Looking through my magnifying glass...

Hello all,

last week we talked about source evaluation and we came up with a lot of criteria through which analyse the reliability of a piece of writing.

A few days ago I found an interesting article on PLEs (personal learning environment) and I want to evaluate it through some of the criteria Sarah gave us in handout1.

Here it is what I've found:

1.Who's the researcher? Graham Attwell, director of the Wales based research organisation, Pontydysgu. The paper was also published in a website's page of the University of La Rioja (Spain).
2.What's the goal of the research? The paper explores the ideas behind PLEs and why PLEs might be useful and crucial to learning in the future. The paper also considers the technologies (i.e. blogs and wikis) that can be used in PLEs and the aggregation of different devices. At the end, the paper provides examples of practices on how PLEs can come in useful in the future.
3.Where and when was the research carried out? E-Laearning Paper published in 2007, edited by P.A.U. Education S.L., Barcelona - Spain.
4.What kind of study/data collected? The data are qualitative and the paper is provided with examples/case studies.
5.Was it large or small scale? I would say quite large, since the subjects taken into account are various: PLEs, technology, blogs/wikis, net generation. Moreover, the subject is considered to be in continuous evolution.
6.Was it short or long term? I think short term, in the sense that the author considers PLEs in the present moment in which he's writing, but he specifies that the subject is undoubtedly going to develop in the future.
7.What conclusions were drawn? The conclusions are easy to understand; they are based on the evidence presented in the paper.

Ok...Hope you find it interesting!

Bye
Giorgia
(photo source)

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover!

We were asked in class to write down a list of questions we usually ask ourselves when judging the content of any source (i.e. website, book, blog).
Thinking about my third-year thesis and all the academic papers I prepared during my university path, it came up that I focused especially on authors’ credentials and content reliability:

- who’s the author? Is s/he well-known? Is s/he considered authoritative in his/her field of study?
- Is it the content reliable? Does any other website/book/blog report the same information about this topic (CROSS-REFERENCING)?

I think I use these questions especially when taking information from the Internet, rather than from a book: I’m used to thinking that if something has been published it should be authoritative.

However, I discovered in class that my questions are only a little part of the numerous ones I have to ask myself when using any kind of source. I just want to point out here some of the criteria that I never thought about ‘till now:

- when was the information provided? (i.e. think about stats and surveys; it is important to know if the data are still valid at the time you’re using them);
- why was the information provided? (i.e. think about the intended audience, purposes, perspectives).

I found that the tips on sources’ evaluation from San Diego University are very useful. The website gives a clear and detailed list of questions. It takes time to analyse a source through all those criteria, but in the end it is worth it, you will feel more secure and confident on what you write using that analysed source…And if there would be any mistake you can blame the source, not you!!! :)

Talk to you soon!
Giorgia