The End?

At last, a final reflection on what I learned in Digital Civilization, but this is certainly not the end. What I learned throughout the semester will stay with me throughout my life and continue to influence my perception of nearly every aspect of our society. I learned how to consume, create, connect as well as think about society through the eyes of a digital revolutionary. I fully intend on talking about these issues and the need for change in our growing digital world long after this class. Not only will the content I learned stick with me after this course, but I will also be forever reminded of the principles of life-long learning taught by every activity in this class.

History: Let me just say, this is where I truly tried and truly failed in this class. It's ironic that I have made it my job to become an expert in research techniques because at the beginning of this class, I had a horrible time trying to find information on each era discussed in class. I searched the internet for hours, trying to find something interesting about every era and finding no results, but here is a few blog posts that made it through the dirge of scholarly journals and books

• Growing Accessibility to Information A post about how our accessibility to information and participation in information sharing has evolved since electricity was first generated.  
• JFK Loves TV! I posted this after researching how JFK used technology in his presidency. Because of all the information I found, I could make it really fun to imitate him in class, and I found a great connection to digital tools in politics today.
• Civil War: The Real Beginning of America This post allowed me to contemplate the importance of the Civil War although I did not get a chance to write down all of my thoughts about the subject.
• America's view of WWII Germany: evil, merciless soldiers or victims? I looked in depth at what Nazi Germany was like for the citizens of Germany. They can sometimes be categorized as evil soldiers, but many of them were scared citizens trying to fight for what they thought was right.
• Some Thoughts on WWII Art This post was compiled of my ramblings on what I thought of WWII propaganda and how it related to the bigger picture of 1920's culture.
•  What I Know about the Renaissance I posted a basic overview of everything I knew about the Renaissance from previous classes and other reading (which turned out to be quite a lot). Renaissance Humanism was a more focused blog post on Renaissance humanism specifically.

Core Concepts: This is where I excelled (if I do say so myself). I worked endlessly to learn as much as I could about these digital concepts. Seeing that I came to this class knowing nothing about these concepts, I'd say that I've come pretty far.

• Digital Divide has Invaded my Apartment This was my first dive into trying to write about a digital concept, and I used experiences from my day to day life!
• Thoughts on Censorship These were my ideas on censorship and how it is necessary sometimes for freedom to thrive although it might at first seem to restrict freedoms.
• Openness in Scientific Journals I wrote a simple, short post on my thoughts of openness in scientific journals and relating it to the original purpose of these journals (history!)
• Is the Internet Scrambling Our Brains? This was my first blog post that I was truly proud of. I read an interesting book on how the means in which we consume information is affecting our brains. I made meaningful comments about the texts and tied it into history (at least I meant to add something about how typewriters affected the way people wrote poetry and philosophy). I also included pictures to make it look more visually interesting.
• How has the Internet Affected our Research? This was a post building on my reading about internet affecting the way we think. It was also a jump-start into what would become my class project.
• Technology Takes its Tole Comments on the dark side of participation
• Growing Accessibility to Information This post (as previously mentioned) uses history to talk about the unique opportunities we have to participate in information sharing to make progress much faster

Digital Literacy: I also think I worked really hard to consume, connect, and create in this class, especially since this was the main focus of our eBook.

• Library 2.0 Pitch I organized the Library 2.0 information I had gathered into these three categories: consume, create, and connect, listing specific ways for students to improve their research in each category
• With my posts on 20th Century from the View of Metamorphosis and My Posted Comments on Eden's Post, I began to use non-traditional sources to consume information (such as using a work of literature to study and era and other students' blog posts).
• As previously mentioned, I wrote Is the Internet Scrambling our Brains? from what I had read in a book. This taught me, that while digital tools are useful, it is important to use traditional research methods as well.
• Research Tips from Professors and How to do Real Research on Google taught me how to best consume information. The tips from professors also gave information on how to connect with real people as well as text in order to get necessary information. 
• Library 2.0 Pitch I organized the Library 2.0 information I had gathered into these three categories: consume, create, and connect, listing specific ways for students to improve their research in each category. In order to gather this information in the first place, I had to use the very research methods I discussed such as social book marking sites and Google scholar. 
• My new ways to consume information led me to create my own work, as seen in my pitch. I then connected with other interested people in order to improve my research. Perhaps the most useful example of this came from my pitch of this Library Research 2.0 outline to a First Year Writing professor, as outlined in Actual Results of My Pitch. 
• After speaking with the professor and other interested parties, I created new builds such as Seriously Revised Connect Section of the Ebook. 
• Helping Students Connect I used my research to create new content and connect with other students. 
• I kept creating information as I grew more of a passion for it, all the while finding other experts to connect with as seen in Inquiry: An Annotated Bibliography. I also created a film as described in Lights, Camera, Action!. In my video, I described My Personal Experience with Connecting.

Self-Directed Learning: I also worked hard to learn all that I could to make more meaning our of the class.

• Is Gamifying Voting Really the Best Thing? In order to post this, I found a video that discussed what we talked about in class and tried to start an online discussion about it.
• Research for People with Lives I took it upon myself to find research tips by creating a Google form. Unfortunately this did not work, so I moved on to the next step which snowballed into what became my proposal for our group project.
• I went out of my way to talk to others in order to social proof my idea and create as much content as I could for our eBook. I also worked hard in the name of Shameless Advertising for Our Event.
• While this was all worth while, the learning does not stop here. I created many extensions of our eBook chapter including a video and a lesson plan for professors to teach Library 2.0 techniques. These should be released soon.

