Reflection

Declarative Knowledge:  Throughout the course of the semester and by creating a Multi-Genre Project, I have learned so much that was completely new and useful to me.  At the beginning of CD 315, I first learned how to create and maintain my own personal weblog.  I learned how to become a member of a weblog called WordPress.com and learned how to check on my own site periodically.  I now understand how to make changes to my weblog, post writings onto the site, and how to look at/comment on others weblogs.  I learned how to become a member of a professional mailing list so that I am able to receive 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 learned how to formulate a valid research question.  These are questions or inquiries that help to make an investigation credible and serve as a purpose for the search.  These questions should be researchable, precise, lead you to more information (knowledge) and should be inquiries that are interesting to others.  When creating a question that is “researchable” you have to be detailed.  I was also able to gain skills on how to perform searches on the internet to find information that is credible and helpful to your search on a certain topic.  I discovered how to search for journal articles, publications, and other documents that pertain to what you are probing for.  I learned about a number of search engines that are available for your own personal use to grasp information about the world wide web to increase your knowledge on a familiar or indefinite topic.  I learned a lot of information about how to search for data on a particular project.  I now understand that when you have a very broad topic, such as a question I had before, it is too difficult to find an abundance of information for one subject with a very broad scope.  I understand how to brainstorm for content words and additional terms that help to narrow down a topic into something more narrow or answerable.  I learned how to revise a question, for terms of researching, to focus more on the details of a topic.  I learned how to write foundation questions; what is in need to answer a very large question.  You must first tackle the small ones that come with your broad finding.  An 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.  By looking back on past conversations we have had in our small groups in TappedIn.org, I was able to think about my own essential questions.  I learned that by including the word “and” in an essential question it makes the question too broad and this would be too hard to tackle in only one semester or in a Multi-Genre project.  I then understood how to break down my question to a more researchable topic that will lead to a more focused learning series for myself and others.I learned how to create a search strategy to formulate how you will begin finding information about your topic.  By creating a strategic plan, you will be able to find information faster and more efficiently and even more information that is credible to your focus.  To start gaining material to be used for my own project research methods, I had to visit the

Marshall
University homepage and then learn to navigate that site towards libraries.  I had to understand how to search various websites and which ones to use.  I mostly used EbscoHost and Academic Search Premiere.  Both of these databases had credible information searchable for my topic and contained peer-reviewed journals, articles, and other exerts.  I learned how to write the sites in APA format for citation use of a bibliography so that each person involved in the resource can get credit for their work.  I was also able to understand what an Annotated Bibliography is; this is an electronic document that is used to display various websites, including links to other pages on the internet, along with a description of what the site is, the information that it contains, and why it was created.  By focusing my thinking on Internalizing Web Evaluations, we looked back on what we learned when we were evaluating true sites on the world wide web.  By doing this effective thinking, you focus your attention on creating your own website that is credible and factual, which being helpful to learners and professionals alike, just like us!  These evaluations of web internalizations include objectivity, currancy, coverage, authority, and accuracy.  These are all things that our worn weblogs need to entail and through constant research and elaborate thinking, we hope to do so.  A project prospectus is something that you create to format the way that you are going to structure your Multi-Genre Project.  By creating this document it is like a lesson plan for yourself in creating an effective, useful project that is helpful in your own learning and the learning of others.  I also now understand that a “genre” is a type of writing of data to describe certain facts and information that you want to present in a creative, credible manner.  For my first genre, a developed an Acrostic poem on pediatric dysphagia.  An acrostic poem is when you take the letters of a word that you are focusing on and write a small phrase to describe something about what the word means or even the feelings attached to it.  For my second genre, I completed a referral letter.  In this document, you are telling/explaining to a clinician about a client or sending them to a more helpful service else where.  You need to include information about the patient, all evaluations that have been completed, and recommendations for the new clinician that you hope are enforced in the case.  For my next genre, I completed a simulated journal entry.  I decided it would be most influential to do it from the perspective of the child’s mother who was also involved in the difficult process of evaluations and treatments of pediatric dysphagia.  Simulated journal entries are in the style of a letter to a “fake” person and include the date and details along with emotions/feelings on a specific time period, but this is a genre that you can do it the way that you really want to.  For the next genre, I created a podcast.  According to www.gcast.com, a podcast is a way to share recorded audio material through the internet with others who want to listen to it as a FM MP3 file.  You are able to record anywhere from 10 seconds to 30 minutes of material for others to listen to.  It is very easy to do and completely free.  I then learned how to formulate a simulated letter to a politician.  When completing this document, you need to express your feelings about a certain subject, a description of why you feel this way, and a suggestion of how this focus may be accomplished.  It also needs to be professional and state specific points to a subject matter.  To complete my 7^th genre, a Powerpoint Presentation, I had to know what it should include and how.  You complete this process on Word Powerpoint producer.  It is very easy to do.  A Preface should contain why you decided to do a certain project and why the topic is interesting to you.  Acknowledgements contain those in which you wish to thank or notice for helping you complete your project; for supplying outside information or even moral support.  An About the Author does just that – tells about you; the person writing the documentation or putting together a collection of knowledge and why you are doing so.  A Table of Contents for the Multi-Genre project consists of all the work that has been completed in a listed manner that enables others to view your site in the way that it is the best for them to understand.  An E-Portfolio letter is a way to showcase the work you have completed and learned through technical and conceptual outcomes.  Since this is an electronic class and was centered around computer networking, it is best to create this document as well.There is also a difference in revising and editing your work.  Revising your work is a process in changing the work so that the meaning behind it is clear to the reader.  Editing or changing your work it to correct the mechanical problems/mistakes you have made so the reader understands it more clearly as well.  While they are alike in a way, they are also different in terms of the reason for completing the tasks.   

