The Homebody Traveler

S671 Facilities Design Slideshow

2010-12-12T20:59:00.000-05:00

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S401 Bloglines

2010-03-07T11:26:00.000-05:00

I wanted to write on an interesting feed I had from The New York Times-books RSS feed. The articles was called "Library Science," and talked about Marilyn Johnson's new book This Book is Overdue which explored different aspects of being a librarian by looking at all differt types of various unexpected librarians. I think this was a great article to read as a future librarian because it reminds me that I don't have to think of my future as only sitting behind a desk or reshelving books. There a thousand different options out there right now, and I can invent any way to use my skills that I can image. I'm really glad that Bloglines led me to this article, and I hope that other people who read it, who are not librarians, have more appreciation for them. Johnson says that she thinks librarians are interesting becasue we make sure that the world's knowledge is preserved and continually resurrected and remembered. I had never thought of my job that way, but I see that she makes a very good point. No matter if I am looking through a card catalogue to help a patron and surfing the internet to try to find the answer to an very elusive question a partron is having trouble with, I am doing the exact same thing. Librarians are doing their best to give all people access to information and make sure that we save everything important so now in the future, everyone will be able to answer their questions and continue learning for their whole lives.

S401 Bloglines-News

2010-03-07T11:08:00.000-05:00

I absolutely hate watching the news, and I'm not a big fan of sitting down and reading a newspaper either. When I found I was able to access news stories on Blogline, I assumed that I would feel the same way, I would not really be interested in taking the time to sit there and scan through the news. However, I have to say that, while I'm not in love with it, reading the news via bloglines is a welcome change to the other two methods. It may be because I'm so used to using the internet, but I found it much more convenient to just scroll through the stories and quickly decide what I did or did not want to take the time to read. My two favorite RSS feed news sites that I found were BBC News and USA Today Books. The BBC news was nice for getting stories about things all over the world, which I must prefer to something like a local newspaper where the majority of the stories focus only on the town and the immediately surrounding areras. And even though I've always been a big fan of books, I didn't really expect to like the USA Today site; I had just never been interested in reading news stories about books-I wanted to read the book itself. However, I think I am a convert becasue I really found many of the articles interesting, especially the article about how there is predicted to be a surge in the books that are plays on classic tales, like the book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies did with Pride and Prejudice, which by the way, I wish they would leave classic tales alone. Nevertheless, I am happy to report that the news RSS feeds were a welcome addition to my online time.

S401 Bloglines

2010-03-07T10:57:00.000-05:00

I have never used an RSS feed before, in fact I didn't know what it was until abou a week ago. However, using Bloglines as a way to get feeds from all different sources was fairly easy and a convenient way to organize information you're specifically interested in. I would say the hardest part is finding blogs that update regularly. None of the blogs I subscribed to did any postings this week, but I assume that I will see something from them soon. I have a few friends that blog, and their posts are usually pretty sporadic. I wasn't aware that there were so many different blogs by librarians actually about being a librarian. I think using Bloglines is a good way for new librarians to read the blogs of experienced librarians and get a glimpse into what the job is all about. I found that the main advantage of using Bloglines is that they are able to make a very specialized internet for you. It's kind of like if you were able to tell a newspaper what you wanted to read about (for me it would be about nature and animals), and then they send a newspaper to you all filled with stories on the things you're interested in. If more people knew about this site, I bet they would love being able to have information from all their favorite sites all collected for them and ready for them to explore when they have time-I know I do!

S574: Bibliography

2010-02-09T22:47:00.000-05:00

Here is a bibliography of the books I used:

Kellogg, Cynthia. Corn: What It Is, What It Does. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1989. Print.

Lewis, Alan. I Grew Up On A Farm. Warwick: Moo Press, Inc., 2005. Print

Marston, Hope Irvin. Machines on the Farm. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1982. Print.

Peterson, Cris. Fantastic Farm Machines. Honesdale: Boyds Mills Press, 2006. Print

Walpole, Brenda. Feeding the World. New York: Franklin Watts, 2000. Print.

S574: Personal Connection

2010-02-09T20:02:00.000-05:00

When I began my inquiry, I wanted to find things out about farming because I wanted to know more about my family's farming. I had passion but wasn't really sure about how the 8W model was going to work out. In the past I usually jumped right in to research and then compiled my answers in a format my teacher would approve of. However, since I had the opportunity to choose my project and the option to go back to the beginning as many times as I needed to, I enjoyed this inquiry a lot more. I am certainly glad that I learned how beneficial it was for me to think about my search before I began my search. Also, I liked the reflection part from Lamb's 8W model because it let me think about my project, good and bad, so I can hopefully improve my inquiry process next time. Aside from those two things, I think my process is pretty much the same; however, these two additions have had and will have a big impact on my inquiry process. Looking at the different models and comparing them to each other with classmates in trailblazers has taught me that no single model is the answer for inquiry. All have their strong points, and for every inquiry you make, design a new inquiry process that will work for you and for that inquiry.

S574: Technologies Used

2010-02-08T23:08:00.002-05:00

I used the following technologies throughout this process:

1. Concept Map--I used http://mywebspiration.com/ to make a chart of questions I wanted to answer in the wondering stage: my chart.