Collaboration

• I worked hard to organize both my historical group and my digital group throughout the class. I also worked hard to present JFK Loves TV! and How Has the Internet Affected Our Research
• I also created a Research Project Pitch and worked hard as a group leader to organize meetings and assign tasks. My only regret in regards to collaboration, is not doing more to make sure all group members were working hard on specific tasks for our project. 

Playing Catch Up: My addition to our ebook intro

I wrote this for our ebook a while ago and never posted my work, so here it is!


John Seely Brown, Chief Scientist at Xerox and director of its Palo Alto Research Center, said the following after observing the learning patterns of modern adolescents. “The new literacy, beyond text and image, is one of information navigation. The real literacy of tomorrow entails the ability to be your own personal reference librarian-to know how to navigate through confusing, complex information spaces and feel comfortable doing so. "Navigation" may well be the main form of literacy for the 21st century. The next dimension, and shift, concerns learning. Most of us experienced formal learning in an authority-based, lecture-oriented school. Now, with incredible amounts of information available through the Web, we find a "new" kind of learning assuming pre-eminence:  Learning that's discovery-based. We are constantly discovering new things as we browse through the emergent digital ‘libraries.’" (Brown, John S. "Growing Up Digital: How the Web Changes Work, Education, and the Ways People Learn." USDLA Journal 16.2 (2002). Print.)

These libraries without walls are considered today to be logical extensions to libraries, as both enable people to engage with various types of information and resources of knowledge. 1 A team of researchers at the Academy of Finland published an article about these digital libraries and the benefits of using digital tools in a library setting. According to the article, “Through the technological development of electronic resources the means to collect, store, manage, and use widely distributed knowledge resources have become more effective, serving the library users even better.... Modern libraries are therefore being redefined as places to get wider access to information in many formats and from many sources.” (Holmberg, Kim, et al. "What is Library 2.0?" Journal of Documentation 65.4 (2009): 668-81. Print.)

Fortunately, the mass stores of information found in these digital libraries is not the only advantage of modern digital tools. Not only can we consume information on the internet, but we can use social media to connect with experts in the field, or even other interested people to gain greater insight into the topic.

Shameless Advertising for DigiCiv

As the title of this posts suggests, I did lots of shameless advertising to try to get people to come to our event. I made announcements in my honors classes and education classes because I thought they would be interested in how the digital revolution has affected education and research. I also made specific, personal invites to the following:

1. Professor Goldberg and his brother are both extremely interested in changes in our digital world, specifically regarding research. (Professor Goldberg is the previously mentioned professor, who was interviewed for some social proof of my idea).
2. Professor Earl was interested in how the digital world has impacted education, government, research, and other areas.
3. Mark Poret previously taught a computer class at BYU and showed extreme interest new digital tools and how they are reshaping education. He was also extremely interested in how they have affected government. He was not able to come due to a scheduling conflict, but he will most likely look up information about the event and talk to me about it sometime next week. 
4. Mike Poret is Mark Poret's son and a student at BYU. He is extremely interested in technology and how different areas have affected the digital world.
5. Amy Shiflet is a student who is concerned about our inadequate educational system and how we can change it to adapt to modern times.
6. Kylie Smith is also a student who is concerned about our inadequate educational system and how we can change it to adapt to modern times.
7. Mikayla Boren  is also a student who is concerned about our inadequate educational system and how we can change it to adapt to modern times.
8. Professor Ray teaches a class on using drama in the classroom. She is very concerned with our educational system leaving various types of learners behind and wanted to know what we could do to adapt schools to our modern times.
9. Julius Adebayo is a student who was very interested to know new research methods to save time and make his research more meaningful.
10. Nick Jones is a student who is extremely interested in business and economics. He showed interest in learning how the business world is affected by new digital tools.
11. Brian Jackson is a coordinator for the First Year Writing department and is extremely interested in using digital tools in his teaching. Our group wanted to talk to him specifically about using Library 2.0 techniques in First Year Writing courses. I thought this event would be a perfect opportunity to introduce him to Library 2.0 along with other areas of the digital revolution, so I called and left him a message. He never replied, but I hope to get a hold of him soon to present him with a lesson plan that can be implemented in the First Year Writing program.

In spite of my efforts, Julius was the only invite I specifically saw at the event, although others may have been there without my knowledge. In addition to my efforts in inviting people, I was also active on the stream during the event until my computer died (a little more than half way through) and stayed for a relatively long time afterwards to answer questions.

Seriously Revised Connect Section of the Ebook

Perhaps the most important aspect of Library 2.0 is connecting. John Seely Brown, Chief Scientist at Xerox and director of its Palo Alto Research Center, demonstrated the importance of this aspect through the history of electricity. Although Michael Faraday’s small generator produced electricity in 1831, an entire generation passed before an industrial version of Faraday’s generator was built. It took another 25 years for electricity to find its way to power companies, neighborhood wiring, and appliances. This was an extremely long process for one idea to actually be put to use in daily life. According to Brown, “with the internet that we have today, we do not need to wait generations for an idea to develop into reality. Ideas can spread rapidly, inventors can catch the attention of sponsors and their vision can become a reality much more quickly.” This spread of ideas is generated by connecting to other researchers though the plethora of digital tools available to nearly every researcher on the planet. By contacting other researchers and experts, we can share insights and achieve goals much more quickly than ever before.

It is common to research a topic by looking up articles and news reports from credible websites and databases. While this is a wonderful start, research should not begin and end with sorting through articles to paraphrase on a report or a business proposal. Perhaps the most effective way to research is to find the experts in the desired topic and use them to find the best information without sorting through thousands of articles on a database. One may accomplish this process in several ways.

