The most useful criteria to evaluate sources of information

There are a huge number of criteria to evaluate sources of information, be they online or not.

I think the most exaustive suggestions about judging the information we come across is those from San Diego State University. On this web site you can find whatever kind of information you want about how to search sources and where to look for answers. There is also a list of authors who provide a list of help evaluating web documents.

When I wrote my tesina for my first degree I used only books as sources. I searched for books that were the most recent, but with the advice of my teacher. As I didn't use many web sources for any other researchs or writings I'll surely feel a bit unsure when I'll have to use them, because I haven't enough experience about them.

Evaluating sources is an important skill we need all the time. We have to decide where to look, what clues to search for, and what to accept. We may be overwhelmed with too much information or too little. Learning how to evaluate effectively is a skill we need both for our course papers and our life. When writing research papers, we will also be evaluating sources as we search for information. We will need to make decisions about what to search for, where to look, and once we've found material on your topic, whether to use it in our paper.

I think that in the future to evaluate sorces of information I'll ask myself for instance "What kind of information am I looking for?", "Where would be a likely place to look?", "Which sources are likely to be most useful to you? Libraries? The Internet? Academic periodicals? Newspapers? Government records?".

For web sources the most relevant criteria to look at I think are those of the site of the University of San Diego, that I cited before:

• Who is responsible for publishing the information provided by the source? What are the credentials and affiliation or sponsorship of any named individuals or organizations? How objective, reliable, and authoritative are they? Is the author or contact person listed with addresses (street, e-mail)?
  
• What can be said about the content, context, style, structure, completeness and accuracy of the information provided by the source? Are any conclusions offered? If so, based on what evidence and supported by what primary and secondary documentation? What is implied by the content? Are diverse perspectives represented? Is the content relevant to your information needs?
  
• When was the information provided by the source published? Is the information provided by the source in its original form or has it been revised? Is this information timely and is it updated regularly?
  
• Where else can the information provided by the source be found? Is this information authentic? Is this information unique or has it been copied?
  
• Why was the information provided by the source published? What are the perspectives, opinions, assumptions and biases of whoever is responsible for this information? Is anything being sold? Who is the intended audience?

An initial evaluation of books and articles can be done by examining their bibliographic citations provided in library catalogs (such as the PAC) or periodical indexes and databases, containing brief author, publisher and date of publication information. Once I've found the book or article I need I'll look for additional information about the author or the publisher. If little or no biographical information is provided about the author(s), I can ask a reference librarian for Research Assistance.

I think the suggestions given from the University of San Diego are totally exaustive and interesting! I think I'll use them, as I have no idea of useful criteria to judge the information I come across on the web. With these advices you can find a limited number of information: the Internet is so crowed of information that often you don't need!!!

I Know that I cited almost criteria from the site of the University of San Diego, but I really don't know how to judge information I find on the web and I think they are the most useful!!!

I'm looking forward to see what are the criteria you use to judge sources of information!

Bye bye,

Letizia

YouTube

Hi Everybody!

This week we have explored the world of YouTube. Well, what can I say about it?

I must admit I don't like it very much. There are, surely, a lot of videos that can help us improve our english, listening to discussions of english native speakers. However there are other videos that in my opinion are so silly and not interesting. Exploring TeacherTube I saw there are a lot of videos about recipts, or explanations about how our body works: these can be interesting!!!

I said I don't like the world of YouTube because I don't like sitting in front of a computer for hour and hours to see videos, but if the videos are about english language learning they can be a wonderful tool to improve my english having fun! If like me you are not very good at cooking you should see this video about how to make a double layered chocolate pie!!!

On YouTube you can find whatever thing you want and its explanatory video: this is a useful thing! However, I think this tool can be shared only by young people, who want have fun watching some videos, sometimes also very offensive videos, but I don't think that a middle-aged person or an old person visites you tube to watch videos. YouTube permit you to learn a lot of things but doesn't give you the opportunity to speak in front of other people and have a real conversation!!!

YouTube can't be considered a tool on which you can put whatever you want. Some months ago I saw on tv that some students of an high school put on YouTube a video in which they teased and maltreated a subnormal mate of them: I think videos like this are to be forbidden!!!

