Week 5

Week 5 Blog

For this assignment I read everything carefully before beginning the assignments. This is the first week that I’ve had to get assignments done early; I had obligations early in the week so I did the work as soon as possible to post early. One of my flaws is to overlook a detail, as Phil pointed out about my posting on Annotation Analysis. Classmates’ postings have been extremely helpful to me, helping me recheck my work for something I may have misunderstood or overlooked in the instructions. Reading their postings has provided a counterpoint for me to review and fine-tune errors what I’ve done.

Each lesson broadens my technology interactive skills and improves my comfort level with technology. In the Annotation Analysis assignment, I initially did not think I could do the colorful highlights with my computer, and did not attempt it. After seeing what others had done, I felt “left out” and wanted to see if indeed I could master that. So I tried, and yes, I did it!! What a sense of accomplishment.

In doing the Citing and Annotating assignment, I discovered sources that are just perfect for the Pathfinder using the keyword “electromagnetic fields.” It was very distracting to find such great stuff. I think I’m simply better at searching now that I’ve done it a few times. It’s very encouraging to be able to use the resources just as directed, and I’ve begun a list to look up in ProQuest.

In addition to the practice of annotating and citing, one of the accomplishments was using Britannica Online, which I accessed through the SCC Library website. I was unable to find it for the earlier assignment to access an online encyclopedia, but found it so easily with this assignment. Again, what a sense of accomplishment to be able do use the resources.

The encyclopedia article is so well done, the science is so clearly elucidated it gave me with gained perspective on my own perspective: how I’ve been influenced by one sided information and not known how to obtain alternatives to balance out what may otherwise be considered a bias titled “The Sky is Falling.”

There are two books that I considered for the Citing an Annotating assignment, and they appear to be very similar. I did search for them on Amazon.com as well as in the library. Amazon had interesting reviews posted of each book. There is so much overlap in both of them, but the one I chose for the assignment is more of a textbook than a “general readership” kind of book.

Anecdotally, one of the authoritative sources I discovered is a business my brother worked for in 1986. It was one of his first jobs. He was night security. He said they usually did nothing but read books. One night, at some odd hour between 1 and 4 am, he received an emergency phone call. The call was one of the first to the US about the Chernobyl disaster