Thanks to all who actively participated in class (and after class today) during our debate over Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” If you didn’t get a chance to speak up in class today, please do so on the blog this week. Do you you think Carr was convincing? What do you think is the weakest part of his argument? What is the strongest part of his argument?
Here are your awesome concept maps created for the debate today:
A recent episode of the weekly radio show, “On the Media,” featured a segment looking at the topic of Googlebombing, which can be defined as an effort to juice the Google search ranking system so that particular websites are at the top of the list of search results for certain words or phrases. In this episode, the host of the show interviewed a Google executive to talk about an old Googlebomb for “santorum” that is in the news again now that Senator Santorum is running as a GOP primary candidate for the presidency.
As Prof. Garral and I try to plan actitivies for this learning community, we will need to have a good idea about what hours of the week you’re in class. Please help complete this weekly class schedule grid. Thanks!
If you check your Google Docs account, you should see that I’ve graded your homework on AND vs OR and have added a comment with your grade.
This afternoon, I updated the homework assignment that is due on October 3. You can check it out on the course website.
My methodlogy to doing research is very similar to that of Proffessor Francoeur. To begin I do a broad background check on the subject to find an interesting topic, on which I can base my thesis. For instance if I had to write about the American Westward Expansion, I would go to Wikipedia or look into my textbook to find different events, causes/effects,and significant figures that influenced the period. Once I choose something specific, I consult sources like articles, journals, and books for more detailed information on my topic. In the Western Expansion example, if I initially chose to focus on the hardships of the pioneers, I would find articles, journals, and books with detailed descriptions of their journeys and experiences. I combine these sources to write my paper.
When i do research I must first develop a question in my mind of what it is that I am trying to learn about in more depth. I can then go on to formulating a hypothesis about what I think the answer would be, and compare it to the information that I find online. I must also make sure the sources of my information are valid and accurate before I can put them to use, by looking into more than one source. Then I have to look into the specific details that can help answer my question, as opposed to just putting random facts into my work. This means I have to know what I’m looking for, and be as strategic as possible in order to find it.
To do research, first I need a topic to look up information about. Then, I look up a more precise subject within the topic. After that, I start to look up relevant information for details on the subject. In the end, I gather up all the information I looked up and use it for my research paper.
When I research, I start off by googling the topic. I go and read or skim the Wikipedia page on that topic and get a feel of what the topic is about. I don’t use Wikipedia as a source nor do I quote it in my paper. I will find other (reliable) websites so that I could add quotes and be able to source it in my bibliography. Also I like have a book on the topic just to have a published author for citing.
I start by analyzing the assignment and picking out keywords that would help me find out more about it. I would enter these keywords into google until I got a better understanding on the topic. I would then use what I read from the first few relevant search results as filters for the Encyclopedia search tool until I got what I’m looking for.
