Using Technology for Academic Research
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This document provides guidance on evaluating electronic information sources for research. It discusses formulating a research question and where to find answers, such as books, academic journals, newspapers, magazines and the internet. It outlines criteria for evaluating sources, such as checking the author and publisher, assessing the purpose and reliability of the information. It also discusses using search techniques like Boolean operators and quotation marks to refine searches. Domain name extensions like .edu and .gov are explained to determine the type of website. Steps of the research process, including developing search strategies and assessing source quality, are also outlined.
Using Technology for Academic Research
- 1. A Primer on Finding, Evaluating, and Utilizing Electronic Information
- 2. Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to: ◦ Use technology and information resources to BETTER research issues related to an essay topic
- 3. Technology has changed things Research process ◦ Formulate a research question ◦ Where to go for answers
- 4. Background check ◦ Author ◦ Publisher Purpose of writing ◦ Balanced approach or shock value How current is information? ◦ Theories are always changing Reputation ◦ Validation
- 5. Books ◦ Library Academic journals ◦ Well researched Newspapers ◦ Point-in-time Magazines ◦ Various topics Internet ◦ Check reliability
- 7. • Author or contact person - usually located at the bottom of the page • Institution - usually a logo or link located in either header or footer • Date of creation or revision - usually at the bottom of the page • Intended audience - determined by examining the content • Purpose of the information - determined by examining the content
- 8. org :An advocacy web site, such as a not-for-profit organization. .com : A business or commercial site. .net:A site from a network organization or an Internet service provider.; .edu :A site affiliated with a higher education institution. .gov: A federal government site. .il.us :A state government site, this may also include public schools and community colleges. .uk (United Kingdom) : A site originating in another country (as indicated by the 2 letter code).
- 11. •Identify your information need: What is your research question? What is the scope of your assignment?Identify •Recognize the differences between information sources in terms of scope, accuracy, and authority. What resource or types of resources will help you meet your information needs? Recognize •Develop a search strategy to fulfill your information need. Which techniques, terms, and topologies will help you discover the best resources? Develop •Utilize resources effectively, ethically and legally. How do you use the resources available to you? How do you give proper credit to the sources you cite? Utilize •Assess the value, quality, and integrity of information. Can you tell if the source is trustworthy, well-supported, and current?Assess •Incorporate new information into an existing knowledge or value base. How does the source contribute to your understanding of a topic or field? How might it influence further research? Incorporate
- 28. OneNote will take and organize screen shots of almost anything!
- 29. Use the above command to take “screen shots”
- 30. If this program is “active” on your PC it can be opened here.
- 33. OneNote automatically runs OCR on any inserted images. How cool is that!
- 37. AND will retrieve results in which both items are present. Example: elephants AND lions OR will retrieve results in which at least one of the search terms is present. Very useful for synonyms or related words. Example: elephants OR lions chain big box NOT excludes results that contain the second term. Example: elephants NOT lions religion Roman
- 38. NEAR retrieves documents with the search terms appearing within a specified number of words of each other. The exact number of words will vary from one database or search engine to another; in some, you can specify the proximity by a certain number of words.
- 40. Quotation marks tell a database to look for an exact phrase, rather than separate words. Example: A search for the words „public‟ and „policy‟ will retrieve any article that contains those two words, even if „public‟ is on the first page, and „policy‟ is on page 18. Searching for “public policy” will return only articles that use that exact phrase. These basic search strategies can be used in library catalogs and databases and also search engines such as Google
- 55. Searching online databases Selecting resources Using the library and learning resource center