Category Archives: Assignments

Notes from today, and reading & blogging for Monday, October 31

Posted on October 26, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Today we discussed advanced internet searching and tried out some of the techniques and strategies from class discussion and from Badke, chapter 6. Don’t forget to set up your google scholar preferences on computers you use off-campus so that you can connect to City Tech library resources through the Find It! button.

On Monday we’ll discuss library catalogs and how to search (and find!) books and other media in them. Please read Badke chapter 5 pp. 71-76 and review the Library of Congress Classification Outline. Your second research journal  blog post is also due on Monday; prompt is below:

In class today you tried out advanced search strategies and scholarly internet resources from the Badke reading to search for sources on your research topic.
Describe 1 advanced strategy or scholarly resource you used.
Did you find different information sources than you found doing a regular internet search (just using Google, Yahoo, etc.), and if so, how are they different?
Did you encounter any difficulties that you haven’t encountered in a regular internet search?

Slides for today are available here.

~Prof. L

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Notes from today, and assignment for Wednesday October 26

Posted on October 24, 2011 by | Leave a comment

On Wednesday we’ll discuss advanced internet searching. Please read
Reading: Badke Ch. 6 (all) and Ch. 7 pp. 122-124 and watch the Common Craft video on web search strategies.

Your research paper topic proposal is due on Wednesday at the beginning of class. I’ll accept either a word document attached to an email or a printed copy.  Please refer to the guidelines (also distributed in class), and do not hesitate to get in touch by email if you have any questions about the assignment.

Slides from today are available here.
~Prof. Leonard

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Notes from today, and reading & blogging for Monday, October 24

Posted on October 19, 2011 by | Leave a comment

I hope the bubbl.us activity helped you begin to organize your thoughts and see relationships among your ideas for the research paper topic.If you want to share your mind map or get feedback, you can post your bubbl in a new post on the blog (see my post below). If you are still generating an idea for the research paper and wish to review class notes, visit the Slides page of the course site.

On Monday, we’ll continue our discussion about the process of research: refining a topic and creating search strategies. Please read Badke, appendix 1 pp. 177-195 and review Badke Ch. 3 pp. 34-41. Your first research journal blog post is due Monday as well. Here is prompt for that post:

You are working on choosing a topic and developing a research question for your paper. What difficulties (if any) have you encountered as you work on your research proposal?
What strategies (if any) have you used successfully during this work?
What questions (if any) do you have about the assignment?

Slides from today are available here.

~Prof. L.

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Notes from today, and reading & blogging assignment for Wednesday 10/19

Posted on October 17, 2011 by | Leave a comment

On Wednesday, October 19 we’ll be discussing the research process: needs assessment, preliminary strategies, and topic development. This will be a good way to prepare for the research topic proposal, due next Wednesday, October 26.

Please read Badke chapter 2, “Taking Charge,” and comment on at least one blog post.

Slides from today are available here.

~Prof. Leonard

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Notes from today, and readings & blogging for Monday 10/17

Posted on October 12, 2011 by | 2 comments

On Monday we’ll be discussing the mechanics of searching, including what a database is and how search engines work. Please read the following:

Please write one reading response post and add one comment to another’s post.

Slides from today are available here.

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New link to the Harrod story on Flickr and tagging

Posted on October 6, 2011 by | Leave a comment

I updated the link to the Harrod article about Flickr and tagging in my last post, so it should work from off-campus. If you are still not able to get into the full-text of the article try this.
Enjoy the long weekend! As always, I’m looking forward to reading more of your posts and comments.
~Prof. L

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Notes from today, and reading/blogging assignments for Wednesday, October 12

Posted on October 5, 2011 by | 2 comments

Thanks for a robust and animated discussion about information ethics today.
Copyright and fair use is in the news today: a copyright case involving a university’s right to stream videos on its website was recently thrown out of court in California; read more here. I encourage you all to finish watching the videos we started to view in class and explore Creative Commons and the Digital Copyright slider. Links to the videos are in the slides.

For Wednesday, October 12, please read the following chapter from Badke and two articles:

Badke, chapter 4 (there is still time to obtain your own copy; if you do not yet have a copy of the required textbook for this class and cannot find it in a convenient bookstore, you can download the e-book for less than $10 here, or use the library’s copy on reserve; the call number is Z710 .B23 2008.)

Dye, J. (2006). Folksonomy: A game of high-tech (and high-stakes) tag. EContent, 29(3), 38-43.

Harrod, H. (2009, March 28). It’s the playground of narcissistic teenagers and amateur photographers, but 3 billion images (and counting) on flickr could be the greatest social document of the century. The Sunday Telegraph, pp.22.

Your blogging assignment is one reading response blog post and one comment on a classmate’s blog post.

Enjoy the long weekend! ~Prof. Leonard

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Notes from today, and reading/viewing/blogging for Wednesday, October 5

Posted on October 3, 2011 by | Leave a comment

I hope our privacy discussion got you thinking about your relationship to all of the information “out there” that is about you, and what rights you have to controlling that personal or private information. I found an interesting New York Times article about privacy on college campuses in the wake of the 2008 Virginia Tech shooting: “After Campus Shootings, U.S. to Ease Privacy Rules.”

On Wednesday, we’ll be discussing ethics in information and media, including copyright and fair use, open access, and plagiarism. For Wednesday, please read the following 2 articles:

Isserman, “Plagiarism: a lie of the mind.” Chronicle of Higher Education, 49(34), B12.

Center for Social Media. 2008. The code of best practices in fair use for media literacy education. “Code” and “Principles” sections only.

and watch these videos:

Lawrence L. 2007. “The Law is Strangling Creativity”

Faden, E. 2007. “A Fair(y) Use Tale.”

Your blogging homework is one reading response blog post; one comment on another’s post. Please make the blog post a substantial reflection on the readings and viewing; the comment should be shorter, but try to make it relevant and pithy. Not simply “I agree with your point!”

Slides from today are available here.

~Prof. Leonard

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Your reading & blogging assignment for Monday, October 3

Posted on September 26, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Next Monday we’ll be discussing privacy, especially how the definition is changing. We’ll spend some time reading and discussing the challenges to privacy presented by use of digital media and online networks.

There are two readings for Monday: Marshall, P. (2009). Online privacy. CQ Researcher, 19, 933-956.
boyd, d. (2008). Facebook’s Privacy Trainwreck. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 14:1, 13-20.
Your blogging assignment is one reading response blog post.

Slides from today are available here.

Enjoy the short week – remember, the college and library are OPEN all week!

~Prof. Leonard

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Notes from today, and your reading and assignment for Monday, September 26

Posted on September 21, 2011 by | Leave a comment

We’ll be moving into discussions about issues in information and media. On Monday, we’ll be discussing access to information — personal and institutional. Over the next few weeks we’ll read and discuss other information issues: privacy, ethics, copyright and fair use. For Monday, please read Martin, The politics of research, from his book Information liberation: Challenging the corruptions of information power and write one reading response blog post.

Classes are cancelled Wednesday, September 28 through Friday, September 30. The college and library are open.

Slides from today are available here.

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