2. Web-based Tool--I went to http://www.4teachers.org/ for my wrapping and used the classroom layout plan took to make a layout I can use when I have my farming lesson class/activity night: my layout.

3. Pathfinder, Social Bookmarks, or Bibliography--I used delicious in my wiggling and weaving stages to bookmark the websites I found useful for my research: my sites.

4. Electronic Communication Tool--Also in my wiggling and weaving, I used email to communicate with a realtor to get answers about land value:

Question:

Tara,

I am doing a research project for one of my classes, and I am trying to figure out how much land in X County would cost. I am looking a big plots of land for farming, and was just wondering if you could give me a price quote on similar properties in this area.

Thank you for your help,

Shea

Reply:

Shea,
In 2009 there were 13 agricultural properties sold. The information is as follows:

17 acres/$338,000;
41 acres/$233,700;
10 acres/$100,999;
97 acres/$552,900;
50 acres/$285,000;
40 acres/$208,000;
36 acres/$169,000;
4.4 acres/$26,000;
72 acres/$374,400;
60 acres/$450,000;
20.7 acres/$162,645;
68.7 acres/$364,015; and
10 acres/$100,000

Average $/acre:
Min. $3844
High $9500
Average $6066

Hope this is the information you were looking for.

Tara

5. Productivity Tool--In the wrapping stage I made a power point that I could show to students and adults that gathered all of my findings together: my presentation.

S574: Wishing

2010-02-08T22:44:00.002-05:00

Since my project began as an interest I had in my family's history and questions I had in relation to the farming my grandpa did, I think it was a huge success. I felt like there was so much to know about farming that it would be really difficult to address it through research, but I found that by breaking it up into the three major sections of equipment, crop and land, I was able to research it effectively using the 8W inquiry model. I feel that one of this model's greatest strengths is that encourages inquiry issues to arise from personal issues rather than imposed assignments (Callison 54). Personally, I loved all of the freedom I had in choosing my project. I'm pretty sure I never would have been motivated enough to do all of this research on my own, so I am thrilled a class let me dedicate my time to it. Another strong point of the project was incorporating so many different forms of technology into the process (post to come later listing all of them used). It was neat to try out different websites to see what services they had to offer and evaluate what would be helpful to me. The biggest surprise was the classroom plan I got to create-at the beginning of this project, I would never had anticipated that I would be using that.

The biggest weakness of the project I think is that I didn't do any first-hand observations on farms, other than recalling what I've learned over the years from visiting my grandpas farm. Although I was able to talk to family and friend farmers, I did not go out to a farm, and I think that this would have given a whole new dimension to the project, not to mention give me another element of fun! If I did it again, or for future further investigation, I would definitely like to go out to farms at various points throughout the season to see everything first hand and take notes and ask the farmers questions that I can't think of without seeing everything myself. The biggest challenge I faced was when I began the research on the crops and land. I had been planning on just using the books from the library, but I soon realized that I needed to consult online resources to get the up to date information necessary.

My inquiry experience was very similar to that of children and young adults in that I began not knowing anything, I very much felt the pressures of Kuhlthau's ISP model where I felt apprehensive and uncertain (Callison 40). I think a lot of young researchers feel nervous about starting a big project. No matter how interested they are in their topic, they will nevertheless feel that their efforts may not be enough or that it might require a lot of work that they won't be able to do well. I also think that they will share my joy in the wrapping stage when they've finally completed the inquiry they have been working on for so long. I think a major difference is that whereas I felt really comfortable in using the library for my research, they will probably feel more at ease using the internet for their primary information source. Although I ended up using a lot of internet sources, I used them to fill in gaps my books couldn't answer, and I think the students would be exactly the opposite. They will probably get frustrated as they realize that inquiry isn't just a series of steps they follow; they have to keep going back and filling in the holes and reevaluating where they want to go with everything. I didn't get frustrated, but I can definitely understand students who feel this way. Another difference is that I also don't think most students take the time to reflect on their project; I know I never did. I think they finish the project, turn it and, and don't give it another thought. However, I think that if it's a personal inquiry just for their own knowledge, they may reflect on it internally, and not even realize they are completing this wishing step. I hope that as a librarian in an elementary school, I will be able to guide them through library resources so they feel comfortable enough so they can use the library and the internet with equal confidence and pull resources freely from both sources.

In using the 8W model, I have to determine if they completed the phases considering their age and the sophistication of the inquiry process (Callison 14). Watching and wondering would be hard to determine on the outside, they would really be evident though in the later stages. If the students hadn't been watching and wondering, their topics wouldn't be very well developed our very many options considered. The webbing and wiggling I could watch as students worked in class and as I check their notes they bring in over the course of the research period. They should be going back again and again to fill in their holes of the project, and that will also be evident in the final product. A well-rounded project will not have a bunch of gaps in information and everything will have been looked into, rather than looked over. The weaving stage I can see if they just took resources word for word and put them into a different format for the product, or if they used their minds to synthesize information and come to their own conclusions, using the research as the grounds for their answers, not the answers themselves. Wrapping and waving will create a polished final product for me and the intended audience to see. If the project effectively conveys the information to the audience and if the audience was able to understand and connect with the inquiry project, these stages will have been successful. The wishing stage would be hard to assess unless I have them write a journal entry about their experiences. However, writing this journal will help them become better researchers in the future, so I think it would be time well spent. And of course, I could follow the example of this class and have them keep a blog or journal throughout the whole process of their experience and progress through all the steps of the model (8W or any other model that fits our purposes).

