Web Pedagogies February 25, 2009 On- Line Research

What’s the Relationship b/w your Website and the Literature or Theory Behind it? Example by analogy to architecture

What is a ? Would you build a new one today like these?

Building: Theoretical Underpinnings Confronting forces of modernization Commercialization of libraries Unprecedented growth of technology Changing social demands “Overstimulated world…drenched in imagery” Contextual setting of library Seattle as global city: library must deliver 1st architectural expression Situated in specific place Rem Koolhaas’ Seattle Public Library (2003)

Building: Tools Used Affordances of materials used Experiences of views and daylight Placement of different departments Rem Koolhaas’ Seattle Public Library

Website: what underlies it? Obviously, you can use the library -- check out a book, buy a mug or take a class -- w/o knowing the theoretical or construction issues behind it. Same with the users of your website. But, Koolhaas couldn’t have designed it with out thinking through those issues and making particular choices about how to address them. The same is true for you as the architect of your website. We are asking you to ‘document’ the issues and choices you grapple with and to ‘engage’ with the community of people thinking about the same sort of things via the literature. Rem Koolhaas’ Seattle Public Library

On-line Research

Literature Review and Research Literature review is a narrative and analytical synthesis of the ‘conversation’ among the scholarly and practitioner community dealing with the issues in your project. Research is for investigating and refining the issues and helping you make appropriate choices and set your scope. Focus on research for –Understanding issues related to audience (community) –Big picture issues related to topic and site content –Pedagogical approach (TfU lectures and labs)

Need some help with literature reviews? Here are some places on the web you can go to get help on lit reviews; there are many more out there: lhttp://library.ucsc.edu/ref/howto/literaturereview.htm l _review.htmlhttp:// _review.html

Researching your topic Goals of research –Get ideas for your topic: what are the issues you need to think through? –Don’t reinvent the wheel –Understand where your topic fits in the field –Learn the different perspectives or controversies in the field –Become sufficiently expert in the topic that you can make appropriate choices about what to present to the audience of your website –Be a resource for your audience by knowing where to send them for more information

Internet Research: Affordances Contrast with: And:

Internet Research: Quality Control CARS checklist –Credibility –Accuracy –Reasonableness –Support

Internet Research: Citations Harvard’s policy – Citing internet sources – aq4http:// aq4

Internet Research: Becoming a deeper contributor or participant in the conversation Begin to get to know the scholarly literature in your area How is this different from other examples: prod1.hul.harvard.edu/content/k44t35003r3807rv/ prod1.hul.harvard.edu/content/k44t35003r3807rv/ How might this be incorporated into a literature review? “Cognitive therapy has been associated with greater remission of depressive symptoms in unipolar patients than pharmacotherapy” (Rush et al., 2005)

Online Searches Strategies –Good, general search engines Set your preference in Google Scholar to include Harvard’s library Academic search premier in hollis: –Examples: from class

Online Searches Strategies –Using those engines, you can try to find items at the library or on line –Some journals still exist only in paper form (though that’s increasingly rare) –Some have a moving wall in JSTOR Review of Educational Research

Online Searches Strategies –Find a journal that seems on target and go through several years worth (this does not mean reading every article – it means skimming the titles of the articles and looking at the ones that sound relevant) –What are the fields JSTOR holds? Go to JSTOR, then to advanced search, and expand under the field you want (i.e. education or history)