First, a researcher might search a topic on a database of scholarly articles or look at bibliographies of several works on the subject in order to discover the experts on the subject.

Next, one might find the resources the expert used or is interested in through social bookmarking, Google Plus, Facebook, blogs, or other Web 2.0 tools. As previously discussed, social bookmarking sites allow you to see links used by other researchers for any desired field. By finding the links marked by an expert, it becomes much easier to find more information on a research topic. Experts can usually be found on Google Plus or Facebook as well. These professionals are extremely excited by their area of interest and are likely to post information about it frequently. Some may even create a Facebook page entirely on their topic of interest. Their profile pages can contain a wealth of knowledge for any researcher interested in their work. Another useful tool to find information is to find an expert’s blog. Blogs may not be purely academic, but they will probably contain useful links for more information on their topic of interest.

While this may be very useful to any researcher, finding information is only the shallow end of connecting. In order to truly make research meaningful, one must use these digital tools to contact the experts after reading their material. This process develops an understanding network building and will prove to be a valuable research tool in any type of research as well as the professional workplace. For any researcher who is lacking interest or motivation in their work, connecting to other experts is sure to inspire greater interest in the topic and augment motivation to effectively find the best sources possible and create truly remarkable work. Communicating with experts in the field makes research a far more worthwhile and memorable experience than it might otherwise have been and allows those experts to then comment and improve the researcher’s work.

Although connecting with an expert may seem daunting to the average researcher, current digital tools make it relatively easy to contact experts on any subject. These tools also create much easier methods for experts to respond to requests. For the many experts who teach or conduct research at universities, contact information can be found through university directories. Once an expert’s google plus profile is found, email options are usually provided. It is also relatively easy to comment on Google plus or any facebook page. With properly expressed interest, a comment from a researcher usually elicits a response from the expert in question. Conversation can also be sparked through comments on an expert’s blog.

Researchers could also visit an office which might have more information on the subject. For example, in order to find more information on how technology has influenced education, a researcher could visit any school office and ask what new forms of technology the school had implemented and how it had influenced student learning. Interviews are generally considered scholarly sources and can generally be cited in research papers and other published works. If distance poses a problem, interviews via phone, video conferencing, or video can be effective as well.

My Personal Experience with Connecting

In my first year of college, I was assigned to write a research paper on a recently discovered ant in Australia. As I began my research, I discovered that I needed more information, and the few articles available were written by one expert, who happened to be a professor in Denmark. I found the website of his university and translated it into English in order to find his contact information. I sent him an email, expressing my interest in his work and explaining the research I was conducting. He responded fairly quickly, and we began communicating about my work. He gave me much more information for my research and gave me permission to use all of his images and charts. I then published my work for everyone to use because hardly anyone knew about this incredible species of ant. Making that connection made my research so much more meaningful and created a spark of excitement in my work. That experience led me to write about Library Research 2.0 because I want others to experience that spark that I felt and make their research so much more meaningful.

Lights, Camera, Action!

Yes, we finished filming the Inquiry video today! I had a lot of fun trying to get my interview right and getting odd looks as we filmed students in the library (with their permission of course). It was fun to film, and we think we got some good shots. Basically we filmed different students working in the library. Some worked with computers, some read books, and others studied with friends. We then filmed the main content, most of which will be a voice-over for the video. We then filmed my interview about my experience in Library 2.0. Here is how it goes...


Opens with inspirational music and a black screen with "Bringing Research up to Speed: Utilizing Library 2.0" written in white.

Inspirational music fades into the background with a clip of me introducing library 2.0.


"In the modern world research has become vital to success. Whether you are a student, teacher, or any professional in the workplace, you need to know how to find information. Library 2.0 is the key to making the most of the time you spend on effective research through the digital tools we have today. (At this point, my explanation of Library 2.0 becomes a voice over as we flip through different clips of students doing research.) The three tools within Library 2.0 are consuming, connecting, and creating. You can more effectively consume information through social bookmarking sites, google scholar, RSS feeds and other digital tools. You can then use these tools to connect to the experts in order to enhance your research and add a spark of excitement in your work. After you've found your information, you can share your work with those experts and other researchers through ebooks, video, TED talks, and other publishing techniques."


At this point we will show my interview about my experience with consuming, connecting, and creating in new ways to make my research meaningful and my inspiration for this project. We will then show the clip of all the students working in the "no shh" zone and end with clips of students working together (both of these will be shown with the final voice over as the background music slowly gets louder until it is at a normal volume when my voice over ends and we show the last clip of students working together).
 
"If we all use these tools to consume information effectively, connect with the experts, and create our own work for others to use, we can completely revolutionize research as we know it."


This would be the end of the ebook video. We would also like another version to show in the library, youtube, and on the library's website where it ends with a black background and information about where to find more information written in white.

Helping Students Connect

Just realized I did not post this on the 21st when I saved it as a draft, so here this is super late.

Today I found a valuable opportunity to use connecting research strategies to aid a fellow student in their research. This student was struggling to find useful sources for a research paper. She had one extremely useful article but found nothing else to back up her work. I suggested some of the research strategies I have picked up to help her connect to the authors of that article. We found his contact information, and she sent him an email. I do not know if she emailed him back yet, but it was great to see her replace boredom and frustration with excitement and energy as she discovered the joys of connecting in research.