It's great that I am able to take my findings beyond school: "Student accomplishments have an impact that extends into the real world. Students wrestle wtih situations and issues connecting their learning with larger public problems or with personal experiences" (Stripling 54). I am SO happy with the findings my project gave me. I feel a lot more connected to my family and much more knowledgeable about my surroundings, since they are mainly corn fields!

S574: Wrapping and Waving 2

2010-02-08T19:56:00.002-05:00

To finish my wrapping, I made a power point presentation to share with the students and any interested adults. I addressed the research questions I had at the beginning, and was a great way for me to organize and polish my thoughts. For the waving aspect of my project, I want to be able to communicate my ideas beyond myself to students and adults. I made the presentation simple enough in language and format that I could present it to elementary school kids and adults with little knowledge of farming (like me at the beginning of this process!) would be able to easily understand. I organized it by talking about the machines, then the crop, then the land. In the machine section I went through and listed all 8 of the needed machines with pictures to make the presentation more interesting for the people. Since my research was also in the three sections of equipment, crop and land, it was easy to get everything organized into those groups for the presentation. The main things I added were an introduction slide and conclusion slide to make everything coherent and flow well. I'm planning to use this presentation in the future when I work at an elementary school, so I can present it during school if a teacher wants to do a connecting unit or after school as just a fun activity/information night for everyone to come out and enjoy.

I hope that if farmers came to my presentation they would want to share more information with me, so I could learn more and more information--a good inquiry has lots of ends that can spark exploration! Just as Callison says that inquiry models seem linear but are actually a cycle (51), I think that inquiry seems like a big squiggle. You can really pick up anywhere and loop around until you find out what you wanted to know, then continue on along a similar strand or jet off along another course.

Anyway, here is my powerpoint on farming!

It feels so good to have my final product!

S574: Wrapping, a Bit of Waving, and Curriculum Connection

2010-02-07T17:22:00.003-05:00

I did this project because I am interested in my family's history with farming, and I wanted to know what it would take to get started farming. Thus, the first and foremost way to use the information I have found is as a plan for my future, or as a tidbit to be added to my family's working history. However, beyond using for my own fortification, I would love to share the information with kids and for that matter, any adults who would want to know what I have learned; however, I'll save that discussion for my post on waving.

For my own use, I would justs like to get a folder and keep the notes I've made, so that if I ever start a farm in the future, I can look at this research and build on it to update everything. I can use it do decide a lot of the big factors I'll have to consider when I'm looking a buying a property and preparing to farm it; my work covers everything from land to crops to equipment. For sharing with the kids, I hope I can use it to inspire them to consider farming for their futures, or at the very least appreciate those who have chosen that living. I can also use it as a fun lesson for them to do. Since I hope to work in a county school, I think a lot of kids will have parents or relatives who farm, and maybe learning more about it will make them want to help the farmers with their work and help the kids understand how much hard work and love goes into farming.

For my final product, I've decided to plan a little lesson that I could conduct for a class in school, while allowing any interested parents to come in an learn as well. I made a classroom layout for how I would want to room to look when I was doing the presentation/lesson on my findings on 4teachers.org. I loved how easy it was to make the plan because they already have objects you can choose from, drag and rotate them to your liking. Here is my layout. I'm going to use the slide projector to show the powerpoint I made on everything I learn through this inquiry. I thought it would be fun to have everyone sit in the beanbag chairs and on the rug to watch it. Also, I would have fun little farm-related activities at each of the tables to entertain the kids. I would have animal puzzles, coloring pages with a farm theme, and math worksheets like this one involving farm problems. By having math sheets like this one, I would be meeting Indiana DOE state standards for math such as:

3.6 Students make decisions about how to approach problems and communicate their ideas. (Math)

5.2 Students solve problems involving multiplication and division of whole numbers and solve problems involving addition, subtraction, and simple multiplication and division of fractions and decimals. (Math)
(http://dc.doe.in.gov/Standards/AcademicStandards/index.shtml)

At the tables I would also have little blurbs on the different types of machines, corn facts and an area where they could make art with corn. It would also be great if I could get community farmers to come in and talk with the kids and answer any questions they may have! All of these things would contribute to meeting the Indiana Department of Education's standards. Since I am incorporating so many areas of the curriculum areas, I will be able to meet many different standards, which is perfect for a librarian who has to work with all different ages. I'll also be able to meet requirements like:

K.6 Students create artwork using subject matter from the real world and personal symbols to express ideas. They demonstrate thoughtfulness, care, and respect in their art, sharing work with others. (Fine Arts). I could do an art project where they could design their own barn or where they could use real corn to make their own paper ear of corn. They could then tape them all up on a wall together to make a field of corn.

