Blog Reflection #5

Blog Reflection # 5

I was amazed with the mapping information activity.  I am still messing around with checking information.  The online searching process is or can be very involved.  In the past we would just look at the source for verification that the information was probably correct.  Now at least we have steps to help us find more reliable information.  It takes more to make sure your data is accurate.  I felt like before now, I was doing a pretty good job at finding accurate information.  However, with this week’s lesson, I don’t really know if my past findings were from reputable sources.  I used to just look into Google for any research.  I hope my past research papers were loaded with correct data.  From now on, I will use the November Learning site to look up data to see if the site is reputable and correct.  I will also be looking for who published it, the purpose for it, and the extensions to see where it is from.

It is really important that we start learning as much as possible about looking for valuable and meaningful sites.  We really need to teach this to the students because there is so much information on the web and students need to know how and which sites to choose for reliable data.  We can tell them how to do it but they really need the hands on experience on how to find good data. 

I think this week we have accomplished working and becoming familiar with research tools.  We have also seen some sources on where to store these sites, like in social bookmarking.  I thought the Delicious bookkeeping site was a nice way to keep up with reliable web sites.  It allows sharing of data from other students or teachers with the same interest.  However it was kind of hard to get around in.  I never could figure out how to add LEW_ETEC to my network.  I finally just gave up and added it to this blog reflection.  I think this bookmarking concept is great because once you find a good reputable site, then you can save it in your account under a stack or just as a link.  You can add tags to help pull your sites easily.  This will be very useful when I am teaching.  This sort of account can be used by class to see how valuable there sites are and make sure they are checking them.  It also can help link sites together in stacks and you can follow others with similar interest.

http://delicious.com/tammycooper20