By joining other sites online I was able to acquire an abundance of information about what all sites are out there for use that I was unaware of before.  I hope that by using these online sites, I will still be able to utilize the internet for my own use and share information with others that might need to do research on it.  I hope that by learning all of these computer networking skills I will be able to become more competent for my own education, life, and life-long learning abilities.

Questions:  I know that there is a number of various things in weblogs that I am unaware of that I could be taking advantage.  I hope that by conversing with classmates and viewing other assignments that I will become more competent in making my weblog the most beneficial that it can be.