1.4 Students ask questions about a variety of living things and everyday events that can be answered through observations. They become aware of plant and animal interaction. They consider things and processes that plants and animals need to stay alive. (Science).

After watching my presentation, students can ask their own questions about corn or farming or any other related thing. In the future, their teachers could take them on a field trip that would allow them to experience farms firsthand-go far beyond my presentation-and they could learn for themselves how the plants and animals of farms work.
(http://dc.doe.in.gov/Standards/AcademicStandards/index.shtml)

Hopefully this will inspire them to do their own research on aspects of farming that my project may have sparked interest in. They can use my example and go on to fulfill the Indiana information literacy standard:

4. The student who is an independent learner is information literate and pursues information related to personal interests.

I also hope they use skill 2, "The student who is information literate evaluates information critically and competently," to decide for themselves what they think of my research. It's interesting to me that this stage of my research process also requires weaving, as "Information inquiry is a topic that weaves through the standards of all subject areas" (www.virtualinquiry.com). It's great to know that something I was interested in so much for myself also has great promise for sharing with others and is able to incorporate so many different areas and grade level standards.

Thus, really all age groups would be able to learn from my presentation. For my younger audience of 1st graders this is how I would incorporate the Indiana DOE standards in my lesson:

Science 1.4 Students ask questions about a variety of living things and everyday events that can be answered through observations. They become aware of plant and animal interaction. They consider things and processes that plants and animals need to stay alive. (Science). Example: I would coordinate with their teacher to take them on a field trip so they could explore aspects of my presentation that inspired them. They can learn first hand about the plants and animals on the farm and then recall my lesson and think about the work that goes into taking care of nature.

English 1.5 Students begin to write compositions that describe and explain familiar objects, events, and experiences. Students use their understanding of the sounds of words to write simple rhymes. Student writing demonstrates a command of Standard English and the drafting, research, and organizational strategies outlines in Standard 4-writing processes and features. Writing demonstrates an awareness of the audience and purpose for writing. (English). Example: At another table, I could have out paper and an example of a couplet. Then I can have papers on the table with the first line filled out: "Farms are fun, and I like corn," and then students can fill out the next line that end with a rhyming word for corn, with help from the teacher if necessary.

Social Studies 1.1 Students will identify continuity and change in the different environments around them, including school and neighborhood communities and identify individuals, events and symbols that are important to our country. (History). Example: After watching my slide show, we can talk about farms and how they have gotten fewer and fewer over the years. I can then talk about what other changes in their environment they've noticed (the corn turning brown in the fall, a new neighborhood that went up, etc.).

I will also be able to tailor my presentation to my older students, say for 5th graders. I can meet standards like these:

Math 5.2 Students solve problems involving multiplication and division of whole numbers and solve problems involving addition, subtraction, and simple multiplication and division of fractions and decimals. (Math)

Example: My students can work out the problems from the corn worksheet I mentioned above to work on these math skills. This way the math will be related to the lesson and to real life.

Social Studies 5.4 Students will describe the productive resources and market relationships that influence the way people produce goods and services and earn a living in the United States in different historical periods. (Social Studies). Example: This standard fit great with farming because a lot of people in the past used to farm, whereas now many more people have moved to cities. I can talk about this with the students and them have them write a paragraph discussing present day farming. My slide on how much feed I need for 100 acres will help them understand the relationship between materials you need to create your final product. They can do more research and also discuss the changes in machinery now and 50 years ago.

Visual Art 5.8 Students compare communication of ideas and concepts in the arts and other disciplines. They create artwork, interdisciplinary projects, and performances integrating processes, technology, and sign systems from various subject areas and reflect on aesthetic outcomes and experiences. (Arts). Example: Everyone in the class can draw a picture of a cornfield. When everyone is done, I can hang everyone's on the wall to show how different all of them are. Then we can talk about how even though we've seen the same thing, perspective plays a huge role in how everything is interpreted.

I will upload my power point presentation in my next post, a combination of wrapping and waving as well.

S574: Weaving (Equipment 2)

2010-02-07T14:47:00.000-05:00

I forgot in my last post to say that I did some more research on equipment. I looked into prices for the machines. Obviously, the used machines were FAR less expensive than the new, so I would definitely go with used machines. However, talking to people that have been farming all their lives, they said prices fluxuate a lot. I may find a great deal at an auction or from a friend, so it's very difficult to say how much my machinery would cost. Thus, I decided not to try to anticipate prices and just leave that to be seen if/when I buy them in the future.

S574: Wiggling and Weaving (Crop and Land)

2010-02-07T14:45:00.000-05:00

Alright! So I've finished my research for the crops and land aspect of my project. I started off looking for this information in the books I had from the library, but I could only find a few things that I was looking to answer off of my chart. Since many of my questions related to current market conditions, I ended up going to the internet to find my answers. This meant I had to do wiggling again, figuring out which sites were reliable. Luckily for me, many of the websites were .edu from various midwest colleges' departments of agriculture. I felt I could definitely trust them because they were from colleges, and the fact that they are in states in the corn belt was just an extra bonus. Some of the other websites were selling corn or machines, so I evaluated them as I would if I were actually buying from them. If their site information seemed reputable, and their information and prices matched up with my other sources, I decided I could trust them. I also looked at some organizations' websites for information, and again if their information matched up with each other, I relied on their information.

