A5.3: Library Searching I

Ashley Pence

September 22, 2007

Resources

1.  Database:  Academic Search Premier

Keywords:  Appalachia literacy

Cooter, K. S. (2006). When mama can’t read: Counteracting intergenerational literacy. Reading Teacher, 59(7), 698-702. Retrieved September 20, 2007, from the Academic Search Premier database.

2.  Database:  Academic Search Premier

Keywords:  Appalachian illiteracy

Wood, R. L. (1993). Our golden road to illiteracy. National Review, 45(20), 54-58. Retrieved September 20, 2007, from the Academic Search Premier database.

3.  Database:  Academic Search Premier

Keywords:  adult illiteracy

Sticht, Thomas G. “Stopping adult illiteracy at the source.” Reading Today Jan. 2004: p 15. Academic Search Premier. 20 Sep. 2007 <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=11658577&site=ehost-live>.     

4.      Database:  Academic Search Premier     

 Keywords:  literacy, appalachia

Puckett, A. (1992). Let the girls do the spelling and Dan will do the shooting; Literacy, the division of labor and identity in a rural appalachian community. Anthropological Quarterly, 65(3). Retrieved September 20, 2007, from the Academic Search Premier database.

5.  Database:  Academic Search Premier

Keywords:  illiterate families 

Fratt, L. (2003). Early literacy intervention. District Administration, 39(7), 16-17. Retrieved September 20, 2007, from the Academic Search Premier database.

 

A5.2: Chapter 6 – Richardson

Ashley Pence

September 20, 2007

Richardson, W. (2006) Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

TAP:  Richardson’s chapter six details the ways in which working on the is no longer a thing done in isolation and that it can become a thing of collaboration and social in nature if you choose for it to be.  This text appears to be geared towards teachers who may be interested in adding features such as social bookmarking into their classroom.

Claim:  This chapter provides various ways to social bookmark and allows us to choose among any and all of them.  However, no matter which one we choose te idea that we now use social networks to tap into the work of others to support our own learning is an important concept to understand.  In Richardson’s opinion it’s just another way that the Read/Write Web has changed the way we work and learn.

Evidence:  I found it very interesting that Richardson feels that the purpose of the internet is no longer our ability to publish as much as it is to share, connect and create with many others of like minds and interests.  It’s as though we no longer have to come up with our own ideas, just log on and access everyone elses.  I may sound somewhat bitter, but I like the idea, however I know many teachers do not and that’s why we have to be careful of how we use the information we obtain.  Richardson expresses social bookmarking in a very unique and accurate way.  He says that we’re creating our own community of researchers that are gathering relevant information for us.  When Richardson explains the types of social bookmarking sites that do this for you I realized that that statement is very true.  The first site he mentions is Furl.  By visiting their site you can just drag and drop their link to my toolbar and it is there for when I want to save a page that I find interesting.  Furl’s most interesting aspect is that it saves the entire page so when the page “linkrots”, or is no longer available, I still have the information that I found in the first place.  My favorite thing about Furl is that you can save from any computer and retrieve from any computer that has Internet access.  (2006)  It was always so frustrating when I knew that I had added a page to my favorites list on my home computer, but I was in the library on campus.  Richardson was also right to say that a students favorite part of Furl would be te fact that when we are finished collecting information from specific sites, Furl has a way to export all of the sources we use into any format.  (APA, MLA, etc…)

Connections:  As I mentioned above, Furl has plenty of ways to make social bookmarking useful for students such as myself.  Researching has never been one of my favorite things to do and if something can make it easier, then i’m all for it. 

To connect with other texts that are similar to Richardson’s I think of the article I read on 7 things you should know about social bookmarking.  I had a base of knowledge on what social bookmarking was, but Richardson’s text gave me a more in depth look at specific sites that are for social bookmarking.

Richardson mentioned how great Furl was in sharing information with colleagues.  As a future speech language pathologist (SLP) I will be working in collaboration with other SLP’s and setting up a Furl account would be a great way to share by adding resources that you feel have helped you and they can add resources that have helped them.

A5.2: 7 Things You Should Know About Virtual Worlds

Ashley Pence

7 things you should know about virtual worlds (2006, June).  Retrieved September 18, 2007 from http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7015

TAP:  Virtual worlds are a type of online environment different from any other site that allows you to interact with one another.  This article focuses on college age students using this type of environment to create learning in new and inventive ways. 

Claim:  Through the use of virtual worlds unintentional learning occurs.  Students such as myself can discover and create knowledge not for its own sake but in order to accomplish something they want to do, resulting in stronger comprehension and deeper knowledge. (2006)

Evidence:  Virtual worlds allow the user to create and become another character based on what interest we may have for using a program such as this one.  What we become in this virtual world reflects what we aim to do or wish to do in the real world.  The two main reasons to interact in a virtual world are for gaming reasons or for learning purposes.  Creators have found that the benefit of virtual worlds lies in the lack of the game structure.  Several examples were given in the article that consisted of students becoming avatars and acting out situations that occur in their field.  This gives them practice and allows them to make mistakes and learn from them without actually involving any real person.  This article considers this type of learning constructivist learning.  The learners can freely make decisions and interact with others, initiating and directing their own learning.  This environment encourages students to experiment and learn by trial and error which I feel is the best way to learn.  However this type of trial and error learning is not feasible in the real world. (2006)

This article also mentioned the use of virtual worlds by businesses who create virtual worlds and see how other avatars respond to their business that has not been formed yet.  The business is pretty much tested before it actually takes the plunge in investing time and money.

