Category Archives: Reflection

Wikipedia And The Death Of The Expert, Reflection # 9

In the article Death of an Expert Witness by Maria Bustillos, author talked about Wikipedia and how its works.  Wikipedia is based around a strong hierarchy between experts and everyone else, experts do primary research. They look at the actual stuff. Wiki-editors do secondary research. They read the sources that the experts write and debate the meaning of those sources. As myself doing my final project on editing the Wikipedia pages, so this article was really helpful and pretty impressive. I learned that every statement in a Wikipedia article has to be backed up with a citation to an article or book produced by a journalist, an academic, a scientist, or some other expert who has carried out primary research.

Why Is Academic Writing So Academic? Reflection # 8

In article Why Is Academic Writing So Academic? by Joshua Rothman told us about the how now a days people write stuff in all academic institutes. After reading the article i will say there is one basic reason for the often awkward and dull writing is that many of the writers and audience are not native English users. As an engineering student sometimes i feel Scientific  papers are hard enough to read because of the content, allowing everyone their own style would make it even harder. I will say some people are much better writers than others, and many editors could probably do a better job asking for using cleaner language, but i think most of us read for information not really looking for style.

Historic Maps as Historian Evidence, Reflection # 7

In this article Historic maps as historian evidence by institution of library and museums, really explained why People create maps and what are the so many reasons behind all that. After reading this article i can say maps are to help and visualize places, and to pass on information about places to other people. Maps also use to calculate the time it takes to move from place to place. After reading this article i realized that almost my all of the research is based on maps. Historic maps also help us to understand how our vision of the world has changed, either because we have more complete knowledge about the landscape, or because we think about space and time in ways that would have been foreign to past generations. My final project is  on sand’s family farms land, how there farm land converted into blocks and residential area. This reading was really helpful in lot of different ways.

Reflections #8: Mid Semester Course Progress Reflection

I’m enamored by the growth I can see between myself, and other colleagues when it comes to progress between the mid semester and now. By the mid semester, I was pleased with both the amount of field trips we have taken and the new methodologies for research. Prior to this I was unaware of some of these institutions, such as the NYCHA library in LaGuardia Community College. Within these field trips, we were also asked to find quality sources, relative to our research. I can also say that I was unaware of some of the technologies introduced such as cartodb.com, which I have used heavily for the final project.

Reflections #9: Wikipedia and the Death of the Expert

“If learners are indeed doers and not recipients, from whom are they learning? From one another, it appears; same as it ever was.” The writer describes the definition of learning to be a two way street, which requires both “doing” and “receiving”. Learners may learn most effectively through interaction and hands-on experience or “doing.” Learners also benefit from other learners, as peer review or presentation is often pondered or “received”.

Wikipedia exacerbates this definition of learning, whereby users of Wikipedia are both doers and receivers. Users of wikipedia may “receive” numerous citations, but most effectively through reading effectively and through editing rigorously or “doing”. One of the comments I found funny, but relative was “How come Wikipedia hasn’t turned into a giant glob of graffiti?” By reading the article, I also learned that nearly two thousand administrators participate in maintaining Wikipedia.

 

Eleventh 100 Word Reflection: The Importance of Access to Academic Research

Question: Why is access to academic research a privilege?

Access to academic research is a privilege first and foremost because there are many people around the world who are in great need of it, and could possibly do wonderful great things for this world. And also in order to gain an solid education access to academic research is needed.

How can you leverage that privilege by contributing to public resources like wikipedia?

By contributing to an outlet such as wikipedia, I will be opening one more door for someone who needs the information I am providing who wouldn’t otherwise receive it without my contribution to wikipedia.

Tenth 100 Word Reflection: Wikipedia and the Death of the Expert

My absolute favorite line from this reading is “learners are doers, not recipients.” for the simple fact that this is more than true, really hits home. I for one believe that when you are given information, it definitely is up to you to do whatever you want with it, but if you actually understand the information being fed to you, you will figure out a way to implement it into your daily life, so you as a learner is actually doing something making you a doer. However if you just keep the information you’re given and store it you’re not actually learning, you’re just receiving the information brought to you.

Eighth 100 Word Reflection: Why is Academic Writing so Academic? And Annotated Bibliographies (Reading)

As far as the author of the article on “Why is Academic Writing so Academic?” I completely and utterly agree with everything stated. Academic writing is not for everyone to understand, because it is not catered to the general public, it is meant for people who actually enjoy the approach. Now for the page on annotated bibliography, I have some experience with doing an annotated bibliography, maybe once or twice before. And the same rules and guidelines listed in the reading are close to or almost identical to what my previous professors have taught me when completing an annotated bibliography.

Ninth 100 Word Reflection: Mid-semester Course Progress Reflection

I completed both my Mid-semester report and Annotated Bibliography in which I focused on the Brooklyn Bridge between the 1869 to 1899 time period. It was difficult to obtain information, so whatever I was lucky enough to find went into both my annotated bibliography and mid-semester report. Right now I am thinking that focusing on the Brooklyn Bridge for my final report will be my best bet, but I would also like to do something a little more, and see if I can make my final project a bigger and better one, however, not something that will be too much to handle.