Summer 2003: Week 3

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Week 3:   Mission

Our mission this week is to finish the unit titled "Preparing for Information Literacy."  We will do that by beginning to locate professional resources on the web, subscribing to professional mailing lists, publishing our first web page, and crafting a research question. 



Class Meeting:  June 24, 2003

We will meet at the MOO promptly at 1:00 pm.  Plan for class to last two hours.  Before class, please read the document titled Preparing for MOO Class.  We will be working on polishing your essential questions into research questions. 



Assignment 1.3.1:  Subscribe to a Professional Mailing List
Due:  July 6, 2003 (midnight)

Visit the web site listed below:

This resource is considered to be the "premier" resource for finding everything relating to our field.  Explore the site to familiarize yourself with the organization and resources offered.  Click on the "discussion forums and electronic newsletters" link in the "Quick Index."  This will take you to a page which has information about hundreds of different types of discussion forums. Electronic mailing lists are one kind of these discussion forums (you read about these last week).  Look for mailing lists relating to your research focus and subscribe to one mailing list.  Remember to keep the message you receive that confirms you have been subscribed to the mailing list. Send a copy of this confirmation message to the class list (others might be interested in seeing what lists people are subscribing to).  You may want to revisit last week's readings about mailing lists if you are having difficulty subscribing or remembering how to subscribe to different types of lists. 

Send to:  cd315-list@marshall.edu
Subject line: Assignment 1.3.1:  Professional Mailing List

Tips:

  • Please remember that it is perfectly acceptable (and often preferred) for you to "lurk" on a list, reading what others post but not posting at all, especially for newcomers or new subscribers.  Do not feel obligated to post any messages to your mailing list, just read what others are saying. In fact, I would prefer that you "lurk" for a week or so, paying attention to how people interact on your mailing list before you start participating.
  • Be aware that some mailing lists are high volume, meaning they can have literally hundreds of posts sent to readers every day.  Most of the autism lists and ADD lists are like this.  Also, be aware that some mailing lists are low volume which means that you might not get any mail as a result of your subscription.  Once you have subscribed, make sure you check your mail often until you have a sense of how much volume your list might have.  If you end up on a low volume list, you may wish to subscribe to another.
  • If you have difficulty with this task, and it is not an easy one, and receive error messages when you try to subscribe, forward those error messages to mccomas@marshall.edu and I will help you figure out what you can fix to make things work.


Assignment 1.3.2:  WWW Searching I
Due:  July 7, 2003 (midnight)

As we begin to look for resources for our research, it's appropriate for us to look at the task of searching the WWW for information.  I imagine that all of you have probably used some search engines already.  Finding search engines or utilities is the easy part, learning how to use them effectively is more difficult.  For this assignment, first read carefully and explore the sites below:

Use at least three of the search utilities available (links are provided from most of the resources given above) and conduct a search on your last name.  Examine and analyze the results of your search.  How do your sites compare with respect to the number of "hits" returned?  Visit some of the "hits" returned.  How accurate were those "hits"?  What other things did you observe with respect to the results of your search?  Send mail to the class list and describe your findings (include the search engine used, variations of your name -capitalization, different spellings, etc.-,  AND then describe your results). 

Send to:  cd315-list@marshall.edu
Subject:  Assignment 1.3.2:  Name Search



 Assignment 1.3.3:  WWW Searching II
Due:  July 7, 2003 (midnight)

Now, in order to get the most out of the information available to you, let's move the searching function to a more practical level.  Using a term (or terms) appropriate for the content area in which you think you may develop your class project, go searching again.  Use at least three of the search utilities available.  Examine and analyze the results of your search.  How do your sites compare with respsect to the number of "hits" returned?  Visit some of these hits.  How accurate were they?  What other things did you observe with respect to the results of your search?  Send mail to the class list and describe your findings.  You may want to list the search engines separately along with the specific results in terms of number of hits.  After that you can write about how they compared, etc.

Send to:  cd315-list@marshall.edu
Subject:  Assignment 1.3.3:  <topic> search

Assignment 1.3.4:  Other Resources
Due:  July 7, 2003 (midnight)

So far, we have the library resources we learned about (e.g., EBSCO), WWW search tools (previous two assignments), and a mailing list to give us access to numerous resources relating to our research focus.  Below are a few other resources that I use frequently that you may want to explore.  These may or may not be helpful to you with your research topic.  If you think any of them might be useful, I would suggest that you bookmark these sites. 



Assignment 1.3.5:  Learning Highlights
Due:  July 7, 2003 (midnight)

You will post your response to this assignment in the class weblog.  Click on the Learning Highlights link (right hand column of class weblog) to post to the class blog.  This information will come in handy later this semester for part of your MRP (multigenre research project). 



Assignment 1.3.6:  Learning Styles
Due:  July 7, 2003 (midnight)

You will post your response to this assignment in the class weblog.  Click on the Learning Styles link (right hand column of class weblog) to post to the class blog.  This information will come in handy later this semester for part of your MRP (multigenre research project). 

Assignment 1.3.7:  Read
Due:  July 7, 2003 (midnight)

Read the Instructions for Multigenre Research Project (MRP).  We'll be starting our work on this project this week.

Assignment 1.3.8:  Web Page
Due:  July 7, 2003 (midnight)

Read the Instructions for Publishing a Web Page.  We'll be publishing our home pages on the web this week but there are several steps involved (these are discussed in depth in the instructions document).

This is one of the most complicated things you will learn to do.  Take your time, be patient, and ask for help when needed.

When you have your web page published, send an email to the class list giving us your URL (address of your web page, stands for universal resource locator).

Send to:  cd315-list@marshall.edu
Subject:  Assignment 1.3.8:  Web Page URL

Assignment 1.3.9:  Foundation Questions
Due:  June 30, 2003 (midnight)

You will post your response to this assignment in the class weblog.  Click on the Foundation Questions link (right hand column of class weblog) to post to the class blog.  This information will come in handy later this semester for part of your MRP (multigenre research project). 



 Assignment 1.3.10:  Online Journal
Due:  June 29, 2003 (midnight)

Sometime between Friday (June 28) and Sunday (June 30, midnight), post your weekly online journal.  You will be posting your online journal entries (as well as some other items) to your blog.  Please note that this assignment, unlike most of the others, does NOT enjoy the two week completion time.  In other words, your online journal postings must be made each week (between Friday and Sunday midnight as explained in the instructions) in order to receive credit for them.  Please review the Instructions for Online Journals to ensure acceptable completion  of this assignment.

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