Connections:  As a student I am always looking for an easy way to learn class material.  My ways of learning typically consist of attending class, taking notes, studying and praying.  These all work out well for me, but I have found that there are things that are sometimes hard to comprehend unless you experience it yourself.  For example, in my Audiology class we had to perform hearing screenings on our partner.  We practiced excessively and this helped tremendously to gain a better knowledge of how to perform a hearing screening.  However, this was with a classmate and I didn’t have to worry as much about messing up, except for my grade.  I do know that in the future I will be performing hearing screenings, evaluations and therapy sessions  with actual patients and that can be a little scary.  The idea of practicing in a virtual world seems like a great thing for those of us who will be interacting with real people as a part of our profession.  It would still require us to be conscious of our actions and the words we use when interacting with patients which is a skill that we will need to apply when we are in a real office setting with real patients.  (2006)

A5.2: 7 Things You Should Know About Virtual Meetings

Ashley Pence

September 18, 2007

7 things you should know about virtual meetings (2006, February). Retrieved September 18, 2007 from http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf

TAP:  This article is geared toward college students and teachers who would be interested in online courses, obtaining information through distance learning or collaborating of projects without actually meeting in person.  The purpose is to drive home how effective a resource like virtual meetings are when it comes to distance learning.

Claim:  Virtual meetings expand educational offerings through distance programs, bring more oppurtunities to remote learners and encourage greater numbers of potential students to take advantage of those oppurtunities. (2006)

Evidence:  We’ve all heard of chat rooms and online courses.  This is what came to my mind when I began reading about virtual meetings.  In the past I have chatted, but it was never for the purpose of gaining educational information, unless it was for a quick question about something on our homework of exam.  This article goes into detail about how we can take advantage of virtual meetings in order to relieve some of the stress of actual face to face meetings.  Those stressors include inconvienent times, traveling and any other related factor that deals with meeting in an actual classroom.  It also indicates that online classes can be made into more helpful sessions if the instructor is actually there in real time and can comment and answer questions rather than just writing assignments and notes to the students.  This can all be done with a webcam which allows the students or other individuals to communicate and see the instructor or other mentors over distances.

Connections:  I would first like to say that it is amazing what you can do on the web these days.  As I was reading this article I thought of how far we’ve came from the invention of the telephone which allows us to talk and interact over distances.  It amazes me that we’ve progressed to communication over the web in ways that we can see and interact pretty much in person.  This makes me think of the Jetson’s cartoon.  They have a lot of high tech, future things such as flying cars and showers that do everything for you.  I realize that we have not made it that far as of yet, but with technology such as virtual meetings, it seems like we are getting closer and closer to living like the Jetson’s everyday.  This text does not necessarily relate to any other texts that I have read, but it does relate to information that I have heard about virtual classrooms.  I have never experienced a class such as this, but I do have friends who participate in them.  This type of class allows the teacher to teach in multiple classrooms, but only be in one by way of virtual meetings.

In the future I imagine that I will partake in continuing education classes that occur in places that are much farther than I am willing to travel. This option of virtual meetings will hopefully become more popular among universities and allow me to participate in classes that otherwise I could not attend. 

A5.2: 7 Things You Should Know About Social Bookmarking

Ashley Pence

September 18, 2007

7 things you should know about social bookmarking (2005, May). Retrieved September 18, 2007 from http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf

TAP:  This article has been written to help readers such as myself and others that are frequently bookmarking pages of information to create a source that is easier and more efficient in bookmarking.  The purpose is to inform readers of this social bookmarking and encourage the use of it.

Claim:  Social bookmarking creates a true web of resources and connections.  One that is not limited to individuals and their folders but represents the interests and judgements of a community of users. (2005)

Evidence:  Bookmarks are ways of saving web addresses that interest you in order for you to easily gain access to them in the future or to share them with others.  That seems like a pretty good thing, until you see what social bookmarking does.  Social bookmarking allows users to save to a public website which you have subscribed toand tag the bookmarks with keywords.  Those keywords become important when yourself and others begin searching that certain social bookmarking site.  Social bookmarking sites indicate who created each bookmark and give you access to that person’s other resources.  This way you can connect with others who have similar interests in the topic of your choice.  It also allows you to see their other bookmarks and to find information related to your main topic of interest which can lead to new directions that can be valuable. (2005)

Connections:   One of the downsides to social bookmarking is that this means you will yave just one more place to store information that must be maintained and updated.  This is a problem for me.  If you could first of all see my hotmail email account and my email Marshall account.  I have a tendency to save everything when it comes to emails.  I guess you could say i’m an email pack rat.  I would like to brag on myself somewhat pertaining to what I did today.  I cleaned my Marshall account out!  I had kept every email that pertained to this class, if you are in CD 315 you know what i’m talking about.  There were ten pages of emails that I had kept until I asked if they were necessary to keep and was informed that they are being archived and there was no need to keep them.  I was quite proud of myself.  I’m down to only five pages of email now.  In my hotmail account however, i’m not as neat.  I have folders to organize, but I have fallen behind and have emails that date back to high school (i’m in my 5th year of college).  So I need some work in that area, BUT, I’m almost afraid to take on any other organizational task.  Perhaps this class will help me attain the trait of organization. 

This information correlates with previous articles that I have read pertaining to organization and sharing of interests.  It is a lot like articles that I have read about wikis in the sense that information can be found by searching a database and then collaborate with others to find other areas of interests that can lead you to successful research.  However social bookmarking does not require editing in order to collaborate with others.

As I mentioned above I need help with my organizational skills.  Social bookmarking seems like a great source to help me attain that skill.  Not only will it help with my organization skills, it can lead me to obtaining pertinent research information that I may not have found on my own.  This could come in very handy when I am performing research in the future as a speech language pathologist.