Last lesson Sarah asked us to tell her the criteria we use to judge the websites we find during our Internet researches. In other words, why do we consider a website reliable and useful? Well, we listed all our criteria and I think we did a good job. We took a look at some websites where there are some suggestions about surfing on the Web that other universities (e.g. the University of Essex) make for their students, and there was nothing really relevant to add to our list. We're smart, guys! ; )
Sarah made us discover some other tools we can use to "filter" information on the Internet, too, such as Google Blogs, Google Books and Google Scholar. We searched for "personal learning environment" in the 3 of them, and I have to admit it was very interesting 'coz we really could find what we were looking for in reliable sources. Google blogs is similar to Technorati, as it searches tags in blogs on the Internet. It was funny 'coz I found an American teacher's blog and, reading a bit through it, I got she's doing exactly the same that Sarah is doing with us with her students. I mean, her students are required to have a blog and write posts regularly and so on. I guess it's because American teachers are really aware of the importance of the Internet nowadays and are trying to help their students be updated with the new technological devices. Google Books is again really helpful 'coz even if we can't download books, we can at least read their abstracts and some pages of them to see if we're interested in buying them. Google Scholar is specific 'coz it searches tags in online academic texts that is really useful in our case, as we're University students. The thing that strucked me the most is that there are a lot of free online texts available on the Web, it's not that we have to pay for everything. Good to know! Finding the site we're looking for and finding out it's not free is annoying, isn't it?
I took a look at the sites that Sarah provided us, too, that is, http://e-language.wikispaces.com/ and http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wiki/Siemens and now I can say I agree with her, not all wikis are Wikipedia. Wikipedia isn't reliable in most cases, but these 2 websites seem to be reliable. I mean, their graphics is good, there is no advertisement, they're clear and well-structured, and, more importantly, it's immediately written what we're gonna find reading them. Sarah said this is a criteria we can use to jugde a website positively so I can say these 2 websites are reliable.
What's more? I think I can conclude saying that every lesson is a discover! This course is helping me a lot understand the Internet better, and I think the things I'm learning now are gonna be extremely useful in writing my thesis. Good job, Sarah! : )
Hi Vale!!
RispondiEliminayou're right, every lesson with Sarah is an added instrument to use, especially for our thesis!! I am happy to be so well provided of new tools.. now the only problem is thinking of a proper topic!! :(
I hope to find something sooner or later!
Have a nice Sunday ;)
Sara
I know, I know... choosing a good topic for our thesis is the most difficult task... writing 100 pages is not that hard comparing to it... but we're gonna find something sooner or later, you're right! I don't know if this expression exists in English, but "hope is the last to die"! ; )
RispondiEliminaHi Valentina! I'm Anna Faggian and I'm a new member of your blogging group, so I will comment your posts every week. As you wrote, last Wednesday we discover a lot of interesting and useful tools. I researched "personal learning environment" in Google Blogs and I found a very good and reliable blog. I appreciated it because it was complete, clear and precise and had all the criteria we discussed during the lesson. I appreciated the fact that aothir of the blog posted a lot of links and materials in order to share knowledge freely! But as you said before, it is necessary to check what we find on the net because there a lot of reliable sources but a great number of stuff as well!
RispondiEliminaAnna Faggian
Dear Vale, as I wrote in a comment to Sara's post, I haven't had the "pleasure" to put the evaluation criteria into practice yet!I hope I'll be able to do it later, just need that my laptop begins to work anew! Anyway, I think you did a very good job (I'm referring to your second last post); you explained little by little all the steps you took in analysing the article and answered to all the questions! I think I'm going to use your analysis as a source of inspiration,he he:-P!
RispondiEliminaWell, that's all..see you tomorrow in class
Bye
Anna