Reflecting on the Information Research Process

Reflecting on my Information Search Process

Reflection on Information Search Process: I believe I had all the feelings and more of what Dr. Carol Kuhlthau says we should have experienced during our Information Search Process.

Initiation stage: To begin with I was very unsure and uncertain about what I was supposed to do with the assignment. I didn’t understand it at all.  I felt “apprehensive and uncertain about what is expected of them, depressed and bogged down and overwhelmed by all that was expected of me.

Selection stage: As I chose my general topics of Inquiry based learning, Information Literacy and Guided Inquiry I began to have more of a focus and direction of where I was headed.   However I was still feeling rather apprehensive and over loaded with everything that I had to do.

Exploration stage: As I searched the many different databases and documents and books I had various feelings ranging from confusion to excitement and optimism. It depended on what I was finding and if I could find relevant information. As I found the information about my topics I became focussed and had confidence. However, when I searched for a topic and didn’t find anything I would be confused and lack in confidence.  By then end of this stage I was feeling rather perplexed with all the information I had gathered and overwhelmed.

Formulation and Collection stages:  Once I had gathered all of my information it was time to put it all together and make sense of it all.  Although I became less overwhelmed with what I had to do, I still had feelings of confusion and unsureness as I was not 100% sure if was doing the right thing or not. 

Presentation Stage: I am happy with how I have progressed during all of the stages of the Information Searching Process. However, I am feeling rather anxious about the whole formulation of the Context. Have I done this right? Is this what Mandy is looking for?  Will I pass?

Assessment Stage: I have handed it in now. I am happy with the outcome of my context. One of the problems I faced was cutting down my words as I was 500 words over the word limit and I am still a little over.  I had some trouble finding topic sentences and then backing them up with information. I found I had adequate information to write my context and had use a variety of different sources when looking for the information.

Questionnare 3

Questionnare 3

1. Take some time to think about your topic. Now write down what you know about it.

 There is so much still till learn about Information Litearcy, Guided Inquiry and Inquiry based learning but I believe I am getting my head finally around what all these terms mean and how to incorporate them into teaching.  I have realised that hands on, active learning and questioning - inquiry based learning are essential parts of teaching and the importance of these in all parts of school. I have also realised that there are many models of inquiry based learning and information litearcy models out there not just the Big 6 model that could benefit teaching and the impact of learning. Also Google is not the be all and end all in searching. There are many different databases out there for all students to search. I believe teachers need to realise this to encouarge their students to search in other places rather than Google.

2. How interested are you in this topic?  Check (ü)  one box that best matches your interest.

 a great deal

3. How much do you know about this topic?  Check (ü)  one box that best matches how much you know.

a great deal

4. Thinking back on your research project, what did you find easiest to do? Please list as many things as you like.

•  Using the most familiar database which happend to be Google for all my researching.
• Finding reliable articles, sources to use in my assignment.
• Once I understood how to use other databases I found it was easier to find things that I was looking for and gave me more options and a bigger variety of sources.
• Ask for help.

5. Thinking back on your research project, what did you find most difficult to do? Please list as many things as you like.

• I found it difficult to use some of the databases as they didn't one in particulart didn't turn up anthing that was useful.
• Know how to set my assignment up and what i was going to write in it.
• I found the blog rather difficult as I had never written a blog and find it difficult to reflect on things as well as I was not sure about what to write about how i researched the different databases for information.

6. What did you learn in doing this research project? Please list as many things as you like.



SLIM toolkit

So I had finished my context and I was the first one up on Blackboard with it yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

I was happy and grateful I had finished I was relieved that I had finished. What was I to do now? The next thing to do was to explore about the SLIM toolkit and find out what I was supposed to do next. I had handed out Questionnaire one and two to my two classes now what to do with the information gathered. First I decided to look up what this SLIM questionnaire are. I found two fantastic websites. One had a PDF of explaining what the SLIM toolkit was. It gives examples of what SLIM does, how to implement it and when to give the Questionnaires out. It gives overviews of each question, what you could ask students and what they should be writing and how to interpret the data.  It also links the SLIM into the Information Process and gives explanations of each of the different stages of the ILP. I did however, have some regret. I should have looked and viewed this SLIM toolkit before I had given out the Questionnaires as it would have helped me better understand what I was to look for and explains the questions.