Finally, I can say on YouTube there are some useful videos that permit us to improve our english; it depends on us to watch them and use their teaching with intelligence.

What do you think about YouTube? I'm looking forward to see your reflections!

Bye bye!

Letizia

Podcasts

A podcast is an audio file that you download from the Internet. After you download it, you can listen to it on your computer or on an MP3/portable music player (for example, an iPod or iRiver). You can subscribe to a podcast so that it is delivered to you automatically each day, just like a newspaper.

I think podcasts are very useful to learn speaking english very well and to hear how the proper pronunciation of an english native speaker is.

Searching around the web, on Google, del.icio.us and odeo I found some interesting podcasts which I think are very useful to learn and improve my spoken and written english.

1. English One Podcast contains activities and advice for English language learners. You will discuss the use of certain words and their meanings and you will also learn how to solve common problems of learners of english. There are dicussions about very different topics.
2. English Pod contains podcasts through which you will learn how to “small talk” or the basic conversations to build relationships with people.There are podcasts which cover common phrases people use when they are making presentations, especially one with a visual aid – a chart, PowerPoint slides or handouts. You will hear new business vocabulary, but also language to invite someone out informally. You can learn how to speak english diplomatically.
3. Listen to English - Learn English is a podcast website for people learning english. The podcasts on this site will help you to improve your English vocabulary and pronunciation and your listening skills. There are two short (3 to 5 minutes) podcasts every week, in clearly spoken English. Many of them are linked to grammar and vocabulary notes, or to exercises or quizzes.
4. English as a Second Language Podcast contain podcasts about very different topics, for example daily life, business, english cafè, shopping, relationships, dining, entertainment. So you can learn how to speak english very well in different situations.
5. BBC Learning English is a very useful site with podcasts about very different topics: daily problems, business english, how to get a job, working abroad, etc. This site is also well organized for who want to learn english having fun. You can listen to the music, watch telefilms, do quizzes and grammar exercises. You can check the words you don't know in an online vocabulary. BBC Learning English has two blogs. One blog is updated by a student and the other blog by an English language teacher. Each month a new student will blog on the site giving daily updates about their life and their interests. The teacher blog will give the student advice on what they write and suggestions for improving their writing. And you will be able to ask questions of both bloggers and write about their blogs.

Well, finally I can say that the world of podcasts is so crowded and full of new relationships and experiences. It dipends on us using it well and listen to the podcasts to improve our english! Let's expierence it!!!

I hope you'll appreciate my podcasts! I'm looking forward to see what you found in the world of podcasts!

Bye bye!

Letizia

Social Bookmarking

As Wikipedia said "Social bookmarking is a way for Internet users to store, organize, share and search bookmarks of web pages. In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, but depending on the service's features, may be saved privately, shared only with specific people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, via a search engine, or even randomly.
Most social bookmark services encourage users to organize their bookmarks with informal tags instead of the traditional browser-based system of folders, although some services feature categories/folders or a combination of folders and tags. They also enable viewing bookmarks associated with a chosen tag, and include information about the number of users who have bookmarked them. Some social bookmarking services also draw inferences from the relationship of tags to create clusters of tags or bookmarks.
Many social bookmarking services provide web feeds for their lists of bookmarks, including lists organized by tags. This allows subscribers to become aware of new bookmarks as they are saved, shared, and tagged by other users.
As these services have matured and grown more popular, they have added extra features such as ratings and comments on bookmarks, the ability to import and export bookmarks from browsers, emailing of bookmarks, web annotation, and groups or other social network features".

I think Social Bookmarking is very useful because you can find and save on a page of your computer your favourite websites and see them whenever you want. We did it with del.icio.us.

As the e-tivity 5 concerned, I searched words that involve language learning or other subject matters I study. The websites I found contain a lot of funny exercises to improve my english and also to learn to teach english!

I found 5 very intersting websites/blogs:

- the first, "English Club", contains English lessons, games, quizzes, blogs, forums, chat, lesson plans, jobs and more for ESL learners & teachers. This site can help you to learn English or to teach English as a second language.

