So, I've had a few thoughts about our Inquiry group's part in this class project, and about what we want to do for it. A lot of these thoughts were bouncing around in my head while we were discussing things in class, but now that I've had time to actually sit and think about them properly, we'll see if I can express them as coherent thoughts.
So, here's our thesis (or "tweethis", whatever. I don't really like the word "tweethis" at the moment, though I'm not really sure why. anyways) : "As students in the digital age, it is important to utilize available technology to maximize research time and let others use their research by using Library Research 2.0 techniques"
And here's our newer thesis: "In order to make research time useful, it is critical to use digital technology and Library Research 2.0 techniques."
These are some of the things that I've been thinking about. They're in no particular order, and some of them are interconnected, because, like most things in life, there's no straightforward, one-way relationship between what we want to say, who we want to say it to, and how we will say it(media). All three of these things affect each other.
The Thesis: we all know that our thesis isn't finished yet, but I was thinking that it may be good to take a bit more of a stance, like Sarah and Hwanhi were talking about with their TEDx talks examples. We could maybe change it a bit to talk more about the necessity of helping students adapt to and take advantage of the research technologies of the day, so that they don't get left behind during our rapidly changing times. The day will soon come, if it hasn't already, that much of the best/most relevant information out there available for use in research will not be found in libraries or in certain, specific science journals, but out there on the web, and if students aren't able to functionally use the web to do research, then it would be a serious disadvantage. Anyways, saying something that's more of a specific stance would be far more interesting for both us and everyone else, and would certainly help clarify for us everything us we want to do with this project.
Expectations: There are few things more frustrating to me than to be told that I can do something in whatever way I liked only to be told later, partway through or mostly done, that there actually were requirements or expectations that I was supposed to follow, or that there actually was a certain way that this something had to be done. It's frustrating because it means that I have to alter significantly if not entirely revamp whatever it is I'm doing to fit the requirements, and a lot of time and effort gets wasted. Despite all of our professor's desires and attempts to give us free creative license in this project, there are still expectations that we have to comply with, and I want to make sure that we get those figured out as soon as possible, so that we don't have to worry about them popping up later on in the project and making us change things. That's just some frustration that I'd like to avoid, especially considering that we're already on a considerably short timetable. Some of the expectations that I know of are:
-Historical context: I know that we have to incorporate history into our presentation somehow, but as for how and how much, I don't know. It's kindof difficult with our particular topic, and beyond brief overviews of research methods in the past, and references to those in order to prove some of our points, I don't know how to do that. Joe, I know that you had some ideas on that, and sorry that I got distracted talking to Dr. Burton when you were trying to explain them to me. I'd be happy to hear them, if you don't mind explaining them again. Also, Dr. Burton wasn't able to give me a clear answer on how much we should incorporate historical context into our project, so we'll have to figure that out.
-Video: we're apparently required to have at least one video that deals with our chapter, so we need to start thinking of ideas that we could do for that. I remember that we were talking before about the possibility of making a commercial or short video for the HBLL to use to advertise the tutorial that we were thinking about making on Library Research 2.0. Maybe that could work.
-Bibliography: Ironic that we need a research bibliography on a project about how to do research better. Any thoughts on how we might have a bibliography on the different research methods that we might explore and talk about? Also, Dr. Burton mentioned a book, "Reinventing Knowledge"(I think that's what it was) when I was talking about him, which apparently talks about the different forms of storing knowledge throughout the course of history. That might be worth looking into.
-Infographic: We'll have to come up with an infographic, and though I haven't really thought about what we might do for that yet, I don't think this will be much of a problem.
Target Audience: What we want to say very much depends on who we want to say it to. First, I think that we should just focus ourselves on BYU. Trying to direct ourselves to the rest of the world as well would result in a hopelessly broad presentation. Besides, it's likely that if we do come up with something meaningful about library research 2.0 for people here at BYU, it will be equally applicable to everyone else as well. Then, do we want to talk to the students about Library Research 2.0, or more to the teachers, or both? While it may be true that students might be more receptive of Library Research 2.0, there's still the problem that the first-year writing professors and others are teaching them different. Anything we might show the students might get taught out of them by these teachers who are against using internet and other media sources for research. Targeting the teachers for our project might have a more lasting affect, but that would require a different approach. Who we're talking to will have a big influence on what we want to say to them.
Goal of the Project: Also, another thought that I had was that we should try to make it a goal to actually accomplish something with this project. I, at least, would be so much more motivated and excited to work on this project if I thought that I might be able to see an actual difference that it made. Of course, that was Dr. Burton's and Dr. Zappala's purpose in doing this project, that we might all make something real, but I think we should go farther than that. Lynsie, you were talking about how many of the first-year writing professors and some of the librarians and others are pretty set in their ways against using the internet and stuff, and that the library research help people don't utilize Library Research 2.0 at all. If we could gear our project towards changing that, then that would make it awesome, and so much more worth it. We'd have done something for real, instead of just making some chapter in some ebook for some class, that maybe someone somewhere might think is kinda cool. Who knows? Maybe we could even help to change to curriculum in the first-year writing class (tell me if that's overly ambitious). Anyways, my point is that if we can somehow make this project into something that might actually have an impact and make a difference, we would be so much more motivated to do it.
Anyways, I know that this is a lot to read through, but thanks for doing so. These are just some thoughts that I've had about it, and please tell me what you all think, even if you disagree with my ideas. I don't mind being told that I'm wrong, because at least it means that we can get rid of ideas that are incorrect and find new ones that are. Good luck with the week, y'all. See you on Thursday.