Since I had to use so many websites, I decided to use Delicious to bookmark all of the sites I used. I used some of the sites to just find more resources, so they proved very useful in that aspect. Here is the link to my delicious site: http://delicious.com/smeckert/S574. I tagged all of my websites for this class with a S574 tag. I've used delicious quite a few times in the past, and it is really helpful to keep all of the websites you look at in order. It's also nice to have the tags to find everything that relates to the same subject, saving you from searching through all of your bookmarked sites. I think delicious wouldn't work very well for elementary students, but high school students may like being able to do online research and organize it so easily.

To answer my questions on crops, I consulted a few books to get ideas what to look for online. I liked researching the crops because it allowed me to synthesize information, rather than just taking it right out of a source. It also required a bit of math on my part to figure out how kernels would be in a bag, how many bags I would need per acre, and other similar math calculations. I looked through a lot of websites to decide a number that averaged the results of many different studies and articles, so there is not a specific source I got my final number from. Like the machines, I ended up nixing a few of the questions, namely What grows best here? and What seed is the cheapest? I decided that I wanted to plant corn, despite what the answers to these questions would answer. My grandpa grew corn, so I know that I want to grow corn, too. I also decided that I am going to base my research on a 100 acre farm, as most sources say that 100 acres is about the minimum size you can make a profit on. Here are the answers I have found to my questions from my chart:

What equipment will I need depending on what crop I picked? I have answered this in my machine research.

How much will I get per acre? The 2008 national average yield was 153. 8 bushels/ acre (www.biofuelsdigest.com).

How much would I need to buy? Seeing at 36,000 per acre for 100 acres, I would need 45 bags of seed.

What would I like to grow? Corn!

Where should I buy from? Based on people in my family I have talked to, I should buy from a local grain elevator.

In my research on the land, I went through a similar process. I started looking in my library books, decided I needed to go to the internet, and bookmarked the sites I found useful on delicious. I also asked a realtor what the price for land was in my county. I emailed her asking about prices on land in my county (who's name I deleted out of this post). Here is the email I sent and the reply I received:

Question:

Tara,

Thank you for your help,

Shea

Reply:

This was a huge help; I hadn't even been sure she would have the information I was looking for. However, this was exactly what I wanted. This allowed me to see how much land around me was selling for and whether or not a 100 acre farm would be feasible in this area. It was actually more than I had expected it to cost, but then again, I haven't been looking at land. For the rest of my questions on land, I consulted internet resources and family advice, and I got these answers to my questions:

How much land should I get? 100 acres

Who would be a reliable resource to help me choose? A realtor would help me know if I was getting a good price, soil maps would tell me if I am getting a good soil type, and family and friends will help me decide if it's the right property for me.

How much does land cost per acre? In my county, agricultural land costs $6066/acre on average.

How much land earns a profit? 100 acres

As you can see, I decided to get rid of the questions Where has the best soil? How much land will sustain my family? and What soil is best for my crops? I decided since I want to live in the same county and will be constricted by price, I will have very little say in what type of soil my land has. From what I've read, all three soil types here are good for corn, as long as you have the right machinery for the job.

While I was working, I did begin to feel a bit overwhelmed because I had to consult so many resources to find my information. Exactly as Kuhlthau said, I realized there was extensive work to be done, but the further along I got, my interest and dedication to my project increased. I think this is a valuable thing to point out to fellow and new researchers, as they may get discouraged and never make it to the part when they get encouraged and energized about their project! I would hate for them to get discouraged and give up on a wonderful project, just because they don't know that relief is coming. I hope all educators, any model of the research process really, will be sure to tell students that the work will be worth it and their project will get easier the longer they work on it. Especially if they are choosing their own topics, they should stick to it and push through to the final product. Students will always be more interested in the projects they have a personal say in: "As independent thinkers, children become researchers, writers, videographers, and activists rather than passive receivers of a textbook's content" (www.virtualinquiry.com). Teachers do well to let students throw themselves into projects they are passionate about (like me and farming!) than force textbook learning as the constant, sole and primary means of educating.

I am relieved to be done with the bulk of my research, and have been thinking and planning for my wrapping stage for quite a while now. I'm excited to get everything in order and posted for the next steps!

S574: Weaving (Equipment)

2010-02-04T20:05:00.004-05:00

The first of the categories I tackled was what equipment/machines I will need. I went through three different books, all of which were organized pretty similarly. They went in order of the machines you would need from preparing the ground to harvesting your crop. As a researcher, this set up made it pretty easy for me to learn what I would need. I went through all three books and made a list of the machines that each one listed, excluding ones that were double and then looked at the list I had. From there, I narrowed it down by reading about each one's function. If they did the same task, I marked off the repeats. I finally ended up with a list of equipment that I will need and ordered it in the sequence I will use it when actually farming.

One of the things I most wanted to make sure I found out--in addition to which machines I will need--was whether or not I would have to buy them. Fortunately, two of the books I had included in the descriptions if people usually rented them. I liked this weaving step because it really helped me to feel like I was able to handle this project. When I had the mass of work sitting in front of me, it was a bit daunting. However, organization is key to whittling down big work lists, so splitting my research into three groups is working out well.

