As I started
off this week with my classes, I got so excited at the various search engines I
got introduced to and some, I had never heard of! I learned that Google is a
more general search engine and that there were several academic search engines.
It ran through my mind that anyone who knew about the varieties of the search
engines would have exclaimed, “That’s obvious, it’s not new!” This triggered me
into recalling a discourse between two lecturers from one of the Ugandan universities
which went thus:
Peter: I envy
you Alex, because at my age, I still don’t know how to drive.
Alex: What? In
this 21st Century you don’t know how to drive!
Peter: Just
like I am amazed that in this very dot.com era, you don’t know how to operate a
computer.
Alex: I will
learn!
It was
obvious for Alex that by now, every grown-up and educated individual should know
how to drive yet, indeed, the obvious is not obvious!
The
discoveries of the various search engines this week, especially for academic disciplines
made me add to my knowledge of web-browsing. Moreover, I gained more search
techniques and criteria as advanced by Deborah Healey in her article, Technology Tip
of the Month; in which she states “You don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to
search more effectively.” I further got exposed to a comprehensive (and
addictive) list of various academic search engines and sites summarized in Phil
Bradley’s website. I liked the Academic Search Engine
powered by Microsoft. This particular site had options for an individual to
make: either a search by Author, Publication, Journal, Conferences or Key
words! Just like Phil Bradley’s website, I discovered that NoodleTools
was yet another site worth exploring!
My
discoveries and learning did not end at the exposure of the various search
engines! I learned how to write clear lesson objectives using the ABCD model.
An article on Writing
Objectives clearly gives an explanation on how to go about the ABCD model.
It further explains the acronym as: A = Audience, B= Behavior, C=Condition,
D=Degree
It was also
interesting to get re-exposed to Bloom’s Taxonomy presented under Classifying
Objectives.
Practicing
and sharing with my classmates the various objectives we had written in the
ABCD model provided grounds for critiquing of each other’s work which helped me
improve on my skills in this area. Particularly, my classmate Mouna was keen
enough to suggest an alternative to the objective I had stated!
This week also
saw us get introduced into a project step – describing our learners and the
class setting – in preparation for a project that we’ll have to submit in
towards the end of the course.
The journey
continues…..
Daniel
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