A5.3: Week 5 Reflection

Aims and Objectives:

My goals for this week were:

• To continue my research and improve upon my research strategies.  I am learning more and more about being a successful researcher.  I am hoping to refine and improve my skills each week.
• To learn more about APA citation.  I think that citing sources is one of the most difficult things to do.  One thing I do not understand is why most high school teachers teach MLA format and not APA.  Learning APA is an ongoing process and I learn more with every assignment.
• To learn how to create an annotated webliography.  I never have heard of this term until I received my assignments.  I had to do some research to find out more about it.

 Declarative Knowledge:

This week I learned more about customizing my weblog.  I learned to add hyperlinks and pictures.  I learned about copyright and fair use (which is not clear cut).  Copyright is a very in depth subject.  I know more about searching and how to successfully search different databases.  A lot of the databases will tell you what you should or should not include in your keywords which is great.  I now know what an annotated webliography is and I even created my own.

Procedural Knowledge:

To begin this weeks assignments I accessed the class weblog and linked to the required readings.  I then went to the Marshall Library page and clicked on databases.  Once the page loaded, I clicked on the database I wanted to search within.  I then typed in the keywords and selected limiters when possible.  When I found the articles that I wanted to use for my project I clicked the e-mail button and e-mailed the articles to my account.  Once I had found the articles I planned to use I followed the format outlined in class instructions and typed out the bibliographies according to the APA Manual.  I then e-mailed the assignment to the class.  After this assignment was completed, I went to the class webpage and looked at the instructions for the annotated webliography and the edublogs resource manual.  When I understood how to do the assignment I made a list of my favorite websites.  I then categorized them into the categories outlined in the assignment.  When I wanted to type a hyperlink I would select the word or words that I wanted to be clicked on and then select the linked  chain and fill out the designated information.   When I had completed this assignment I e-mailed the class the link to my page by copying the link and pasting it into the text box.

Conditional Knowledge:

Learning about Copyright will help me build my webpage properly and not break the law when using pictures or information from other websites  or sources.  Learning more about APA will help me throughout my college career and even when I get a job.  It will allow me to successful cite sources that I have used when writing a paper.  Being able to search the library databases helps me be a better researcher and a successful student.

Questions: 

In your opinion, should it be required for high school teachers to teach both APA and MLA format?