Category Archives: Blog

Your blog post on process documentation

For Monday, your (final!) blogging assignment is to find one example of process documentation and share it with the class. Your example of process documentation can take any form: a video, a web page, or even a printed manual or document. It should document how something is done thoroughly enough so that any viewer or reader fully understands how to do the process successfully and arrive at the same results that are demonstrated. Documentation of a process helps standardize the process of doing, making, or building something. Process documentation is often performed in the field of software development. Software writers document how they accomplish specific tasks, and in what order, so that other teams can replicate the process without “reinventing the wheel” each time. Good process documentation also starts by stating the goal or purpose of the process and lists all equipment and skills that are necessary to the completion of all tasks.

Here is an example of a video that documents the process of medicating a pet cat:

This blog post from the University of Virginia Scholars Lab documents the process of geocoding places on a map using ArcGIS software; that is, how to match a list of street addresses to points on a digital map that can then be edited or shared in a variety of ways.

Notes from today, and reading/blogging for Wednesday, November 23

On Wednesday, we’ll discuss the practical applications of documentation and come up with a definition of process documentation. Your assignment is to find one example of process documentation in any format, read it, and write one blog post in which you describe, summarize and critique it. Be prepared to discuss your example in class! If you use a video or other media as an example, embed it into the course blog. Please read the following 2 articles that discuss issues in process documentation:

Edge, “Write it down! The importance of documentation
Robinson, “Documentation Dilemmas

By the end of class on Wednesday I would like to establish groups for the documentation project. Each group will consist of three students and will propose an information resource, an educational game, or a media outlet and document the process of research. I will post guidelines for this project later this week.

Continue to work on your research paper; you should get a graded draft back by the end of the day Wednesday. The final version of your research paper is due Wednesday, November 30. A few people still have not turned in the outline or annotated bibliography; remember that you must submit all parts of the research paper to get credit for the project.

~Prof. Leonard

Notes for today, reminder about the outline due Friday, and reading and blogging for Monday, November 14

Today we finished crowdsourcing website evaluation criteria and determined that currency, expertise, objectivity, and accuracy were some important criteria on which to evaluate web content. We also played the evaluation game in class. We have a winning team: Randell, Jonathan, and Lukasz scored the most points with the websites they found, a piece on the site TriplePundit and an article from USA Today.

Your outline for the research paper is due by 10 a.m. Friday. Refer to the guidelines or ask me if you have any questions about that assignment. On Monday we’ll discuss the writing of an academic research paper. Please read Badke, chapter 10 and Appendix 1, pp. 196-203 and write a research journal blog post; see prompt below:

You should receive annotated bibliographies with my comments and a grade by the end of the day Thursday. Those of you writing on cyberbullying and teens’ use of social networking sites and social media might be interested in this report, out today from the Pew Internet Project, an authoritative and reliable research center for current research on how the internet affects our lives.

Here is the prompt for your final research journal blog post:

Last week we read about and worked on:
1.advanced internet searching
2.searching library catalogs
3.searching article databases.
•What have you learned in these classes that’s new to you?
•How do you see yourself using your new skills outside of our course?

Slides from today are available here.

Have a good weekend!

Notes from today, and reading and blogging homework for Wednesday, November 9

Please note that the new due date for the research paper outline is Friday, November 11 by 10 am as an email attachment to me. Send either .doc, .docx, or .rtf formats, please!

On Wednesday, we’ll be discussing evaluation of sources in any format: how to evaluate. We’ll play the evaluation game with some of the criteria we came up with today in class.
You have two short reading assignments and a research blog post for Wednesday. Please read through the following two websites: Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask from UC Berkeley, and Critically Analyzing Information Sources from Cornell University.

Please write one research journal blog post addressing this prompt:

You’ve now written your research proposal and annotated bibliography – the next major step will be to write the first draft of your research paper. What strategies will you use when writing your first draft? What’s worked well for you when you’ve written other research papers? Do you feel uncertain or have any questions about writing the research paper?

Slides for today are available here.

Any questions about the upcoming research paper and related assignments? Feel free to ask by email or bring your questions to class.

~Prof. Leonard

Notes from today, and reading & blogging homework for Wednesday, November 2

Today we discussed library catalogs, struggled to use CUNY+ and had a bit more success with WorldCat. I hear that the CUNY+ technical difficulties are well on their way to resolution, so try searching from home and report your success in the comments below.
On Wednesday, we’ll continue our discussion on searching (and finding) sources for the annotated bibliography and research paper, moving into a discussion on using library databases to find articles. For Wednesday, please read Badke Ch. 5 (pp. 76-95) and write one research journal blog post. Below is the prompt for the research journal blog post for Wednesday:

Do a search on your research topic in at least one internet search engine and one library resource, like the CUNY+ catalog.
What words or phrases did you use to search?
What are the similarities and differences between the results of your two searches?

Don’t forget that next week you have two written assignments due: the annotated bibliography on Monday 11/7 and the research paper outline on Wednesday 11/9.

Slides for today are available here.

~Prof. Leonard

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your reading & blogging assignment for Monday, October 3

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