For our final blog video, you’re going to take a look at a short video about a cool “web 2.0″ site called wordle.net. Once you know about word clouds you’ll notice them all over the place.
After watching the video, go to Wordle and paste the URL for Your Research Journal Blog. Take a look at the results. Words that are larger appear more often than words that are smaller. A lot of the words will be related to the topic you used for practice, but many of them will be related to the class.
What does your Word Cloud tell you about what you learned in this class? Post your response in the comments.
This week’s video takes a look at a concept called Web 2.0. The video moves quickly and has a lot of details, so you may want to watch it a couple of times. There are also some vocabulary terms that we haven’t visited yet, but don’t fret if you don’t understand everything. Try to grasp the overall idea, and write a response reacting to one or more of the ideas presented. (FYI: this video has been viewed more than 9 million (that’s MILLION) views on YouTube!)
Some of this will be familiar. In the video he mentions using a minus sign. What Boolean operator is that minus sign a shortcut for? Knowing what you now know about searching in search engines, what operators (search strategies, techniques) would you talk about in this video if you were going to remake it?
Do you know the difference between a search engine and a browser? Is it important to understand the difference? Watch this video and see how 50 randomly picked people answered. (A little back story, this video was created by Google just before the launch of their browser Chrome…so it’s a bit muddled.)
By now you’ve had a chance to use a blog and maybe even look at some other blogs published on the web. Although there are a lot of blogs out there that really aren’t worth bothering with, there are some truly good ones. In fact, blogging has become an acceptable way for professions to communicate with members, for professionals to share information, and even just to just keep up with topics in which you’re interested.
For example, there are several professional blogs that I like to follow to keep up with what’s going on in the library world. Do I have to bookmark them and visit them every day to look for new posts? Nope — I use a nifty online tool called an RSS feed reader. The video explains it all.
You’re not required to use an RSS reader, but if you want to take a look, one favorite is Bloglines (bloglines.com). So… watch the video and let us all know what you think. Are there blogs that you follow? Do you think this might be a useful too for you?
Here’s one for fun to celebrate midterm. Does research sometimes leave you scratching your head in confusion? Take a look at this poor guy! Do you ever feel like that? What kinds of technology do you find frustrating? Or maybe you’re the kind of person who embraces technological challenges? Share your thoughts
Once you start collecting sources, having a system for organizing them can save you loads of time. In this class you’re using a blog for your Research Journal, but there are other “web 2.0″ tools out there that are specifically designed for collecting and managing information.
Zotero is a high-level tool with a lot of features, so some of this video may not make much sense — don’t fret. And we’ll be honest up front: Zotero isn’t for everyone. It’s a useful tool, but you have to be willing to spend some time with it. It may be that you’re not ready today, but you may be ready for it 6 months from now, so we want you to know about it.
After watching the video, write a short post with your reaction. You are NOT be required to use Zotero in this class, but we have a feeling that a few of you are going to like it.
Here is a great example of a Personal Learning Environment and how it works to bridge social and educational purposes. I am in awe of this 7th grader, how about you? Do you think this could be a useful tool or just another layer of complication?
In this unit you’ll be exploring the topic of plagiarism and how important it is to cite the sources you use in your research. Here is a great website that offers images, videos and music to incorporate into your presentations and reports and the creators want you to use their work. It is important to dedicate yourself to never plagiarizing, however, collaboration is always a good idea. Here’s a brief explanation of Creative Commons (www.creativecommons.org) with a great overview of copyright.
In this class you’ll be using a blog for your Research Journal and you will visit this Class Video Blog each week and make comments. But do you know what a blog is? Watch this short video and write a thoughtful response by clicking on the “comments” button. A “thoughtful response” is one that indicates you watched the video and that contributes something unique to the conversation. But this is the web, so a short paragraph (3-4 sentences) will usually suffice. But not too short — comments like “nice movie,” “cool,” “me too,” or similar responses will not receive credit.
When you click on “comment” you will be asked for your email and name. Do NOT use your full name. Start with your instructor initials, then first initial and last name.
