Journal 1

John Mihm

After reading Jill D. Jenson’s “It’s the Information Age, So Where’s the Information? Why Our Students Can’t Find It and What We Can Do to Help” I realized a lot of what Jenson had to same was very true. I had trouble just finding this article on the ERIC Database. In order just to find the database I had to perform three searches on the Ball State University website. Once I did find the database it took me multiple searches to try and find the article. After being unsuccessful I went to where I felt more comfortable and went to google.com to search for the article. After googling the article title I found it on my first search. It even took me to another website but I found my way to the ERIC Database in a matter of seconds.

Another thing they talked about in the article is the difference between a scholarly journal and just any other article. If you put the two in front of me before reading this article I don’t think I would have been able to tell you the difference. Now after reading the article the only thing I know is that a scholarly journal doesn’t have any pictures or advertisements in it.

I think the reason our generation has so many problems finding the right resources for our information is because we have had computers in front of us since the day we entered school. I remember in elementary school being taught how to find a book on a computer before I was taught how to find it with out one. We are so use to not knowing some kind of information and just googling it and assuming the very first thing we come across is right. I know that is how I am. I google more information than anyone I know. No one every taught us that google isn’t right. Kids need to be taught to go to the library and look for a hard copy before using the Internet. I have tried once to find a hard copy of a resource last year and I never even found it. I went right back to my computer and found it.

This is defintely a challenge!

Alright, so it is 1 a.m. and I finally figured out how to post a blog. Needless to say I had a very difficult time finding the article by Dr. Jenson using the BSU Library website. I am really not looking forward to a semester full of online searches. As a non traditional student, that is, too old for all this, and definitely not experienced at all with this type of online research techniques, I feel the frustration every time I do research. My personal feeling is that with this technology, filtering the information that would be useful takes too much time. I am sure that I feel this way because I am not very good at it yet.

Although this article started by completely ignoring the factor of student diversity (i.e. age), I soon felt completely included in the category of students mentioned by Dr. Jenson. I believe myself to be computer literate which definitely does not mean that I understand the research terminology on line. I do believe that with time I will get better at it but it has been a challenge even after attending the Library's training session. The training session is a good thing, however, Dr. Jenson's suggestion of interpreting what you see on the screen as a group during training could definitely help. I have survived all these years doing research with the direct help of the librarian EVERY time I started a new project. Pretty embarrassing; she must think I'm a bit slow.

In my opinion, there should be a Core Curriculum course that addresses this issue with the objective of having students practice finding sources for a whole semester. Practicing over and over is the only way we can become "online research literate" enough to start our college years. For us that are in our way out, we need all the help we can get, this is confusing, overwhelming and time consuming. Wasn't this online thing meant to save time?

Who is ERIC and why does he have the article I need to read?

I knew this was going to be an interesting exercise earlier this evening after I went to download Ball Point and needed a password to open the document which wasn't provided. Having been around computers since the mid 1980's this was just a mild stumbling block for me and after about thirty seconds with a Brute Force password hacker the password for the PDF file became available to me like a sudden “pop”. If you didn't get the e-mail sent out later the password is pop.

The next step in this fun-filled evening was to figure out what ERIC was and where to find it. ERIC seems to be an acronym for something, but that still eludes me to this moment, so I decided the first place to look for ERIC was at the libraries website. This also turned out to be a lost cause for me so I took what definite information that I had and used my favorite internet search engine and “googled” the authors name, Jill D. Jenson. The results were immediate, of course, and I saw the title that I had remembered from before, "It's the Information Age, So Where's the Information?" and it was at Jstor. I had used Jstor previously for a term paper I had to write in Art History last spring and knew that it carried full articles.

After reading the article I found it ironic that I had to go through so many steps to read something written about how students have trouble finding information online at the libraries. I'm pretty sure this is also part of the assignment as well. I feel the author makes some good points about how everyone assumes that college age people are all “computer literate” and that online research should be second nature to them but computers have changed so much in recent years and their interface has been simplified to the point that almost anyone can use one.

My personal opinion on these problems in the Information Age is that a person with at least some valid information on a subject can find out more if they can use that information correctly. Of course receiving the correct information to start with is the key.

Welcome to English 104: Composing Research

As a class, we agreed to post all of our reflections on the same blog so that we have one place to go to read and respond to what everyone has to say this Fall Semester 2010. Be sure to get your journal postings up by midnight of the day they are due, and be sure the title of your post relates to what you have to say--try to grab our attention (but in an appropriate way). Remember to respond to at least two of your classmates' posts. This forum works best if it is interactive.

Use the readings as a starting point for your reflections. Keep your readers in mind: Provide enough context so that someone unfamiliar with our class and assignments can follow the points you are making, but do not just summarize readings--have something to say about them. By the way, this is a good place to practice paraphrasing and using direct quotations.

To make sure you reach your minimum word count, try writing in Word, and then cut-and-paste your journal entry into the blog text box when you are ready to go public.

Reflective writing is a way to get you thinking about how all of this information you're taking in is related to your own experiences and research goals. Make those connections in your postings. Yes, you can use "I," and you can tell stories and use examples. When it makes sense to do so, consider linking to other sites or uploading visual images (without infringing on anyone's copyright, preferably).

Writing is a way to think, to invent, to argue with yourself. So just start writing. It could change your thinking! Novelist E. M. Forster once said, "How do I know what I think until I see what I say?"