Week 5

 I’m not gunna lie; it’s pretty awesome to be done with a class already.  Overall, I found this class to be very helpful.  I will most definitely be using the techniques that we learned in class to help do my research on future papers.  To me, the most helpful thing that we learned about is the databases.  The databases seem to contain a huge amount of credible information that can be accessed whenever I need, and I don’t have to worry about it being checked out by someone else.  Another extremely useful thing we learned about was how to evaluate whether or not a source we find is credible.  This comes in handy if I am struggling to find enough information in the databases and need to use Google to find what I need to write my paper.  There were obvious signs, like if the website simply looked reliable, and other hints that I never thought to do, like doing a quick search on the author to see if they actually know what they are talking about.  Being able to evaluate a source is one of the most important things that we learned in class.  Another, equally important, thing we learned about in class was plagiarism and copyright laws.  Bonnie and Amanda did an excellent job of explaining what we had to cite and what we had to do to make sure we weren’t posting something illegally or copying someone else’s work and committing plagiarism.  I think that both Amanda and Bonnie did an outstanding job teaching everything that we went over in class.  I’m really glad I took this class, because I think that it will help me a lot in my academic future here at Penn State.  I would like to wish all of you good luck with the rest of your time here at Penn State, and don’t be afraid to say hi if one of you runs into me around campus. Stay Classy Penn State.  

Week 4

This week in class we discussed “new media” both days.  New media includes things posted online like YouTube videos, photos, and blogs.  It can also include websites, social media like Twitter and Facebook, CD’s, DVD’s, and mp3 files.  I don’t consider new media to be “new” because it has basically been around my entire life, but it is the newest form of media and is constantly being changed and upgraded and advanced.  New media can be a great medium to use for research and can help present your research in a very informative way.  However, like any other resource, it needs to be cited.  Luckily, just like any source of information, there are plenty of places to find easy ways to cite the source.  We also learned why certain videos online with copyrighted music in them are taken down, and why some are able to be kept up.  As long as the video only plays clips of the music, and not the entire song, it does not violate copyright.  Also, parodies of songs or TV shows do not violate copyright.  We learned all of this on Tuesday, and then it was summarized again on Thursday.  I thought the summarization on Thursday was very helpful.  It also included a Dennis Rodman example, which I always appreciate.  On Thursday, we also had to hand in two of our assignments.  I thought finding the article for the reading response assignment to be very easy.  I also learned a lot for the program research assignment.  I researched business management, and I think that is what I am going to choose as my major.  It is very tough to get into Smeal College for business majors, but I think I should be able to do it.  What did guys think of the assignments so far? 

Week 3

                Wow, we are halfway through this class already!  This has gone much faster than I thought it would, but we are still learning a lot in class.  This past week we learned about citations, research ethics, and about plagiarism and copyrights.  Amanda showed us different online tools that we could use to help us create citations for any kind of resource we had to use.  The databases that are accessible through the Penn State library will usually have some kind of citation included with the article that we are reading, but if it doesn’t, there are plenty of online resources that we could use.  We were shown Zotero, and also learned about Mendeley and Endnote.  I am now using Zotero because it is very convenient because of the toolbar that comes with it.  You can install the toolbar in your web browser that allows you to save anything for later and you can create any form of citation through Zotero.  Endnote also looks like a great resource, but it is too expensive for me.  On Thursday, we learned about research ethics and plagiarism.  We learned that you patent an idea, you own a trademark on a company logo, and that you own a copyright on your own original thoughts and words.  Copyrights typically last for the life of the author plus 75 years.  Finally, we learned that not all published research is done correctly.  We also learned that some companies will pay newspaper reporters to publish an article that the companies write.  This can lead a reader to purchase those products because they found out about it from a trusted and supposedly unbiased news source.  We were shown a website, www.churnalism.com, which can be used to find out if an article you read in a newspaper is a real article or if it was paid for by a company.  

Week 2

This week was full of useful information.  In class, we learned about research guides, specialized databases, and how to evaluate resources.  I think research guides are going to be one of the most useful things we will learn about in this class.  Research guides are collections put together by a librarian that contain information on a specific topic.  The information collected can be in the form of databases, books in the Penn State libraries, news and media, and other library resources that would be helpful in aiding your research.  The most convenient thing about these is that it centralizes the resources for you, which will make it much easier to research on a specific topic.  The alternative to this would be an educated guess as to where you should search for this, and if you were wrong it could take you much longer to find useful information on your research topic.  Another tool that will prove itself to be very useful in research is learning how to better define your search topic, and how to evaluate sources and determine if it a trustworthy source of accurate information on your topic.  To show the class how to better define our searches, Bonnie and Amanda showed us some tips and tricks to use when searching in the databases.  Not only can you narrow what resources the CAT or LionSearch searches, but you can also use the tags that are put on information that is found in a database to limit or expand what comes up during a search.  Finally, the class also learned how to evaluate what a reliable source should look like, and how to identify a not-so-reliable source.  First, we learned the normal time frame for how long it takes certain types of information to be put together.  This flow chart explained why there aren’t any scholarly journal articles or books written on events that just happened last week.  So far this this class has been just as helpful, if not more helpful, than I originally thought it would be.  Until next time, Stay Classy Happy Valley.

Week One

This week in class was both relaxed and very helpful and informative.  The introduction to the class was not very complicated.  This seems like it is going to be a very straight forward class.  It doesn’t seem like a lot was covered this week, because it was the first week of classes, but what was covered is going to be very helpful.  We discussed ways to use the various online searches and databases on the library website.  The CAT and LionSearch were two very helpful search programs.  I plan on using these when trying to find library resources to help do research and find information to write papers for other classes.  We also learned that the library not only has physical materials to use, but they also have an extensive collection of information available through online databases.  These databases will also be very helpful when doing research and writing papers for other classes.  I have had to use databases to write papers in high school, but it was still good to learn more about the databases Penn State has and how to use them.  My favorite thing that we learned about in class so far was the “Get It For Me” service (at least I think that’s what it was called).  This will be very helpful because I can just have the librarians get the books I need, and I won’t have to go looking through the library myself.  This will be very helpful because I am a very lazy person.

Question: I have never had a class that was taught by two different people during the same class period.  Has anyone else ever had a class like this, and whether or not you have, do you like this technique or not, and why?

My Answer:  I have never had a class taught by two different teachers.  I like the way this class is taught, mostly because the instructors work well together and are very informative.