Mandy's are welcome

Hey Mandy you may now mark my blog. I believe I have covered all bases.
Thanks heaps
Ngaio

Final Reflection on Blog

After looking through my blog, and editing a few posts to make them more readable, I now feel that I need to explain and reflect on a few things, that Mandy has asked us to.

The assignment was particulary challanging in the researching of information due to the topic and my inability to access QUT library resources and articles. Virtual resources were the best way to get around this problem. I used ProQuest, ERIC and A+ to find most of my resources. The searching of the databases is something that I am familiar with as I used to use ProQuest in my Bachelor degree with little issue. This I believed enabled me to get a head start compared to anyone who only recently went back to uni with a decade or more break. I mostly used quotation marks for searches that needed the two words together such as "inquiry learning". I also used the * so that sources could be searched that contained words similar to learn*. I also used advanced search to only search for full text articles as generally the articles found were contained in print version at QUT, and therefore were not of value.

In terms of looking for resources, I also examined the back of the set textbook - Guided Inquiry - and looked at the references that they had (I did this for articles as well) and tried to see if I could get more resources this way. I was successful one or two times using this method.

Once I got my head around what I was focusing my assignment on, my search for resources sped up as I knew what I was looking for. However the stages getting to that were trivial but essential to go through so that the focus of the assignment was centred around the results found.

I won't re-hash my feelings during the assignment, I believe I made them pretty clear. Nor will I repeat the observation that my stages were similar to the ISP model.

In regards to information literacy, most articles found were from a database which meant they automatically had credability as they had to be published. However articles that were found from the internet were verified by using the Authoritive Information chapter in 'The Hidden Web' textbook. The currency as well as the authenticity were examined to ensure that webpages held accurate information relating to the topic. This will be used in future examination of sources and is something that should frequently be reiterated by teachers and teacher-librarians.

The future of my subject is changing, and with National Curriculum in a few years I will be interesting to see what happens, but whilst I have the opportunity to impose my direction into the course, I will. Media will be getting a overhall late this term. I am determined that next year will be different. The engagement with the subject will go up. I will impliment some form of guided inquiry into the subject and after the discussion on what is knowledge the other night, I will try to create a unit not neccesarily based around the traditional knowledge, but more around the knowledge created by doing (like the firefighters), and other forms discussed. So interesting times ahead.

Reflecting on the process

Towards the end of my research I decided to reflect on my progress - what worked, what didn't and what could be done better (what to change for next time).


What did not work.

1. The class of students that did the survey where not the best or most reflective. They mostly did one liners or just a few words.
2. The learning activity needs to be broadened to included for guided inquiry. This will be looked at in term 4 with time for planning.
3. The choice of media made it hard to come up with research that involved that subject.

What did work.

1. Some students became very involved in the process.
2. The use of guided inquiry in the essay as a point of topic.

What to change for next time.

1. Ensure the task has been altered to included guided inquiry.
2. Ensure students go through ISP model.
3. Try to get more feedback from Mandy regarding assignments.

Assignment 2

After procrastinating a bit, I started to focus on my assignment, I went back through and fixed up the literature review and I started on the method and results.

I ended up emailing Mandy with a draft of my part B as I felt very daunted by the results section of the assingment. I pretty much didn't know how to present my ideas or sum them up. This comes under the presentation section of the ISP model, as I have to put the information that I have gathered together and analyse it. So to ensure that I was on the right track I emailed Mandy my assignment up to date to try to get a better read as to if my assignment is correct. I still feel daunted by it but I believe that once I get my draft back from her I will have a greater understanding of my direction.

Assignment 2 starting

I thought I should blog before I start.

For the next two weeks, I am on holidays. :) During this time my aim is to complete both my uni assignments. Firstly I'm going to attack this assignment. I feel a little bit hesitant about going through the assignment process because I have been rather slack lately. Last term was rather hectic during school so after I submitted Assignment one, I got rather sick, became slack with my uni work and chilled out by playing my nintendo wii. So all in all, nothing much was accomplished.

