3.b.c.d

I will change the ways I search on the Internet by making more advanced searches and making my searches more concise, leaving out unnecessary words. In week 3, we completed a chart in class about sources on a specific topic and then had to test our knowledge on picking reliable sources. My topic was borderline personality disorder and I had to find 2 popular sources, 2 scholarly sources, 2 primary sources, and 2 secondary sources that were all reliable choices. The 3 key factors to a source being reliable include: “authority—who wrote the source; intended audience—pick a topic that would be appropriate for your audience; and fact vs. opinion—having a balance between both facts and opinions and not having just one or the other” (Belsha3, p.1). I also should become a more information literate person, one who “recognizes that accurate and complete information is the basis for intelligent decision making” and who is able to “recognize the need for information” (YouTube.com-what it is and who needs it). This will prove that I am knowledgeable about the subjects I am teaching on and therefore will help students, parents, and peers respect me more.

            Similarly I will change the way I research by searching in a more advanced way and be more selective on the sources I chose for research, ensuring they are reliable. For instance, when searching on a search engine, like Google, there is a tab that says “Advanced Search” that will narrow down my results. In the advanced search it finds pages with “all these words, this exact word of phrases, any of these words, none of these words, and numbers ranging from a specific page” (google.com). This will help me gain information that will be most beneficial to me. Also, it is important to note if a webpage is .com, .net, .org, .gov, etc. This will help me know which sources are typically more reliable than others. For examples, most sources that are .org or .gov are the most reliable sources.

            I now am much more knowledgeable on the ways to clearly present information to others and to even share ideas or gain insight from others. For instance, the week 10 and 11 assignment in this class helped me see how useful a Wikispace could be. It is a great way to hear all perspectives from fellow classmates and how to start a debate. I was able to see snip-its on my classmates personalities by the articles they chose and by their reactions to the questions I posted or how they reflected on others’ questions. I also found it cool how I was able to post comments and further the discussion on the Wikispace. I also found Prezi to be a very collaborative tool since it is very versatile for the use of group projects. I love how any student can access the Prezi at any time and make the necessary changes needed. I also found the Google Reader to be a great collaborative tool to share and get ideas from various teachers. I can post my own ideas, as well as subscribe to any feeds or articles that strike my interest or will benefit my lesson plans. I also found blogger.com to be a great method for collaboration due to the fact that people can easily comment on each other’s posts and build off of one another’s ideas.