Inquiry: An Annotated Bibliography

My process has been a bit scattered, but I have really learned to use Library Research 2.0 techniques to find the information I need. I searched on Google scholar, Google books, Google plus, social bookmarking sites, and library databases. This is my research so far.
Further Reading

• Brown, John Seely. ("Growing Up Digital: How the Web Changes Work, Education, and the Ways People Learn". USDLA Journal, 2002).This journal article expresses the ways technology has changed work, education, and learning in history as well as in the digital age. History shows us that change takes a long time, but with the internet, change can come much more quickly. This work demonstrates the importance of learning how to navigate the internet to find information. [I found this by searching Google Scholar and realized that it contains excellent information to convince our audience of the importance of utilizing digital tools to find information.]
• Accardi, Maria T., Drabinski, Emily and Kumbie, Alana (Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods. Library Juice Press, 2010.) This book explains new theories and methods for library instruction. It includes stories of critical approaches put into practice in institutional settings in the virtual world. [I found information for this book on Maria Accardi's blog and thought it would be an excellent resource for finding new methods of library research in this digital age. 
• ("7 Things You Should Know About RSS". Educause Learning Initiative, April 2007). Covers an excellent overview of RSS and how to use it. [I found a link to this page on a presentation by  Maria Accardi, a researcher interested in Library Research 2.0. I am including it because it is important to know how to use RSS to consume information in Library Research 2.0] 
• ("7 Things You Should Know About Google Apps". Educause Learning Initiative, April 2007). Covers an excellent overview of Google Apps and how to use it. [I found a link to this page on a presentation by  Maria Accardi, a researcher interested in Library Research 2.0. I am including it because it is important to know how to use Google Apps to consume and share information in Library Research 2.0] 
• ("7 Things You Should Know About Social Bookmarking". Educause Learning Initiative, April 2007). Covers an excellent overview of Social Bookmarking and how to use it. [I found a link to this page on a presentation by  Maria Accardi, a researcher interested in Library Research 2.0. I am including it because it is important to know how to use Social Bookmarking to consume information and connect with other researchers in Library Research 2.0]  
• ("7 Things You Should Know About Zotero". Educause Learning Initiative, April 2007). Covers an excellent overview of Zotero and how to use it. [I found a link to this page on a presentation by  Maria Accardi, a researcher interested in Library Research 2.0. I am including it because it is important to know how to use Zotero to consume and cite information in Library Research 2.0]  

Thought Leaders

• Maria Accardi (Presentation about Library Research 2.0 Techniques and Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods) Ms. Accardi is a librarian instructor at Indiana University Southeast. She is a leader in Library Research 2.0 and provided the base of our research. [I found Ms. Accardi's presentation through a blog post by Professor Gideon Burton and discovered that she was the key to discover what Library Research 2.0 truly is.]
• Casey Bisson ("Designing an OPAC for Web 2.0," a presentation at Innovative Users Group meeting at ALA Midwinter). Bisson has written several useful blog posts about Library Research 2.0 and gave a presentation at an important conference about the effects of Web 2.0 in libraries. [I found Bisson's information and blog through a post on The Shifted Librarian and chose to include him because he has written and presented much information on Library 2.0]

Actual Results of My Pitch

As you may have guessed from the earlier blog post, I pitched our idea to a First Year Writing professor because he has a major meeting with librarians from our school and Utah State on Monday. His job is to give them feedback and any suggestions for the library's course in the First Year Writing program. Needless to say, I was really nervous, but I believe it went rather well.

He was really interested in our idea and would love to incorporate Library Research 2.0. He was particularly interested in students connecting with experts after reading their articles. He said he would ask to have all of our "connection" points incorporated into the library days because that is closely tied to the articles they find. However, he said that all of our other points are more for First Year Writing professors because the library only has two days to talk to the class about research. Therefore, all of their research instruction must be library related and all other research instruction is given by the professors in class. He recommended that we contact Brian Jackson. He is either a coordinator or a co-coordinator in the English department. He also instructs the graduate students in the English Department. It also happens that he is incredibly interested in digital literacy and has used a wikipage to compare teaching techniques in the department. I was told that he would definitely be the best one to talk to if I wanted to add to the First Year Writing curriculum.

He also told me tips about connecting to graduate students so they can teach future classes with Library Research 2.0 techniques.

He also suggest that we present our pitch as a simple lesson plan that can be incorporated into about half a class day's instruction. In the lesson, he suggested that we focus on creating/connecting and show 3 links of quick videos where students have displayed their ideas in a short of video "tweethis." We can then suggest that students create their own videos of their work and comment on each other's videos.

After hearing our pitch, this professor said that he would like to incorporate connecting and social proofing in his class by having his students post their research thesis on Facebook and sharing the feedback they received. We also talked about having students publish their work or at least being taught how to publish their work, so they can publish more polished research papers in the future. We talked about ebook pages, youtube videos, and presentations. Students could also shorten their work and publish it in the Daily Universe.

Pitch to a First Year Writing Professor

Library Research 2.0 is less about complicated web tools and more about connecting, consuming, and creating information through social media in order to be more effective, efficient, and meaningful in finding sources and writing research papers. There are many free resources available that students should be encouraged to incorporate into their research.

Consume: The library currently has excellent databases which allow students to consume scholarly information. We propose the following tips and sources to aid students in finding information for their research.

• RSS feeds keep you updated on new information being posted on any subject.
• Zotero can be used to find bibliography information although Ref Works is a great citing resource for scholarly articles.
• Google scholar is a great resource for finding scholarly material and can be connected to the library. (Tips for using Google can also be included. See blog post. http://digiciv-hammondlynsie.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-to-do-real-research-on-google.html )
• Students can find out what others are saying about their topic and what is currently being done about a certain issue by exploring blog posts and websites from enthusiasts.