I feel daunted because I have to fix up assignment one majorly. I'm not so worried about the examination of the data, because that should be relatively easy as my students were rather slack and didn't usually write more than one sentence - if they even wrote a sentence.

Reflecting

After spending quite a bit of time finding resources for my assignment and finally handing in the part A (work in progress) I had a bit of time to reflect on my process. Looking back at it, I realise now that I actually went through the ISP model.

My first feelings of this project was uncertainty. After finally deciding to use my year 9 media class as the guinea pigs, I felt I had a bit of direction and this made me optomistic. Then however once I started to try to get my head around the task, and once I started to research generally on the topic, I started to become frustrated with the lack of information on the databases and internet. I could not access the library due to it being more than a 2 hr flight to Brisbane or any major centre. In my mind I started to doubt whether I could finish this on time. I spent hours and hours trying to find information, always seeming to search using the same criteria.

After posting my draft - and yes, it was a very rough draft, I felt that Mandy (unit co-ordinator) would be able to give me more direction, and help out with the focus of the assignment. I felt that there were some parts that should be expanded but then it would go over the word limit. I felt frustrated because I really believed that the theoriest behind guided inquiry were important to the process. Needless to say I ended up cutting them out. With Mandy's help I ended up refocusing my assignment. Once that was done, finding resources seemed so easy. All that was left to do was to put it together and present the Part A.

I felt a sense of achievement when I handed in Part A. In the time leading up the submission of that piece I felt as though I had more of an understanding each time I corrected and redirected the discussion. I know that there is still a bit to go with the reflection and assessment of the SLIM questionnaire but at the same time I feel satisfied that I can cope with this.

Assignment 1 done

After researching and finding information on just inquiry research using "secondary school" or "high school" or "9" for grade/year 9 I was able to contain 13 resources. Out of these I used 11 in my assignment.



To do this I firstly read each of the articles and wrote down information about them - for instance, what theorists they used, what their questions were etc. I then created a map and brainstormed all the themes that the articles discussed. I arranged them into a number of sections seen below.

Once the assignment was completed - of course this is only a draft - I added in the bibliography. Proquest allowes the user to bookmark articles that you want - and with that list it will create a bibliography. Of course - the bibliography is marked for today's date so that had to be changed. However this was a quick and easy tool to use.

More resources needed

I found about 15 items through searching "technology" and "inquiry learning (or method)" as well as by entering in the search term "computers" instead of "technology" or "PowerPoint" instead of "technology". My documents were then slimmed down to 5 and these examine Internet searching abilities of students, information about inquiry based learning projects, yr9 students, using PowerPoint to display information, student based inquiry using the Authoring cycle, inquiry based learning using a zoo and how to go about it and lastly, using technology to enhance historical inquiry from a Taiwan point of view. This will have to be looked at and compared to the topic/focus that will form the literature review of my assignment.

I will also use the textbook in the assignment, focusing on internet searching as a means of finding information. I may have to also use some of the readings from the unit if I cannot find more articles about using the internet and inquiry, or powerpoint or technology.

So far I have been using the ProQuest database. Today I'm going to use Eric and Possibly Informit.

Try 2

After talking with Mandy and the other people doing this subject, I gained a better understanding as to what I need to do. Mandy suggested that I try researching under the topics, highschool media studies project and failing that that I simply search under highschool students. So let's see how that goes.

1st search

For my subject CLN650, I am required to research the theories of inquiry based learning, specifically in regards to the assessment item that will use this theory. The subject that I am doing it in is Media. So my first search was Sitcom (because that it the particular genre of media being examined) and Inquiry (as it is the form of research that the students will be conducting). This yielded nothing - not surprising. So I tried media and inquiry and again nothing appeared. Then I tried media and learning which has come up with a heap of articles (171 to be exact). Obviously not all of these will be used because it is too general a search and a few will be about the topic.

I did these searches using ProQuest as it is a database recommended for use in Education and I have used it many times before with promising results.

First post.

Hi everyone,

This is my first post and my first blog. I am required to do a blog for my subject at uni, titled, CLN650 - Information-learning nexus. This subject looks at guided enquiry and I hope that by doing it, it will enable me to become a better teacher in this area.