So, here's our thesis (or "tweethis", whatever. I don't really like the word "tweethis" at the moment, though I'm not really sure why. anyways) : "As students in the digital age, it is important to utilize available technology to maximize research time and let others use their research by using Library Research 2.0 techniques"
And here's our newer thesis: "In order to make research time useful, it is critical to use digital technology and Library Research 2.0 techniques."
These are some of the things that I've been thinking about. They're in no particular order, and some of them are interconnected, because, like most things in life, there's no straightforward, one-way relationship between what we want to say, who we want to say it to, and how we will say it(media). All three of these things affect each other.
The Thesis: we all know that our thesis isn't finished yet, but I was thinking that it may be good to take a bit more of a stance, like Sarah and Hwanhi were talking about with their TEDx talks examples. We could maybe change it a bit to talk more about the necessity of helping students adapt to and take advantage of the research technologies of the day, so that they don't get left behind during our rapidly changing times. The day will soon come, if it hasn't already, that much of the best/most relevant information out there available for use in research will not be found in libraries or in certain, specific science journals, but out there on the web, and if students aren't able to functionally use the web to do research, then it would be a serious disadvantage. Anyways, saying something that's more of a specific stance would be far more interesting for both us and everyone else, and would certainly help clarify for us everything us we want to do with this project.
Expectations: There are few things more frustrating to me than to be told that I can do something in whatever way I liked only to be told later, partway through or mostly done, that there actually were requirements or expectations that I was supposed to follow, or that there actually was a certain way that this something had to be done. It's frustrating because it means that I have to alter significantly if not entirely revamp whatever it is I'm doing to fit the requirements, and a lot of time and effort gets wasted. Despite all of our professor's desires and attempts to give us free creative license in this project, there are still expectations that we have to comply with, and I want to make sure that we get those figured out as soon as possible, so that we don't have to worry about them popping up later on in the project and making us change things. That's just some frustration that I'd like to avoid, especially considering that we're already on a considerably short timetable. Some of the expectations that I know of are:
-Historical context: I know that we have to incorporate history into our presentation somehow, but as for how and how much, I don't know. It's kindof difficult with our particular topic, and beyond brief overviews of research methods in the past, and references to those in order to prove some of our points, I don't know how to do that. Joe, I know that you had some ideas on that, and sorry that I got distracted talking to Dr. Burton when you were trying to explain them to me. I'd be happy to hear them, if you don't mind explaining them again. Also, Dr. Burton wasn't able to give me a clear answer on how much we should incorporate historical context into our project, so we'll have to figure that out.
-Video: we're apparently required to have at least one video that deals with our chapter, so we need to start thinking of ideas that we could do for that. I remember that we were talking before about the possibility of making a commercial or short video for the HBLL to use to advertise the tutorial that we were thinking about making on Library Research 2.0. Maybe that could work.
-Bibliography: Ironic that we need a research bibliography on a project about how to do research better. Any thoughts on how we might have a bibliography on the different research methods that we might explore and talk about? Also, Dr. Burton mentioned a book, "Reinventing Knowledge"(I think that's what it was) when I was talking about him, which apparently talks about the different forms of storing knowledge throughout the course of history. That might be worth looking into.
-Infographic: We'll have to come up with an infographic, and though I haven't really thought about what we might do for that yet, I don't think this will be much of a problem.
Target Audience: What we want to say very much depends on who we want to say it to. First, I think that we should just focus ourselves on BYU. Trying to direct ourselves to the rest of the world as well would result in a hopelessly broad presentation. Besides, it's likely that if we do come up with something meaningful about library research 2.0 for people here at BYU, it will be equally applicable to everyone else as well. Then, do we want to talk to the students about Library Research 2.0, or more to the teachers, or both? While it may be true that students might be more receptive of Library Research 2.0, there's still the problem that the first-year writing professors and others are teaching them different. Anything we might show the students might get taught out of them by these teachers who are against using internet and other media sources for research. Targeting the teachers for our project might have a more lasting affect, but that would require a different approach. Who we're talking to will have a big influence on what we want to say to them.
Goal of the Project: Also, another thought that I had was that we should try to make it a goal to actually accomplish something with this project. I, at least, would be so much more motivated and excited to work on this project if I thought that I might be able to see an actual difference that it made. Of course, that was Dr. Burton's and Dr. Zappala's purpose in doing this project, that we might all make something real, but I think we should go farther than that. Lynsie, you were talking about how many of the first-year writing professors and some of the librarians and others are pretty set in their ways against using the internet and stuff, and that the library research help people don't utilize Library Research 2.0 at all. If we could gear our project towards changing that, then that would make it awesome, and so much more worth it. We'd have done something for real, instead of just making some chapter in some ebook for some class, that maybe someone somewhere might think is kinda cool. Who knows? Maybe we could even help to change to curriculum in the first-year writing class (tell me if that's overly ambitious). Anyways, my point is that if we can somehow make this project into something that might actually have an impact and make a difference, we would be so much more motivated to do it.
Anyways, I know that this is a lot to read through, but thanks for doing so. These are just some thoughts that I've had about it, and please tell me what you all think, even if you disagree with my ideas. I don't mind being told that I'm wrong, because at least it means that we can get rid of ideas that are incorrect and find new ones that are. Good luck with the week, y'all. See you on Thursday.
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