Homework 12/7/10

For Thursday, please watch Sloan, read Berners-Lee, and think about your answers to these questions:

– Has the way that you think about information changed over the course of this semester?
– Has the way that you use information changed over the course of this semester?
– How?

– What do you see as the future of information?
– What challenges will this future bring?
– What opportunities?
– Are you ready?

BE PREPARED to discuss your answers in class!

Class notes and homework 11/30/10

Several of you asked today about using images in your documentation project and presentation. Remember that you are required to use at least 4 images. Searching from the Creative Commons website is a great way to find images for your projects. Remember that you must cite your sources for images as well as text.

Go to http://search.creativecommons.org/ and uncheck the “commercial purposes” box to search Flickr and Google Images. You can also search for audio and video from this page.

Homework

For Thursday, please do the two readings listed on the syllabus (Edge, Robinson) and bring at least 1 question about the reading to class. We will use these questions to frame our class discussion — please write the question down (I will collect them).

Best,
Prof Smale

Homework for 11/18/10

Hi everyone,

Here is your homework for Thursday:

– Find one example of process documentation in any format

– Read/view it!

– Write one blog post (100 words minumum) in which you describe, summarize and critique it

– Be prepared to demonstrate and discuss your example in class

What is process documentation? Anything that documents (records) the process of doing something. The documentation you find can be text, video or image-based — any media is fine, as long as it’s an example of documentation of a process. Examples I gave in class include an instruction manual, your research journal blog posts, etc.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best,
Prof Smale

Homework for 11/16/10

READ Badke Ch. 9 & Purdue OWL APA Style
(don’t worry about reading about MLA Style, we will discuss it in class)

WRITE your research paper draft

BRING a printout of your research paper draft to class
(so we can peer review during class)

BRING an electronic copy of your research paper draft to class
(so we can work on your citations during class)

I’m looking forward to reading all of your papers next week! Please don’t hesitate to email me if you have any questions (the sooner, the better!).

Best,
Prof Smale

Homework for 11/11/10

Hi everyone, just want to remind you about the homework for Thursday. Please be on time for class on Thursday, because we will begin with a short quiz on the reading:

– Read the Hauptman excerpt that I handed out in class today. If you missed class today and want to pick up a copy of the reading, please email me to arrange a time. The Hauptman book is also on reserve in the library, call number PN171 .F56 H38 2008 (read pages 7-13).

– Read this short article in the Chronicle of Higher Education: A Modern Scholar’s Ailments: Link Rot and Footnote Flight.

Also remember to write one comment on any of your classmates’ blog posts.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Homework for 11/9/10

Please do the reading in Badke (see syllabus for details) and write one blog post of at least 100 words on the following:

You’ve now written your research proposal and annotated bibliography – the next step will be to write the first draft of your research paper.

– What strategies will you use when writing your first draft?

– What’s worked well for you when you’ve written other research papers?

– Do you feel uncertain or have any questions about writing the research paper?

Homework for 11/2/10

Please write 1 research journal blog post of at least 100 words answering these questions:

In our last 3 classes we read about and worked on:
– advanced internet searching
– searching library catalogs
– searching article databases

What have you learned in these classes that’s new to you?

How do you see yourself using your new skills outside of our course?

Homework for 10/26/10

Here’s the exercise we did in class today and the homework for next Tuesday (10/26).

In Class Exercise — Advanced Internet Searching:

• Search for information on your topic on the internet (not anywhere else!)
• Use the search engines, portals, resources and advanced search strategies discussed in the reading (Badke Ch 6 and the Common Craft video) and in class today (Internet Public Library, Google Books, Google Scholar)
• Try a variety of strategies

Blog Homework — Research Journal Post:

• In class today you tried out advanced search strategies and scholarly internet resources from the Badke reading to search for sources on your research topic.
• Write at least 100 words about 1 advanced strategy or scholarly resource you used to search the free internet.
• Did you find different information sources than you found doing a regular internet search (just using standard Google, Yahoo, etc.), and if so, how are they different?
• Did you encounter any difficulties that you haven’t encountered in a regular internet search?

Remember that if you are using the Advanced Search on Google or other search engines, you must enter additional information into the fields. For example, you may wish to limit your search to a specific date range, or to .edu or .gov websites.

Homework for 10/19/10

Hi everyone, here’s your homework for next time. Please write one blog post of at least 100 words on the following questions:

You are working on choosing a topic and developing a research question for your paper. What difficulties (if any) have you encountered as you work on your research proposal? What strategies (if any) have you used successfully during this work? What questions (if any) do you have about the assignment?

Have a good weekend!
Prof Smale

Homework for 10/12/10

For your research journal blog post for next time, please write 100 words on the following:

Do a search on the research topic you’re considering for your paper in at least one internet search engine and one library resource (catalog or databases). What words did you use to search? What are the similarities and differences between the results of your two searches?

Also, remember to read the articles by Goodin and Levinson, and be prepared to discuss them in class.

Have a good long weekend!
Prof Smale