While doing this work, I looked back at my chart from the wondering step of the inquiry process. I was able to reevaluate what I answered, still needed answered, and was able to eliminate. This made me think of the trailblazer 2.1 that I did on McKenzie's Research Cycle (Callison 56). This model's emphasis on continuing to cycle through all of the steps before you finalize your work and report your findings was exactly what I am doing. When I wrote that wondering chart earlier, I wasn't sure exactly where I wanted to go with the research, and the more I learn, the more focused I can make my topic. I have decided that my questions about storing my crop and which brand of machinery is better are not what I want to focus on for my project.

However, I was able to answer my following questions:

How many machines will I need?: 8

Do I have to buy all of them?: No, it's actually better to rent some of them.

Where could I borrow things from?: Owning most of the equipment is actually preferable (or renting for a few things) because I will use it so much and for a long period of time.

Where will get me the best prices?/Where would I buy from?: Buying used will get me the best deals. I can look up equipment for sale in the local paper, go to an auction, or check the free ad papers (as an earlier comment suggested).

S574: Wiggling

2010-02-04T12:14:00.001-05:00

I took a look at all the books I brought back from the library, so I could get a chance to really evaluate how useful and relevant they are going to be. First of all, I felt secure in the validity of their content because they were published by actual companies and not just posted online. Since I found all of them at the library, I felt safe that they would present information accurately. Also, many of the books' authors were farmers or children of farmers themselves (as described in the About the Author section of the books). Most of them also had bibliographies, so I knew they had done their research to make sure that the information was valid.

As part of being information literate and being able to understand when I need more information, regardless of the setting (Callison 71-72), I realize that just because I pulled a ton of books from the library on farming, I didn't necessarily get a comprehensive view of everything I will need to start farming. Thus, I decided that I would rely on people to tell me what parts my research from books is missing. I am going to rely on my mom (who grew up on my grandpa's farm) and our county 4-H office to help me evaluate the information I compile after weaving through it. For their sake, I hope everything is pretty close to spot on, so they don't have to tell me a big list of things that I am missing and need to find out!

I have sorted through my books and broken them up into three main categories: land, crops and equipment. To help me keep organized, I'm going to go through and research each section one at a time, although I know there will be a lot of overlap. However, I must keep in mind that I categorized these books based on my prior knowledge of farming, so I may end up shuffling them around to make my research more efficient and more cohesive.

I have already done my equipment research and I have found there is a lot of overlap between wiggling and weaving. I am constantly bouncing back and forth between the two, evaluating what I am reading and deciding how it all incorporates with each other. I also am constantly thinking about how I am going to wrap it because I want to be sure to get everything in the weaving stage that I will need for my wrapping stage. Right now I'm feeling the pressure of the extensive work that Kuhlthau talks about (Callison 41). Fortunately, I also feel that it can be managed since I have set up a strong foundation so far. I'll make a separate post on my equipment research.

S574: Webbing Part 2

2010-02-01T19:56:00.000-05:00

Great success! I went to the library yesterday (but didn't have time to post about it until today), and I came back with some fantastic finds. I wrote down my list of words from my previous entry, and once I got to my county library, I typed each of those phrases into their catalogue search to see which results would come up. I had actually been pretty confident when I went in because I had taken so much time preparing for my search. Much to my surprise, I did not get very many results that matched (or if I did it would be a book that I couldn't use, like a fiction story of someone who lived on a farm). For example, I was really surprised that my title search for "farming" only pulled up 16 results; I had really thought my library would have much more than that. I did in fact try making "farming" just the keyword to search for, but that gave me too many results-nearly 120 results.

Thus, I found that I had to modify my tactic. I noticed that most of my results were in the 630's, so I decided to just go to that section and hope that it had more to offer than what my search results were pulling up. I was so glad to see that the 630 section was exactly what I had been looking for! It had all types of books that seemed like they were made for people like me, someone who would love to start farming but doesn't have a clue about how to get started. They had books on farming small amounts of land, farming certain crops, farming families from Indiana, and handbooks on living off your own land. I spent over an hour in that section thumbing through books to see what I thought could be helpful to me. I think found it interesting that my presearching of Follett's Pathways to Knowledge: Information Skills model didn't really seem to work for me. However, I think it's value may have been that it at least got me a good starting point to find out where I need to look in the library. As the book outlines, that stage is to "identify key words, relate to prior knowledge, explore general sources" (Callison 57). In that respect, it let me figure out more what I was going to want to look for once I got to the library, and its keywords led me to the right section.

Using my original search results, I also found that a promising section was J630 in the children's section of the library. After I got my adult books, I went to the children's section and was pretty relieved to see that this section not only had the kind of information I was looking for, but it was stated in a much more elementary way. As a novice, I really appreciate that! I think I'll start with these books to get a better idea of my subjects and then move on to the more advanced books. I also found myself thinking about the wrapping stage when I was looking in the children's section. I'm not really sure what I want to do for my final product, but finding all of these books, a lot of them with great pictures and graphics, made me think that I might create some kind of presentation I could show to elementary school kids, where I could also pull these books and let them look through then and check them out if they wanted to.

