EIR09

4January2010

3rd Lesson
Lecture 3
Practical 3 - Search Strategy

Blog Reflection:
Briefly reflect on lessons learned from this practical by answering questions below:
1.Were you impressed by Google's Search functions/features? Why?
2.How do you feel about participation in discussion forum? Is it helpful for you research? Do you feel anxious about talking to others you do not know?
3.Why must you do citation and bibliography?
4.You can also Tweet about your experiences.


Reflection 1:
Were you impressed by Google's Search functions/features? Why?

I was impressed by Google's search. I did not know that besides Google search, there is another search engine called Google Scholar. I was asked to research on my topic in both search facilities. Before that I was taught how to create search strategy. From my selected topic, I select the keywords and from there I came out with keyword variations. It is something like a search formula. Normally I will just key in a word or the whole phrase which I want to research on. I find this search strategy good. Not only it helps to search for more relevant webs, but at the same time, it helps me to save my time without looking through all webs and later realize it is not useful and helpful for me.

After using both search facilities for 1 resource each, I will explore both search features. And later compare and contrast the effectiveness of Google Search and Google Scholar. I find that Google Search is more effective compared to Google Scholar despite sometimes having repeated information.Google Scholar is out-dated and it gives me links which are not relevant to what I had searched for. Internet resources from Google Scholar are only articles and journals, whereas Google Search has more variety of internet resources, not only articles and journals, there are also forums, webs, blogs and more. Google Scholar provides more specific research compared to Google Search which will give a list of search results with mixture either specific research or not. I still think Google Search is better than Google Scholar. I am also more comfortable in using Google Search.


Reflection 2:
How do you feel about participation in discussion forum? Is it helpful for you research? Do you feel anxious about talking to others you do not know?

I think joining in discussion forums can be quite fun. Besides that I can also learn new facts from people about the topic I am reading but I must make sure it is the correct information. It is also my first time reading forums. Normally when I search for something and the search engine gives me links on forums. I will read a little and just close the window, thinking that it might not be useful to my research. I realized that discussing in forums allow me to expand my way of thinking. Some things I might not think before, but people do think about it. I can learn from it. I feel quite scary to discuss in forums. I am afraid I might comment on the wrong things or produce wrong information. Discussing in forums make me think twice before writing comments down and also will be more careful with my language as I will be talking to strangers and they will read what I had posted.


Reflection 3:
Why must you do citation and bibliography?

It is to prevent plagiarism. It is to acknowledge the source of information. It is not good to copy and paste what others had written. It is like a form of cheating because it is like stealing people's ideas and put it as yours. For example, sometimes people might have thought about how to write it for very long, and then one claims that it is their own. It will be unfair to the original author. I think citations and bibliography is important. It is serious if one gets caught for plagiarism. Citations and bibliography is also useful and helpful to me. If I happen to read someone's article and I find a phrase or paragraph that helps in my research, having it at the bottom of the page will allow me to copy and paste the link easily. I am able to get the full facts about the research topic quickly and easily which helps to save time.


ok.One blog reflection down.Shall continue blogging :)

Labels: Practical 3

posted by Kai'en @ 10:21 PM