In Class Blog 9/26

Reflecting on what I have found so far on my research question is not too easy. It is hard to find research on my specific question. I still need to find more about how art can affect people or how art tends to affect people throughout the world. I certainly had to rethink my question making it broader and less opinionated since the last time I posted about it. Before it was a general question that was kind of hard to do research on not opinions and now I think I have steered it in the way of a research question the best I could.

What do I think of the suggestions for getting out of the filter bubble? Am I going to try any of them?

First off let me start by saying Eli Pariser did a marvelous job with his presentation about “filter bubbles”. After reading the 10 Ways to Pop Your Filter Bubble, I think they would be very useful when trying to find searches with the best results. Things like burning my cookies and clearing my web history are good tools in popping the filter bubbles. And ironically I usually do these things when I use my laptop it seems to make things run smoother, and I had no clue before today that doing this was making my searches more direct and more general. Other suggestions like making my Facebook private, hiding my birthday, turning off targeted ads, and going into site as ‘anonymous’ are other suggestions that the site gave that I never really did before. I can see what it means by staying anonymous on sites to make searches more broad but I do not quite agree with the other suggestions like hiding my birthday, and making my profile private on Facebook. I don’t see how that would affect my searches but that is what it says to do so it is probably best. But being that I already clear my web history and burn my cookies when surfing the web those are suggestions I already do. But as for the other ones maybe turning off targeted ads and going into sites as anonymous is something that I may try in the future. I am not so sure on making my Facebook, and birthday private just yet!

Citation

The book I chose for the homework is The Queer Encyclopedia of the Visual Arts. Heres goes the citation:
Summers, C.J. (2004). The Queer Encyclopedia of the Visual Arts. California: Cleis Press Inc.

1. This book is an encyclopedia of different kinds of art from artists and cultures all over the world.

2. It is a reliable source because I looked up the editor and what I found was good information and she is an American literary scholar. Also I believe that this book is a credible source because it is based on facts.

3. How can I use this book to answer my research question? I can use it to explore the different kinds of art throughout the world and how it affect each culture, and the importance of art in different cultures.

In Class Blog 9/19

How can you apply the skills you have learned so far in this class to work in other classes?

Applying the skills which I have learned so far in this class for other classes will be necessary for me. This semester I have already had to do research about stereotypes for my public speaking class and I used what I have learned about GALILEO to do that research. Also for my psychology class I’ll have to do research later on in the semester. Then I will probably use what I have learned in the library ethnography assignment on how to find different books because this assignment requires research from hard copy books and not online.

            Last year I wish I would have known the things I did now when I had to do research papers for English. But I am planning to take another English course next semester so I will definitely be using the skills that this class has taught me. This will make my research papers less stressful because now I know different effective ways to research and to find credible sources that can be used in my paper. Also I will not have trouble citing the information that I find, which was a problem I had in my previous English class. These are just a few of the ways that I plan to use the skills I have learned in this class for other classes this semester and in the future.

Ingram Library VS Public or High School

Using the catalogs from the Ingram Library and the ones in the public library and high school is a really different experience. Even though I have not been to a public library since I was a little kid. I would think it would be different and High School is different because I know that in high school I never really did catalog searches it was only google. And google never is completely direct with the topic you are looking for you get thousands of results. But with the Ingram catalog you get a few results that go hand in hand with the topic you are looking for. That is a big difference that I think makes the library catalog better, but with that being said I think the library catalog is not user friendly. Meaning it is not so easy to pick up and use unless you have been taught or shown how to use it. This is one of the reasons why I believe most people dont bother using it. But overall the library catalog brings less results but that is better when trying to narrow down a topic.

Two Books On My Topic

The two books I found during my search were; Aesthetics in transportation: guidelines for incorporating design, art and architecture by Lajos Héder and Creative America: Arts & the pursuit of happiness by National Endowment for the Arts. There both relate to my topic of art, but the one I would pick to go forward and do my paper on is Creative America because I believe art plays a big in everybody's life whether they know it or not. It relates to my topic because it talks about America a place of many different lifestyles that all can come together through art.

Interview on Research papers

For my assignment I interviewed James, he is an upperclassmen here at UWG majoring in biology. He told me that he has had to do numerous research papers in his college career. He also told me that professors don't really care about how much information you have but they care more about how it relates to your topic and that you cite it correctly. Later he stated that the most important thing when doing a research paper is citing where you get your information from, because if you do not cite it can be looked at by the teacher as made up material. His most recent research paper was on the body which ironic relates to his major. He told me that it took him almost about a month just to research and do the outline. After that the paper was very easy to write and get done. I personally have had to do a research paper since I have been attending UWG and I haven't taking that much time to do the research. So next time I will take into consideration James' experience and hopefully that will make my paper even better.

Library Ethnography Assignment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J0KVGNOZ5I&feature=youtu.be

September 5th. How to Refine Research Question

BASED ON MY PRESEARCH AND THE CLICKER ACTIVITY WE DID TODAY REFINING MY RESEARCH QUESTION WILL BE EASIER FOR ME. THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO REFINE OUR TOPIC. ONE WILL BE TO BE MORE SPECIFIC ON WHAT MY QUESTION IS TRYING TO ASK. ALSO BY FOCUSING ON MY MAIN POINTS ON WHAT I WANT TO KNOW MOST ABOUT MY QUESTION. THAT WAY I WILL  BE ABLE TO FIND THE MOST USEFUL INFORMATION THAT IS NEEDED TO DO THE RESEARCH OVER MY PARTICULAR TOPIC.