 

 

Procedural Knowledge:  To generate 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 then choosing a theme.  I also made changes to the style of my weblog by adding categories to the side panel of the screen.  I did this by going to dashboard, manage, and then categories.  I clicked on ‘add new’ and created the categories and ‘online journal’.  I learned how to post my own writings on my weblog by clicking on Write and new Post.  I typed what I wanted to add to my weblog on Notepad or Microsoft Word, copied and pasted it to the blank post section on my weblog.  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 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 be able to search for credible information that you want to look for, you must first brainstorm and narrow down terms to search for on the database search document.  You type the best word in that you would like to search for and can also add additional terms to narrow down your topic when searching for results.  There is also a number of different choices that you can make regarding your information search such as PDF format, date written, how many authors..etc.  When your information for the search is intact, the search is performed by the website giving you lists of credible journals and articles for the user to choose from (if available).  It is then in the researchers hands to make choices that they believe will be most beneficial to their knowledge search.  When you have chosen your cite and reviewed the information listed, you must make a list of the document makings so you and your classmates are able to access it later.  You list the keyword used for your search, list the database used for the search, and the site in APA format. To know how this is completed and the correct way to formulate your documentation, you could visit your own APA Manual or APAonline.  To create an Annotated Webliography, you must first narrow down the sites that you would like to include on your document by category.  The categories used for this assignment were Personal Interests, Discipline Specific, Research Resources, and Fun Stuff!  According to each of the categories, at least three sites are chosen and then information about each site (date, information provided) is gathered.  The sites are then put onto a blank page on the weblog.  You choose write page and then create your document! Once your information about your sites is written (along with a title) you are able to choose one word in the posting and attach a link to it.  To do this, you highlight the word you have chosen, click on the “chainlink” icon and then enter the URL.  You are then able to publish your work and then review it to ensure that your links are attached to outside resource pages. Send the URL to the class list and yourself for future reference.To learn about and create my own Project Prospectus, we followed a specific layout provided by our instructor. First, we thought about our own essential questions and the questions that we used to formulate those questions (foundation questions).  I figured out that mine was too broad and needed to be condensed to one specific part of my topic of dysphagia.  I removed the word “and” and broke it down into one subject: evaluation. I then, decided on the main point that I was trying to make, determining that I wanted to inform myself and others about how dysphagia with pediatric populations is approached and managed (hoping that is interesting to everyone)! I then thought about how I wanted to inform others about this topic, while learning myself.  There are specific specific genres that we must follow (requirements) and others that we were allowed to choose ourselves. We developed how we wanted to convey that information, who would be telling about the data, and then who we thought could benefit from reading/seeing it; also known as voice and audience. I then told why I choose each genre and why I thought that it would be beneficial. To pull all of your information together (cohesion) you must then determine a way to pull it all together in the end product, your Multi-Genre Project. You then list all of the resources you have found to date that you wish to use in finding your credible, helpful data.To research more ways to find information through scholarly articles, you first have to think of the keywords that you feel are most helpful in searching for that information through databases.  These must be specific, but not too much, or nothing will evolve from your inquiry. When finding the five sources that I felt would be the most beneficial for my project, I then worked on putting these into APA format.  This is very hard for me, therefore, it took a lot of work, research through my APA manual (and internet) and then working to space them correctly on wordpress (also a very, very, very difficult task). To create an Acrostic poem, you must first decide what words from your focus you would like to use to create this document.  I chose Dysphagia as it is the most important term of my topic.  I then wrote the letters down and began brain storming about how I would think that a child would view certain symptoms and problems that are associated with dysphagia.  It is very difficult to think this way as no child has even been able to tell someone else the way that something feels when they are for example having a problem eating or swallowing.  You must put yourself in someone elses shoes to write a document such as this without putting too much of your assumptions into your work. You then write your statements down, trying to make certain phrases rhyme or sound good together so that the poem is appealing to those reading it. I then typed, posted, and titled my poem as a page in my weblog.  To write my referral letter, I first looked back on different resources to think about the information that was pertinent to my document that I was creating and what would be useful for the new clincian to know about a previous client.  I then came up with a ficticious physician, patient, and decided to use myself as the speech language pathologist who is who the patient was being referred to.  I then looked at common symptoms of pediatric dysphagia, ways to evaluate it, and then helpful recommendations for a SLP to use after a referral has been made.  I then focused on the phrasing of the letter, made sure that everything useful was included, and included the resource in APA format at the bottom of the letter.  I then wrote it as a page on my weblog and posted it to my weblog.I decided to do a podcast for my genre this week because it was something that we had just learned about and I thought that it seemed very simple and engaging and would truly enhance my project.  I first looked at my foundation questions and thought about which one I had not answered yet.  