• Connect: Students should connect to other researchers on their topic using digital tools. This makes students’ time more effective, since they can build off of articles and sources found by others, jump-starting the research process. They can also personally contact experts and researchers to gather content. This helps students learn how to build networks, and will prove to be a valuable research tool as students and as professionals.
• Connecting can be as easy as speaking to an expert in addition to reading their work. This can seem daunting to students, but with the digital tools we have today, it is relatively easy to contact experts on any subject.
• Students can find contact information through university websites
• If a student finds a scholarly article relating to their topic, he or she can usually find the author’s blog and comment to find more information. This may even spark a conversation with them on the subject, which will add both quality to the research paper and value to the student’s experience in writing the paper.
• Students can also go into an office which might have more information on the subject. For example, if a student was researching how technology has influenced education, he or she could go to an office of a nearby school and ask to interview someone on any new forms of technology their school has implemented and how it has influenced student’s learning. Interviews are generally considered scholarly sources and can generally be cited in research papers.
• Note: tell my story about connecting with the Danish expert on a certain species of Australian ant for my First Year Writing paper
• One great connecting tool is delicious.com. This site allows students to access sources from others who are researching a particular topic. The student can use these sources and build on their research by publishing a new list of sources on that topic for others to use.

Create: Students’ work will become more meaningful to them if it can be read and used by others. There are many fields in which an online presence will help with career opportunities and collaboration. Teaching students to share their work online will not only give them a chance for social proofing their ideas, it will also help them develop skills that may be crucial for their future careers.

• Publish their papers into Wikipedia articles. This is what my First Year Writing professor had us do. Knowing that others would be able to read and edit my work over time really motivated me to put my best effort into my research paper. However, I recognize that this is not possible for all research topics.
• Students can publish their work through eBooks. This is an easy way to publish a 8-10 page paper.
• Students could also turn their work into a Prezi presentation. They could design the presentation to be explored on its own or create a video where they explain their research while using a Prezi as a visual aid.
• The class could produce a TED talk where all students could take turns making a brief presentation of their topic and direct the audience where they could find more information if they are interested. A single student could also produce a TED talk to fully explain their research.
• Students can present their research as a video and publish it on You Tube.
• Information could also be presented as an infographic.
• Students can publish their research as a blog.
• A student could both create and connect by presenting their research to an expert on their topic and ask for suggestions on publication.

Growing Accessibility to Information

I recently read an article from the ERIC database, comparing the development of the printing press and technology today. I am not sure the link will work if you are not logged into BYU's library system, but here it is. http://www.eric.ed.gov.erl.lib.byu.edu/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED474051 .

This article claimed that the printing press was evolutionary not revolutionary. It just added to what had been developed over years and assisted in the ageless effort to make information accessible to the general public. It mentions the humble beginnings of the printing press and how it took 300 years to make printed materials fully accessible to the general public. We can see the same thing (but on a shorter time scale) with the integration of automobiles, telephones, and television. They each took about a generation to be accessible to everyone. I think it is no surprise that the same theory can be applied to the humble beginnings of  the internet. In the past few years we can see surprising growth in the accessibility the general population has to the internet. I would be as bold to say that every American has access to the internet, whether it be through work, home, or school. Anyone can simply walk into a public library to have unlimited information at their fingertips.

Now we see an increase in use of social networks to consume, create, and connect the information we use. How much more can the accessibility to internet grow?

How to Do Real Research on Google

In universities, many professors snub Google, but it can actually used to find great information...if used correctly. The disadvantage of Google is that it doesn't always give you scholarly sources. However, if you know how to find the sources you want and utilize Google scholar, you can definitely find some good information. The advantage of Google over traditional scholarly databases is its advanced search system. The problem is that about 75% of students don't know how to use it. Due to a handout created by Professor Cheri Earl of my HONRS 290 course, I have found some great tricks to using this resource.

• How to Google
• Example of what you want to find: New York Times articles about test scores in college, but not the SATs, written between 2008 and 2010
• How to Google it
• site:nytimes.com ~college "test scores" -SATs 2008..2010
• site: only searches for pages of that site
• ~ will also search related words such as "higher education" or "university"
• "" searches for the exact phrase, not each of the words separately
• - excludes this item from the search
• .. shows results from the designated date range
• Another example: A report on the different air speed velocities of common swallows
• Don't type questions into Google
• filetype:pdf air speed intitle: velocity of *swallow
• filetype: searches only results of the file type you designate. You can use this for pdf, doc, jpg, etc
•  intitle: only shows results with that word in the title (in this case, velocity)
• * replaces itself with common terms in your search
•  Google Scholar: only academic and scholarly work
• Example: papers about photosynthesis by Dr. Ronald L. Green and Dr. Thomas P. Buttz

• author: green photosynthesis "tp buttz" 
• author: searches for this word only in the author of the article instead of the entire article
• Just typing it in (like photosynthesis) works like a normal Google search
• "" more specific results 

• More tips for Google
• for quick definitions
• define: depart
• calculator: works for basic functions
• (2*3)/5-41+2

Hopefully these tips make Google more useful. Happy Researching!

Who Am I Talking To?: A Question of Audience

Taylor, my fellow leader in my inquiry project group, brought up some really good points about targeting our audience and how we can influence them. So here are my thoughts on possible audience members and how we could make a difference with our project. 

If we target students: We could post our info online (maybe a BYU site) and ask the library to play our video on their TVs on the third floor. I could also ask the other Peer Mentors to host workshops with your information to help students in the First Year Writing Course.