- the second site, "English as a second language Podcast", is about english as a second language podcast. A podcast is an audio file that you download from the Internet. After you download it, you can listen to it on your computer or on an MP3/portable music player (for example, an iPod or iRiver). This site has got also a blog, where people talk about daily matters, for example about tipping in a restaurant.

- the third is a BBC site for who want to learn english having fun. You can learn english listening to the music, watching telefilms, doing quizzes and grammar exercises. You can check the words you don't know in an online vocabulary.

- Mother Tongue Annoyances: How to lose the "ums and "ahs" from your speech is a site which provide an help to speak english in the best way. The best technique is trying to speak alone payling attention to the pronunciation, the rhythm and the modulation of your voice. It is all based on the study of your own speech.

- Speaking english as second language is about english pronunciation and speaking help including exercises, IPA help, lesson plans, conversation tips and strategies for ESL EFL classes and teachers. It's very useful for who want to learn and also to teach english.

Visiting the websites my classmates choose, I noticed very similar bookmarks to the mine, also because the topic we had to look for was the same, more or less.

From Elena's bookmarks I appreciated A dictionary of english phrasal verbs which is an online dictionary that provides the meaning of 2533 current English pharasal verbs. It is possible to search for them typing either the verb or the preposition we require. It is very useful when we are not sure about the right verb to use and its preposition.

From Giada I choose How to Use English Punctuation Correctly. I think punctuation is a weakness of many Italian students who study english. The website aims to clarify how to use punctuation marks properly when writing in English. The Website offers a series of tips about writing using a formal register as well.

The most interesting bookmark of Silvia is English Listening Language Lab Online-Learn English Naturally, a huge source of listening activities, this website provides plenty of talks and interviews. Slides, transcripts of the audio files and funny quizzes offer you a valid support in understanding the conversations.

From Zara's bookmarks I choose Common Errors in English, a website focusing on common mistakes among English native speakers. (And if native speakers make mistakes, imagine us who are learning english!!!!) I think this site is very useful to see which are the common errors in english and to try avoiding them!!!

Quotes of the Day-The Quotations Page is another nice websites Zara choose which contain quotes every day new. There is also a weblog section where people can discuss about meaning and worth of various quotes.

In the end I can say we have the possibility to learn english in thousand ways and with very different tools. With del.icio.us and our favourite bookmarks we can do it in the best way.

I'm looking forward to see your impressions of social bookmarking!

See you soon!

Bye bye!

Letizia

Should Halloween be imported to and celebrated in Italy?

I think some Italian people do not know what the festivity of Halloween really means. From the post of my peer Giada I have known that "the Romans had two festivals which were very similar to this Celtic celebration and that they melt with it when the Roman conquered the Celtic territories. When Christianity started to spread all over Europe all pagan festivities and symbols were erased or their names were eventually changed by Popes in order to turn them into Church-sanctioned holydays. In this way the Celtic/Roman festival of the dead became a day to honour saints and martyrs." So we can understand that the Roman and Celtic religion have a lot in common! (Thanks Giada for this important information! Since now I knew very little about Halloween!)

I think Halloween has become an "economy business", a commercial festivity: many Italian people do not know what it really means, they spend a lot of money buying gadgets, going to parties and disguising.

Italian children go to home to home to say "trick or treat" only because American and English children follow this tradition, but they do not know what the festivity of Halloween really is.

So, it is a good idea that Halloween is celebrated also in Italy, but Italian people should be more aware of its meaning.

Feeds and feed aggregators

Even if I don't like technology and what is part of it, I think that feed aggregators can help us not to waste time when we search things on the blog. The creation of a playlist of the blogs of the peers in our group is a way to be update about when they send a post on their personal blogs and what they write. Without searching and get crazy around the course blog, with bloglines and the playlist we have the possibility to see all the blogs and posts of our peers one next to the other at the same time and to compare them, reflecting on what they have said and commenting immediately on them. It's a wonderful thing, isn't it?

When Sarah told us to use feed aggregators I thought " What is this strange thing? Technology is so difficult and incomprehensible for me!!!", but after having managed to do it and created my personal feeds and playlist I was satisfied of my work and of the possibility not to waste time when I have to comment on my peer's posts.

Tell me what are your impressions about feed aggregators and the fantastic possibility not to waste time!