¶ … career when you first started taking classes? Now that you have performed research and written your professional plan, how have your thoughts changed?
Prior to taking COMM 150, what did you think would have been appropriate sources or research strategies? Have your thought changed? How did this influence your evaluation of the sources you have used in other research papers?
I, actually, was quite vague about the term Information Literacy and Research (ILR) and did not consider myself needing the instruction. Until now, I had thought that if I would need certain information, I would simply type it into the browser (if using the Internet) or withdraw some book from the library. I think I was also not particularly discriminatory in my sources. The author who had a PhD following his name was preferable to me, but otherwise I followed that which appealed to me and, as I later discovered, most often accepted the information that conformed to my cultural beliefs and personal opinions. Information that I found uncomfortable or contradictory to personal beliefs, I invariably discounted.
I, therefore, found the course invaluable in that I was indirectly...
Although these may not be the basics of ILR, I found the discussion and content of the classes to center around these principles. The lectures taught me not only how to conduct online research but also how to criticize the content of material and author in an off-line context too. For instance, I now read the jacket blur of the book and evaluate the author's resume in order to assess whether and, in which way, he may be biased and in which way the author's writing reflects that bias.
I also discovered that not all information can be trusted. I certainly knew this before, but the course had me distrust even information that I trusted beforehand showing me the difference between credible and non-credible sources as well as between credible and error-filled information. I found that some information can be authoritative, current, and reliable, but that other data is biased, out of date, misleading, and false. And that it is important to know the difference particularly since the quantity of information both on- and off-line is increasing at an exponential speed.
I am also more clear about the…
