CMC – Strand 3: Units 1 and 2

Hey guys, sorry I'm a little late on the blog entry but this weeks units are about searching and researching on the internet and online collaboration. 


The focus Unit 1:Searching and Researching on the Internet is to teach students about how to use the internet to do research. One main point of Unit 1 was why do people seek online information? They then gave a list of five reasons that explain what people use the internet to search for.

• To get an overview of a subject they know nothing about.
• To find factual information
• Keep up to the minute on news
• Balance different points of view from different sources
• Test a hypothesis or theory

Were living in the information age, and the internet has revolutionized our lives by making more information to more people than ever before. Although we have all of this information available to us though not all of the information is worth something. The book gives a short list of sources that are recommended for research. 

• Mailing Lists
• Newsgroups
• Online News Sources
• Electronic Journals, Books, and Reports
• Reports by major international, government, and professional organizations
• Commercial Internet Research Sites

When doing research keep in mind that there are political decisions behind what is shown and not shown on internet sites so make sure to see both sides of the political spectrum when researching a topic. As well as looking for political bias you must make sure that the information being collected is current and up to date.

There are three different types of search engines that are being used as well. Which one you use could affect the results that you get from your search. 

The three different types include:

• Subject Directories-organize online material into categories (Yahoo!).
• Keyword based search engines, which include sites like google and excite.
• Meta-search Engines run searches by searching other search engines and combining results (Dogpile).

During Unit 2 of Strand 3 the book discusses online collaboration. In all different focus areas such as health, education, law, and politics, you can be sure that there is online collaboration being used as an easy way to communicate. Anyone entering a career today should be able to communicate online and collaborate with co-workers because many times the people you work with you may never meet in face to face conversation.

The book goes over a online collaboration exercise that allows students to collaborate online with people they already know offline. One big point that the book mentions is that when online with people you do not know you must establish your identity and let others know who you are, and your intentions.