The first question, “What is Dysphagia?” in my opinion, hadn’t been touched on clearly enough.  I decided to create a podcast that explained pediatric dysphagia in a very clear way.  I first found resources that I wanted to use for this product and wrote out what I wanted to say on paper.  I then looked on the GCast website and found the number to call to record my message.  I read what I wanted my Podcast to say and read it aloud as if I was leaving a message on any voicemail.  I then listened to my message after I left it and automatically sent it to my podcast. I linked “Whitney’s Explanation” to www.gcast.com and then wrote into words what my podcast said exactly.  It also included a short story at the top explaining why my podcast was done and for who.I approached writing an imitation letter to a politician by first thinking about the main focus I wanted to center my attention to Pediatric Dysphagia around.  I decided that I wanted the point of the letter to be about state funding for Pediatric Medical Research.  I stated points such as how to save the state money, to help the welfare of insurance companies, and children who are suffering from this disorder.  I then looked online for the address for this department in the capitol building and made up a fake name for the receiver.  I looked up points online on the cite, Caroline Pediatric Dysphagia, to find reasons this disorder should not be overlooked to add credibility to my document.  I tried to write my letter to be the most flowing letter as possible, while still trying to inform the audience of the urgency. I created my powerpoint, because we had to complete this genre, by first looking back at my project prospectious and thinking about the essential question I had not completely answered yet.  I found this was “the goals of therapy for pediatric dysphagia”.  I started doing research; looking through books Mrs. Holland gave me on therapy of pediatric dysphagia, tried to find articles online (that you did not have to buy), and visited various websites such as the Duke Medical Center Page on Feeding Disorders.  Once I had found my information, I started piecing it together cohesively for my document.  I opened up Microsoft Office Powerpoint and started looking around to refamiliarize myself with the program so I would understand how to use it.  I looked at clip art, different templates for slides, and even how to layout my information to make it visually appealing.  When I was satisfied with the pictures I wanted to use and the information I would use for this piece, I started drafting.  I put all of my information on the slides by typing it in, manipulating the font and size, and then putting the slides in the correct order of which the viewer should see them.  I then saved this document and watched it over and over as a slideshow to make sure I was able to follow the powerpoint presentation easily and ensure the terms used were not too difficult to understand for an ordinary reader.  I then used APA format to put together a slide showing my resources. I created a title for it and then had to upload it from Microsoft to the page “copying to editor”.  This took a very long time, expecially for the amount of slides I had completed. I then completed the assigment of Preface.  To do this, I had to think very critically as to why I chose to complete my project on Pediatric Dysphagia and attempt to word it into how others would understand my rationale.  I posted this as a page to my weblog.  For assignment 5, Acknowledgements, I looked at books I had to see how they completed theirs such as Janet Evonovich.  I then thought about how I had learned all the information I did, and who I owed for that.  This was fun to do and I hope that these people will someday read my Thanks! For the last assigment of the week, I created an About the Author page on my weblog. In this document, I wrote approximately 10 sentences about myself, shortly explaining something about me to a reader who may stumble upon this site.  I posted all of these assigments to my weblog.  I included information that was broad and even personal into these sites, keeping in mind anyone could be reading it!To complete the Table of Contents, I had to create a new page on my blog and title it Table of Contents.  I then wrote a list down in an order that the reader of my documents should open and read them.  The order is: Preface, Acknowledgments, About the Author, Unifying Genre, References, and Reflection.  Underneath that listing, you include a list of the genres you have completed and the order of which you wish the reader would view them to understand your project the best.  I then linked the documents on the Table of Contents to the actual page they are located so the reader can access them easily.  To do this, you highlight the word you are trying to link, click the link button on the toolbar (looks like a chainlink), and then enter the URL into the slot alotted.  If done correctly, the word will then be linked to the appropriate host it is located. To the complete the References portion of my MGP, I created a page and titled it References.  I went through all of the work I have completed thus far (my genres) and copied and pasted all of the sites onto this page.  I then posted it to my weblog. I created my E-Portfolio cover letter by focusing on each bullet point created by the semester, thinking about it critically and then giving evidence to each point and giving presentation as to how I learned it.  I then created a document that cohesively pieced together all that I learned throughout the semester, without trying to make it sound too much like a reflection and published this to my weblog.To start revising my work, I completed the assignment, Re-Vision the Work.  I had to pick a genre that I wanted to work on further, or that I thought could use some serious revising (they all do!).  I decided to work on my Journal Entries using the SCAR method as I wanted this to be my Unifying Genre and it had not included the appropriate links that it needed to.  I first read over the document to see if any errors jumped out at me directly.  I started with S, or substitute, and thought of a few words that I knew would be stated more clearly.  I then changed these words to make them more precise.  I then worked on C, or cut.  I then thought about the words/phrases I had used in my piece that should be removed to make the piece more clear to the reader.  I then worked on A, or Add.  I added more detail to the piece (trying to make it not too wordy) so that the reader would be able to percive the work better.  Then, I worked on R, or rearrange and did the least of this aspect.  I did move some details around, but not as much as Substituting, Adding, and Cutting. I then wrote approximately 56o words about why I decided to change certain aspects of my work. 