In my last blog I also mentioned that I was going to see about videos as resources (which someone commented on, so I wanted to be sure to address it). I did actually find a few videos in my search; however, they were for teaching kids about farming certain crops (like apples), rather than information on getting started farming, so I didn't check them out. However, if I were to actually do this as a unit in a classroom, I think that giving them a video to watch about farming--any farming video, it doesn't necessarily have to be about the crop I am going to focus on--would be a great way to make it more interactive and help them improve their visual literacy, "including the ability to thnk, learn and express oneself in terms of images" (Callison 423). I really like that I am finding a lot of different things in my searches because it's giving me a lot of options for my final project.

Much like the first part of the webbing step was like Follett's presearch, I found that the second part was the search step in Follet's Pathways to Knowledge: Information Skills model. It doesn't bother me that the webbing involved both aspects, because they are easy to complete and go perfectly hand in hand. However, I was glad that I was able to make the connection to the Follett model because it gave me confidence that I was indeed following a logical inquiry process.

S574: Webbing

2010-01-30T11:24:00.000-05:00

Before I go to the library, I want to consider what types of books and other resources I will be looking for to do my inquiry. My chart I made in my last entry will guide me a lot in this webbing step. Clearly, I need information on farming, so I will focus my search on the three main branches of farming that I need to learn about: buying land, getting equipment and choosing a crop. For these topics, I think I'll get the best information from books because farming has been around for such a long time and living in Indiana, I think my library is likely to have a lot of information on farming--whether it be for farmers or casual browsers. However, I plan to find out any information books don't give me by calling the 4-H extension office or talking to family and friends who farm. I really don't anticipate using internet information unless I am not able to find it somewhere else. I think I would be able to find a lot of the same information online, but I feel like since I am doing something so close to my heart, I want it to be more hands-on and personal than clicking through search results.

When I am searching at the library, I plan to start with basic search terms like farms, farming, farm machines, and crops. Depending on the number of results I find, I might then try more specific search terms like Indiana farms, Hoosier farms, corn farming, tractors, combines, and buying land in Indiana. (I think this narrowing down of ideas is again very much like what McKenzie is talking about in the Research Cycle (Callison 56) when he says that researchers are continually narrowing down their topic-or in this instance search results.) Primarily, I will be looking for books on aspects of farming, but if I happen to run across some type of multimedia resource, like a video or something, I could use, I would definitely take at look at it. I also anticipate that all of my information will be nonfiction, since I am only looking for factual material on how to actually start a farm.

I normally don't plan out how I am going to search for things before I go and do it, so I am interested to see if this will improve my findings, or at least make the search easier and more effective. Oftentimes I run into the problem that I end up finding a lot of information that isn't very relevant other than a chapter or section of the book. I hope that by webbing and putting forethought into my search that it will yield better results. I will come back and write a part two of my webbing experience after I get back from the library and tell how my search strategies panned out and if/how I had to modify them. As for right now, thinking through all of this before I go to the library feels a lot like the presearching that Follett's Pathways to Knowledge Information Skills Model talks about (Callison 57). Unlike most people (including me in the past), I just jump right into the research. However, I am thinking about good key words, considering my prior knowledge or farming and defining a clear outline of what I need to look for when I start my search. I hope that it ends up paying off for me in the coming stages!

S574: Wondering

2010-01-25T17:45:00.000-05:00

I am kind of relieved to be doing the wondering step because finally getting all of the questions that have been bopping around in my head down on paper (or the net as it were) will help me focus on what I need to learn more about. I know how important forming questions is from reading about McKenzie's Research Cycle model (Callison 56), where the thrust of the model is on continually refining your questions and the research that answers them, so you end with with a well thought out, thorough product. In the relation to the wondering step of the 8Ws, the Research Cycle would put me in a the questioning step. Lucky for me, I found the ideal tool for getting all of my questions out of my head and organized: http://mywebspiration.com/. It was really easy to use; just click to add a bubble and type in the text. Here is my chart I came up with.

Once I had decided that I wanted to do my project on what it would take to farm, I wondered what I actually meant by that. I decided that I would focus my research on what it would take to get started farming. Thus, the three big topics that I think I'll need to research are: buying land, getting equipment and choosing a crop. I'm not actually sure yet if that's all I'll need to research, if I'm forgetting a major component (which I probably am), but I figure that will surface once I start researching. Like our readings stress, inquiry is not a linear process (Callison 51)!

In case you're not able to read my document for some reason I'll list the questions I came up with for each subtopic.
For choosing a crop:
   What equipment will I need depending on what crop I pick?
   How much will I get per acre?
   How much would I need to buy?
   What grows here best?
   What would I like to grow?
   Where should I buy from?
   What seed is the cheapest now?
For buying land:
   Where has the best soil?
   How much land should I get?
   How much land will sustain my family?
   Who would be a reliable resource to help me choose?
   What soil is best for my crops?
   How much does land cost per acre?
   How much land earns a profit?
For getting equipment:
   How much will it cost?
   How many machines will I need?
   Do I have to buy all of them?
   Will I need to store my crop?
   Where could I borrow some things from?
   Where would I buy from?
   Where will get me the best prices?
   Is a certain brand better?

