Saturday, June 15, 2013

Week # 4 Reading


1. What surprises you about the strategies digital age students use as they conduct research for course assignments?

·         I honestly thought that every student jumped on the web and started their research from there. However, according to this study  "Almost every student in the sample turned to course readings before google or Wikipedia for course related research assignments.” (Head & Eisenberg 2009)

·         The study doesn’t say whether it is a paper text or an e-text, but since I am old fashioned I going with paper text.

·         Although I’m beginning to think e-texts are the way of the future

2. How accurately do the findings from this study reflect your own research strategies?

·         I feel this study pretty much hit the nail on the head. “ ……nearly all of the students in our sample had developed an information-seeking strategy reliant on a small set of common information sources—close at hand, tried and true.”  (Head & Eisenberg  2009).

·          This pretty much how I start my research.

·         I also like EBSCO for journal references, but it’s hard to find in our library databases.

3. This study provides a detailed description of the parameters of research assignments typical required for academia. How does it differ from the kinds of research people do in the workplace?

·         I don’t think there is much of a difference.

·         The students doing academic research turned to the information that they were the most comfortable with, these include course readings, library sources and public internet sites such as google and Wikipedia.

·         Today’s students doing everyday life research whether in the workplace or independently have developed strategies that help them meet their school and everyday needs.

4. Do you think the recommendations to improve research process for college students will better prepare students for the world outside of school?

·         I agree that there is a perceived view of library services as not being very helpful, by the students. The students know there are resources at the library, but go to faculty instead of the librarians for guidance.

·          Sadly librarians are truly underutilized.

·          I asked an FSU librarian a resource question, she went directly to the computer to look up a source that I had tried just a few moments earlier. I was hoping they would expound on my queries.

·         New students and faculty to the campus are given a crash course on all that the FSU library has to offer. We can teach them about the library and it's wealth of information and it would behoove us ,as faculty, to send them there for guidance.

 
 
·         Librarians need to be on top of what they have to offer also. Just looking something up on a computer and regurgitating information does not bode confidence in their knowledge.
Reference:
Head, A.J. & Eisenberg, M.B. (2009). LESSONS LEARNED: How College Students Seek Information in the Digital Age. Retrieved from: http://kennison.name/files/zopestore/uploads/libraries/documents/student-info-seeking-2009.pdf

5. Find an image that relates to searching for information. Embed the image in your blog and provide proper attribution.

I thought this is so appropriate ...actual title

Learning at the Library
Research tips: Database features that will make your life easier
Retrieved from: http://gottesman.pressible.org

4 comments:

  1. I almost agreed with you when you thought that almost every student jumped straight to the web; however, I know that if I have a book from the course - I use it first. I figure that majority of the information would be in there.

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  2. I love the picture you chose. There is soooo much information on the web that it is easy to get overwhelmed and frustrated. I have noticed myself in the same situation at times. My eye-site is getting worse as I continually stare at the computer screen researching information, but I try not to pull my hair out!

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  3. I agree with you, I do my research in a similar way. If I have a book for the course- I am going to use it (especially if I paid for it). I have used many of the same research strategies, however I am using a good bit of the world wide web in this class.

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  4. So here is what I have to say about using the databases available on line in the FSU library. Just last week I needed to find an article. I knew the author, the title of the journal, and a few key words in the title. I entered the information into "Summon". I got nothing.

    I was working with a few professors from other universities at the time. I asked them to check my entries in case I spelled something wrong or entered the wrong information in a field. They all doubled checked. Still nothing.

    I went to Google Scholar. Typed the same information in the search window. The article I was looking for was the first link on the return list!

    They all told me they use Google Scholar first. Then access the Library to retrieve the article. They never use their library databases first because they are so picky!!!!!

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