If we target teachers or librarians: We could present a proposal to include our information in the Library instruction course or mention our information when the First Year Writing class is doing their research unit. We could also speak to Advanced Writing professors (I have a relative who teaches advanced writing, so maybe I could do some social proofing.


I also made a point earlier that the those teaching the library research portion of First Year Writing seem to be stuck on scholarly articles and books rather than web tools. However, I think if we focus on how to use web tools to enhance those sources and allow others to view student research using Library Research 2.0 techniques, they would be very interested. If we focus our attention on a student audience, we would have to shift our project to focus on using Library Research 2.0 to save time with research and convince them to put in the necessary time to publish their work in such a way that other students could use. 


Their are clear benefits to both. However, I feel like we should choose our audience soon, so we can focus our research better. My personal choice? I am not sure although I am leaning towards teachers and librarians. I feel like they could influence students in the work they do, and our work would have much higher chances of actually making a difference in the academic world.

Technology Takes its Tole

I recently read a fascinating article by Sherry Turkle, a professor of the social studies of science and technology at MIT, about how technology is making us more antisocial and substituting real lives for virtual ones. People live an entire virtual existence, designing their dream mansion and perfect life on the computer. The shy get to live bold, and everyone gets to live the life they've always dreamed of. The problem? IT'S NOT REAL! People get obsessed and emotional attached to a virtual life which holds no actual meaning. Furthermore, this often leads to a depression when reality finally sets in.

Even for those who do not create virtual lives for themselves, technology still manages to steal time away from us. If we have a few minutes before class starts, we check Facebook or text instead of taking time for personal reflection or noticing those around us. Devices like laptops and smart phones were invented to multitask and save time. However, it seems like we fill up every available minute using these gadgets and have lost valuable time to take our time. It is no longer normal for people to take time to ponder, reflect, and simply appreciate the world around them.

One way I have tried to counter this is by walking to school. While I walk, I put my cell phone and iPod deep in the bowels of my backpack and take the time to think. I notice the beauty of fallen snow on a tall pine tree or reflect on my experiences. No matter what I think about, I always make sure to take the time to think. Hopefully the rest of the world catches on before we completely transform into the horror described in Surrogates, living lives that aren't truly ours in fast-paced world.

JFK loves TV!

I had a lot of fun imitating John F. Kennedy in class today, but it made me realize how much a new medium of information (like television) can shape history.

John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon were close in the polls for the 1960 election. What gave our iconic president the edge he needed? Television. In the first televised presidential debate in American history, JFK worked with the camera using makeup and an overall stellar appearance. Nixon did not. In fact, he looked rather sweaty and gross, but he did very well with the debate. Radio listeners were in agreement that he had won the debate while television viewers believed JFK stole the show. The difference? An ability to use technology for your benefit. 

Watch JFK Own the Camera in Nixon's Sweaty Debacle

Look at the difference between George W. Bush and Barrack Obama. Bush was slammed by the media and acted like a child on camera. Obama has perfected his TV personality and has online chats with anyone who wants to listen. Although Obama still has a long way to go before he gains JFK's level of approval, his digital literacy certainly helps. Online chats with government officials also allow us to become better participants in our country. How much more effective would government be if government adopted Web 2.0 to allow us to communicate back to them? Being more digitally literate wouldn't hurt Congress approval ratings either. HINT TO CONGRESSMEN: Get on the Web 2.0 bandwagon!

Research Tips from Professors

In an interview with a couple First Year Writing professors about they have been able to maximize their research time.

• Use subject librarians. They know specific terms and research in your subject and the best ways to find the information you are looking for.
• Search one particular aspect at a time. For instance, if you are studying a comparison between public transportation systems, you should first search specifically about environmental impact. Then research differences in cost, etc. 
• Remind yourself of your topic as you read abstracts of articles. If it is not completely relevant to your topic (even if it is interesting), do not read it. 
• Keep a schedule. For the earlier example, you could spend one hour on researching differences in environmental impact and one hour on differences in cost. 
• Keep a research log. Write down the particular aspect of your project you are researching and how much time you are spending on it. This makes you accountable for sticking to your schedule and evaluate where you need to go next in your research. This also allows you to keep track of your sources and how you got there (key phrases and databases used in an EBSCO search etc.)
• Have a research buddy to keep you on track and help find sources.
• Use university websites to find experts
• Google scholar has great sources most of the time, but it takes a lot of time to find what you need. Google books is usually more helpful and has lots of great sources.
• Take time to get off the computer and out of the library. Talk directly to people in offices that can supply useful information. Interview sources, collect stories, and distribute surveys to wide groups of people. You will be surprised at the amount of information you can gather from real people as apposed to journal articles. 

Research Project Pitch

I have posted a lot about this lately, but this is my official pitch for a project idea. I am planning on compiling a list of resources and research tips for students with limited time and virtually unlimited digital access. All BYU students have access to the Library Writing and Research Lab which teaches students how to conduct research. However, this instruction focuses on books and databases of articles with tricky search engines. While these resources are certainly useful, I feel that students would be more interested in research if they learned more modern types of researching known as Library Research 2.0. I feel like this new type of research combined with tips on researching from professors, librarians, and experienced students can help to maximize research time. Hopefully, this will increase the likelihood of students conducting good research instead of typing something into a Google search engine and accepting the first link that pulls up. In fact, I am currently talking to First Year Writing professors and librarians in the Writing and Research Lab about incorporating this into the curriculum. We could also make a presentation to post for others to use.

Here is a post by Professor Burton on Library Research 2.0 to give you a little taste of this project. http://thedigitalwriter.blogspot.com/2011/05/library-research-20.html.

