Aims and Objectives: One of my goals this week was to complete the assignments by Sunday. Although I did not complete all the assignments early, I did start working on the assignments earlier this week. I also wanted to become more familiar with the different parts of the Multigenre Research Project (MRP) this week. Having some basic research sources, we now have more of an understanding what we will be doing for the overall project.
Declarative Knowledge: This week I first learned what a project prospectus is, why it’s useful, and how to make one. The project prospectus is the plan describing how I will complete my MRP. Although this will undergo many changes as the semester progresses, it will give me a good place to start with the MRP. I also conducted a search for five more sources in relation to my research question using MEDLINE, PychINFO, and Academic Search Premier. I was able to find several scholarly articles using these databases. Along with the project prospectus and the search, I internalized the web evaluations about my own site. Keeping in mind the evaluations we used in a previous assingment helped me evaluate the credibility and validity of my site. I had to be aware of what credibility and validity meant and also what the evaluation consisted of. Last, I had to reflect on our group discussion from September 13th.
Procedural Knowledge: In order to do the project prospectus I had to first create it as a page in my web log. I then had to follow a specific outline. I had to identify my essential question and foundation questions, list my tentative point I plan to make with my project, the genres I will include, how I will integrate my genres, and a list of tentative resources I will use. Four of the genres I included were already assigned, however I picked three additional genres. I then had to tell what voice they would be written in such as clinician voice, parent/caregiver voice, or client voice. Along with the voice of each I had to identify a potential audience for each genre and a discussion of why I chose that particular genre. After completing the outline I saved and published the page. Next, to complete the library search assignment I chose some keywords and phrases that I would search for. I then chose to search Academic Search Premier which gave me several useful results using the keywords “cochlear implant and language.” I then follwed the same process with MEDLINE and received numerous amounts of information. When using PyshINFO to see what I could find I changed my keywords to “cochlear implant and language development.” I received several different articles from the other two datatbases using these keywords. I then posted the resource where I got the articles, the keywords I used to search, and the bibliographical information for each article. To site each source I referred to my APA manual fifth addition. I then saved and publised my five sources on my weblog. I then had to view my site and evaluate it thinking about its validity and credibility. I kept in mind the evaluation outlines that we followed from a prevous assignment. I also had to consider how other people would view my site and how I want to develop it. This made me realize that I need to work really hard for people to think my site is valid and credible. I saved and posted my thoughts from this assignment on my weblog. Next, I reflected on our group discussion from September 13th. In order to do this, I had to go to my e-mail and read the transcript from our discussion. I specifically had to identify my essential question I started with, the essentail question I came up with during/after the discussion, how my groupmates helped me clear my thinking, how I helped my groupmates clear their thinking, and a list of recommendations for anyone who may participate in a similar activity in the future. I then saved and posted my results to my weblog.
Conditional Knowledge: My project prospectus will guide me throughout the class and my project. Knowing it will be revised as we move on in our projects, it will still help me achieve the final product. This is a good activity for any type of project because it makes you think about the final draft, even though we are still in the beginning stages. The library search will continually help me in finding resources concerning my research question. Searching for articles and citing sources is very good practice for students like myself. Internalizing web evaluations is a good way for me to look at my own site and evaluate its validity and credibility. I want people who look at my site to rely on the provided information and see that it is in fact valid and credible. Reflecting on our previous group discussion allows me to look at, and still consider the suggestions that my group members made to me. It also makes me see how my own thinking process evolved in our discussion. The list of what others should do made me realize that we are all there for the same purpose, whatever that particular purpose may be, and we can really help each other throughout the process.
