In Module 6: “Searching and Researching”, we learned about ways to effectively search. The Internet has many websites and even more articles and sources and it’s difficult to filter down sources and distinguish which are reliable and which aren’t. I learned many new tips this week that I generally don’t consider when I’m searching and researching. A few tips that I will take with me in the future are to check the source’s reliability, utility, and quality. When I research, I try to use Google Scholar as much as I can because I know that it is reliable and has quality sources for me to pick and choose from. The search engine allows me to find credible sources when writing research papers and I currently do use this for my labs in my other classes.
Some ideas from this module that I will be putting into practice are using resources at my fingertips such as OSU University Libraries which have an array of credible resources. I will also be limiting my use of Wikipedia. For me, Wikipedia has always been the easy way out as everything that I need is on there. There are however many risks to using Wikipedia and the article “7 Things You Should Know about Wikipedia” does a great job in educating us on the benefits and drawbacks of the website. I will continue using citation machines such as EasyBib as I find them very helpful when keeping track of sources. Overall, there are so many resources at our fingertips that we do not know of, some being more credible than others but we need to dive deeper into the Internet and take advantage of the opportunities we have.
Sources:
https://osu.instructure.com/courses/91568/pages/lesson-module-6?module_item_id=4997666
https://library.educause.edu/~/media/files/library/2007/6/eli7026-pdf.pdf