I have already conducted a lot of research on this matter and have compiled a list of bookmarks on delicious.com. If you are interested, please comment on this blog or send me a note through Google Plus with your email address, so I can share the bookmarks with you. I was planning on simply doing this on my own, but after researching the topic more, I realized that I would really appreciate some extra help. If you would like to influence how students research, please let me know, so we can do this project together.

Research for People with Lives

Earlier, I mentioned the importance of critically analyzing the information we consume. However, I realize that this is easier said than done because many of us simply do not have time to pour over tons of books and articles to find a few pages of good information. In order to make things easier, I have created a survey to gather tips from BYU students on how to maximize the time we have to gather good information. If you have something to add, please do so here. I also posted some helpful tips that I have learned over the years. 

In order to conduct good research, we need to focus on finding information  and not be fixed with the information we already think we have. For example, if you want to find out more about abortion, you should not conduct your research already thinking that abortion is evil. You should find all the information you can and form an opinion from what you learn. Research should be conducted without any pre-conceived notions or stereotypes. 

Another problem with research that there is usually too much information on the subject for you to process. the trick is not letting yourself be over-loaded and quickly sift through information by weeding out unreliable articles. How do you know information is unreliable? Simple. Just ask some self-check questions with an open mind and a drive to find correct information. 

When we find an article with any facts or statistics, we should ask ourselves these main questions:

1. What is their source?

2. What is their agenda?

3. How do they know? 

4. Who regulates their claims? 

5. Who might disagree?

6. What are alternative explanations or counter-points?

Hopefully, these tips will help you week out the garbage and find those few nuggets of good information on this huge source of information we call the internet.

How has the Internet affected our Research

This week, I had the opportunity to join some group members and give a presentation about how misinformation is running rampant in cyberspace. Unfortunately, we did not have time to touch on everything we wanted to, so here is my unspoken say in the matter.

Like I mentioned earlier, the internet is affected the way we think and act. Because we have information available with a click keyboard, we have become very lazy in the way we consume information. If I am curious about politicians, issues, or anything in general, I go straight to Google.com, and I doubt many people do any differently. Sadly, the information that pops up on Google is not always accurate, but it is the first that comes up, so we assume that it is the best information because we are too lazy to conduct further research. Even though our lives have become very busy, it is still important to conduct our research with credible sources. I am not saying to never use Google, but I am saying to use it wisely and think critically about the information we consume. It may be difficult, but the internet is turning us into a lazy society, and we need to fight against it!

Is Gamifying Voting Really the Best Thing for America?

I really wanted to post this after my Digital Civilization class on Thursday, but sadly, there was no time, so here it finally is! This is a really funny rant by Craig Ferguson on the Late Late Show about voting. This goes along really well with someone's comments in class about how voting is a duty.

What do you think? Should we focus on persuading America that it is their duty to vote rather than gamifying it? Does gamifying voting replace patriotism and a desire to participate in our country's government for a need to be entertained?

Is the Internet Scrambling Our Brains?

I am currently reading The Shallows by Nicholas Carr, which contains some very interesting arguments. As people have come to criticize or praise the internet, they usually base their arguments on the content transferred rather than the medium of information itself. According to Carr, the stance that it is the use of the medium that counts "is the numb stance of the technological idiot." The content of the medium, in other words the internet, is simply "the juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind." We should be much less concerned with content and much more concerned with the effect the internet has had on our minds and the way we think.

Carr describes that the fast-pace information flow provided by the internet has warped his mind in a way he could not have foreseen. He can no longer read long articles, much less whole books. He merely skims for information before rushing onto the next hyperlink. He can no longer focus on anything for longer than a couple minutes. He describes this frightening process and his discovery of the issue. 

"At first I'd figured that the problem was a symptom of middle-age mind rot. But my brain, I realized, wasn't just drifting. It was hungry. It was demanding to be fed the way the Net fed it--and the more it was fed, the hungrier it became. Even when I was away from my computer, I yearned to check e-mail, click links, do some Googling. I wanted to be connected...the Internet, I sensed, was turning me into something like a high-speed data processing machine...I missed my old brain."


So is the internet changing our minds? I personally have found it harder to focus than I used to, especially with long books. I have no patience for reading long articles when I am looking for information in my research. Newspapers have become useless. Why would I read a series of articles when I can look at a news feed as I sign onto my Yahoo account? However, I still love to read novels, so I do not think I am nearly as bad as Carr claims to be. I think most of us can say we are in this realm, but should we be afraid of having our minds scrambled by the internet? I think that as long as we still read novels and take the time to ponder while we read information, we can be safe from this disease. However, I think we should still spread caution about this issue because sadly, reading has become more and more obsolete as summaries are becoming readily available for nearly every work. Spark notes have saved many high school students from reading novels in class. To be honest, people just are not patient enough to sit through reading 200 pages anymore. I never realized how much the internet has changed us, and frankly, this scares me.

Openness in Scientific Journals

I just wanted to start a discussion on this because it's really interesting to me.

As mentioned in my digiciv class, scientific journals were created to produce openness in science. However, now they are considered one of the worst examples of closed science. What changed?

My opinion is that we have changed our attitudes. We simply expect to get whatever information we want without paying a cent. Do you agree? Is it a good thing to insist on more open science or are we starting to get greedy?

Eden's Post on 20th Century and Information

20th Century and Information: A Mystery


I loved this post, and how Eden tied in both information and 20th Century (those are my two groups too). 