 

 

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.  I would need to know how to complete valid searches for material when looking for informationonline 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 learning how to write an appropriate research question, searching for various information will be easier because I will be able to word it better. 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 researchingand 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.  By understanding how to research my topic and different places to do so, I will be less apprehensive when beginning to look for material on dysphagia.  Throughout making this project, I will now know where to focus on searching for credible information and even have some information already to do so.  I will now know how to manipulate these databases to use them to the best of my ability.  By understanding how to site resources in APA format, I will know how to give authors and sources credit for the rest of my college and professional experience whenever it is necessary.  By understanding how to create, I have begun to look more indepth at websites when I visit them looking for their credibility and all of the information that is provided.  I now know how to link various pages from a starter page and now, have an introduction to making a webpage.I hope to use so much that I have learned through exploring the internet so much more broadly for this class, especially this week in the future. I know that I will use my project prospectus to guide me in making my own project; the genres, who I want to be expressing this information, and even how to phrase it to make it appealing will help me when producing it later. By looking up more resources on my topic, I have become more familiar with how to find an abundance of information through databases (Marshall’s Library in particular).  Having too much information can never happen when making sure you have enough to create these various ways to entail information to others and to learn yourself, creatively. I am hoping that someday, somehow I will truly master using APA formatting to resource lists and documentation.  By doing these exercises (even tiring at times) I will one day, accomplish this. I also hope that by thinking about how others (even myself) view sites that are published on the web, for any reason, will stick in my mind when evaluating and creating my own weblog.I decided on a referral letter as my third genre as it was exactly what I expected.  It was a great way to learn more about symptoms, evaluations, and frequent recommendations by physicians for the clinician.  I also wanted my audience to see different views of how the disorder is handled by others as it is always in the best interest of the client.  I hope that when others are reading my work it will give them a deeper look into pediatric dysphagia along with what a referral letter is and the information that it should include, along with how it should be written.  I hope that myself and others will be able to learn from my fourth genre that was written for others that are extremely close to someone suffering from pediatric dysphagia.   Some of these topics I have learned about and discussed are things I would have never learned about otherwise such as podcasts, webliographies, and project prospectus.I feel as though reading my Letter to a Politician, someone could gain a better understanding of Pediatric Dysphagia and should come to an understanding that others should be concerned with it’s reprecussions more than just the ones suffering from it’s effects.  I feel as it’s another good piece of information about Pediatric Dysphagia that may aid the reader on it’s symptoms, effects…etc. I hope as my Powerpoint presentation will benefit someone learned about Pediatric Dysphagia.  Hopefully a clinician would know more about the skills than is shown in my document so the information it perceives would not be as influential to them.  However, I hope that to someone who cares for someone with pediatric dysphagia will understand the importance of therapeutic techniques and how they would be beneficial to their child.  With my last three assignments, I hope to give my site some “personality” and hope the reader who does not know me can understand the reason I chose my topic for this project, why I love it so much, and those I am ever so grateful for. I feel as though creating a Table of Contents for my project will make it easier for the readers of my project to find their way around my weblog easier without being confused or misunderstanding what they should look at first.  By putting all of my resources together on my weblog, it will enable credit to be given where it is due.  If someone is looking for how to get information about Pediatric Dysphagia by looking at my site, this will allow them to retrieve this information without looking at other genres to do so. By revising my work, I was able to fix it so that it is unifying and others can piece my work together as a cohesive whole unit. I hope will all of these conditions, I have done them effectively.   Through completing an E-Portfolio cover letter I am able to showcase the massive amount of work I have done this semester; I will be able to show myself and others the immense amount of work that has been completing, how, and why.