A thought about the last comment Eden made: Nearly everyone I have spoken to about SOPA (outside of this class of course) has no idea what is going on. This is insane! People need to be more informed. Ashamedly, I place myself in this category as well. One reason why I took this class is so I can learn to be better informed on current issues by utilizing the huge store of knowledge we have at our finger-tips. It is important to become more involved, and I wish more people could see what is going on. 

Improving our Educational System-Starting at the Beginning

To introduce this, let me first say that I am an Elementary Education major, and I learned a lot about our current school system and some helpful innovations it could use through one of my classes. If you are interested what I am about to say, please read Breaking through the Learning Barrior by George Nielson because that is where my inspiration came from. 

In the way schools are set up now, a teacher lectures in front of the class and hands out homework where you are supposed to work quietly and write the answers you think your teacher wants you to know. Then you regurgitate the information for a test, and you forget everything at the end of the year. This is a very inefficient process because students never actually learn anything, and any child who does not work well with lectures and quiet work lags behind. These children are labeled as “at risk” learners and believe themselves to be stupid. Everyone else thinks they are the most intelligent beings on the planet and learn just as much as the “stupid” kids, absolutely nothing.

What I propose is this. We should teach in such a way that students practice newly learned skills as we are teaching them. We teach them why it is important to learn about the topic, teach them basic information, and have them discover on their own through practical, hands-on activities. For those students who prefer activities to lectures (who doesn’t?) this will help them to learn and succeed by learning about the same topics in new ways. This also helps all students to retain information after the year is over and actually use their knowledge in the real world.

I personally have had experience changing lesson plans from lecture style to this style of hands-on learning, and it is not that difficult. Some may argue that it is more difficult to manage a classroom this way, but I think it would help students by engaging them in learning while getting out their wiggles in productive activities, so in reality, this helps to manage a classroom. This is not that difficult. We just need teachers to be on board with this and be willing to change their ways slightly to accommodate more students and make their learning matter.

Thoughts on Censorship

When ever I think of the government deciding what you say when, I am tempted to post all kinds of anti-censorship thoughts. However, I also think censorship is really important, and I think the internet needs more regulation on this subject. We all know how easy it is for pornographic websites to enter our homes. Even if you have a filter, things can slip through. What I hate is that a lot of pornographic sites are labeled in such a way to attract the most innocent audience possible in order to get them hooked. They are labeled with names like "Disneyland" and "Pocahontas" or things spelled in a very similar way. Most filters can detect this problem before a child views something that is anything but innocent. However, a lot of filters have no way to distinguish a lot of other pornographic material. I have a strong filter on my computer, but I am always wary of looking up something on Google images because odd things have popped up before. The same goes for you tube videos. I do not know a lot about how filters work or who is supposed to censor this material, but I think something needs to be done about it.

20th century from the view of Metamorphosis

As I was studying the historical context of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, I came to the conclusion that I should post about it on my blog since it was written in the 20th century. As a Jewish man in Germany during World War I, Kafka was certainly in on the action and contributed to literary history of the time as well. He was a big part of the Existentialist movement. This was also at the time of the Feminist movement (which was shown though Gregor's sister, Grete, but I will try not to analyze literature in this post). Women starting trying to fight against the belief that a woman's sole purpose was to care for men. I think I might ramble on that on a later post. That's about all I have from my background section of my Metamorphosis paper. It's not much, but it got me thinking about future posts.

Digital Divide has Invaded My Apartment!

I thought it was interesting that after I learned about digital divide in class, I saw it in the real world. One of my roommates was really nice to her brother and let her use her cell phone for a couple weeks. I never noticed any change, but she told me that she felt disconnected because she was the only one who was not texting or talking to someone of a phone. She felt unplugged, and she liked not feeling a sense of freedom from technology. However, this lack of attachment to technology was creating a bit of a digital divide.

I know this is only a small portion of what people with very little access to technology are experiences. Those impoverished people who have no access to the internet are falling more and more behind in our society. If something does not change this digital divide is only going to get worse and worse.

Civil War: The real beginning of America

Before the Civil War, America was a collection of states. Instead of having a sense of nationalism, there was a pride in own's state. After the war, America became a country. At first, there was definite division between North and South, but this was the beginning of states being united together. I do not think it is a coincidence that America did not become a world power until after the Civil War.

America's view of WWII Germany: evil, merciless soldiers or victims?

As I said in my earlier post, WWII seems to be a time when people did not try to understand foreigners, and there seemed to be a lot of nationalism, which is interesting because nationalism was at the root of Hitler's arguments. Interesting that both sides had this common root. What does that say about our views of WWII? Maybe we weren't the heroes most Americans think we were. Also, I think Germany deserves some empathy, or at least, most of the population does. After WWI, Germany was punished severely. Poverty was everywhere and hope was scarce. This was the perfect opportunity for a new leader to take over with new ideas that seemed to promise prosperity for the country. It was a way for people to feed their families and fix their economy. No one had any idea what terrible things would ensue. If I was in that situation, I would be tempted to support anyone who could offer hope. Unfortunately, this new leader for the people was Adolf Hitler. Before the German people knew it, children were brain-washed, and everyone lived in fear. I would like to propose that some of the greatest victims of Hitler's tyranny were his own people. Granted, I am not putting down anyone's suffering in WWII (mainly the Jews). Those poor people in concentration camps were more victimized than anyone who was brain-washed in Germany. I am just saying that American citizens should not have labeled Germans as evil. Once more, we need to watch ourselves because we could very well end up in the same state if we do not think critically about everything we are told and explore all of the information out there. I think this is a great idea that relates to digital civilization.