When I was brainstorming about my topic, I didn't try to go in a logical order, I just wrote down whatever questions came to mind. As I get further in the inquiry process, I'll be able to see what questions I need to elaborate on or what ones I can eliminate. I really just tried to write down everything I could think of that farmers might need to do or consider when they are farming their land. After writing down all these questions, I can see that my emerging focus for my project is going to be about starting and establishing a farm, rather than just farming in general. I want to make sure the scope of my project is manageable, so I can do a thorough job in my research.

Since I am about to go to the library, I think this I have done the wondering step at exactly the right time. With these questions to guide me, I will have a good idea of what I need to look for at the library. Wish me luck!

S574: Watching/Topic Exploration

2010-01-18T23:24:00.000-05:00

First of all, this is SO exciting that we have completely free reign to choose our inquiry project topic!

Honestly, I knew pretty well what I wanted to write about right away. Since I've grown up in Indiana, it is all I know. Luckily for me, I am not one of those people who despises our flat land and snowy winters; I in fact love everything about my state. Thus, the first narrowing of my topic ideas came to me in that I knew I wanted to write something that revolved around Indiana life.

The true Hoosier topics: corn, trucks, euchre (clearly I'm from rural Indiana) all bounced around in my head. I have in fact checked out books from the library before to learn more about corn. Don't laugh! It was informative! My dad and brother both drive trucks, and I feel like I would rather leave that domain to them. As for euchre, I prefer to leave that just for a game to play with friends; I would rather not evaluate and investigate a fun hobby that I use to unwind. Even though I quickly shot down all of the ideas that first came to mind, the next idea is what I am deciding to stick with: farms.

I did not grow up on a farm. I have lived in a subdivision my whole life. I work in the city. BUT-I love farms, farming and farmers. My grandpa has a huge farm in northern Indiana, and that is where my extended family lives. I go up there probably ten times a year, and every time I go, I love that farm even more. What better to inspire a topic than love?

When my grandpa passed away this summer, the question came up as to who was going to take up the farming. Of course living three hours away, this was an impossibility for me, not to mention my complete lack of knowledge and experience. However, a tiny and persistent voice in my mind kept wishing that I could farm that land. I would love to be able to work the land that has been in my family for generations, to produce something out of nothing, and feel the accomplishment of harvest time. Even though I know I can't take on the farm in real life, I would love to know what it takes to farm.

I am thrilled that I have the opportunity and motivation to do this research thanks to this class. I know a lot of the knowledge might be things that are tricks of the trade, secrets passed down through the years, and I won't be able to get my hands on those. Quite frankly, if I were able to learn them, I would opt not to share them online-sorry! There are some lines I will not cross. Nevertheless, I look forward to learning about a trade and lifestyle that is so close to my heart.

Wikis in Education

2009-11-14T15:14:00.001-05:00

Check out my Wikis in Education slideshow!

Wikis in Education

View more presentations from guest5391332.

My Delicious

2009-10-25T11:54:00.000-04:00

Social bookmarking on Delicious is a great way to consolidate a bunch of handy resources! Just click here on my Delicious site, and you can check out the resources I found useful. Feel free to make a Delicious account yourself and add any of my resources!

http://delicious.com/smeckert

The Perfect Tool: Online Scrapbooking!

2009-09-28T16:56:00.001-04:00

Sifting through a fairly comprehensive list of emerging technologies in the education field, I came across an absolutely perfect tool for this blog: online scrapbooking! This technology is basically exactly what it sounds like; no tricks of the misnomer here. It's a tool that allows people to take the photos that they already have in their computer and use them to create an album. The site I used was Smilebox. It has hundreds of designs you can use for making amazing online scrapbooks, photo albums, post cards, and slide shows, and miraculously, it's free! Forget going to Joann's and spending gobs on books, page protectors, paper, stickers...insert here any number of frivolities that make scrapbooks so fun to make!

As an avid paper-scrapbooker (originating in my 4-H years), I had always harbored a malice toward online scrapbooking. It's impersonal, takes away the fun of making it with your own hands...really just unjustified disdain, but I was okay with staying in my happy little paper box. Thank GOODNESS for my technology in education class! It's a snap, I fell in love, and here's how to get yourself started. Once you go to Smilebox, click on the elephant in the room: the big purple tube that says "Click to Get Started." Go through a few clicks, download it to your computer (it will be saved on and added to your computer, but is still connected to the internet when you use it), and then launch your shiny new smilebox icon. From there, choose what album design you want, they're all beautifully organized into categories and have nice little previews, and then you can start creating!

On the left, there is a place where you can go through your computer's directory; just pull out the photos from wherever you save them and add the ones you want to use to this left margin. This thing is so user-friendly, if you already have photos in the margin, it will automatically insert them into the album you chose, granted I wanted to choose how to arrange my photos myself. It's as easy as dragging the photos on the left into the spot you want them on the page, and adding captions! They give you options to tweak it a bit: change photos to black and white, zoom in on photos, change the background color, and even picking music! Seriously, people, this is simple stuff and a great way to get all those digital photos somewhere more illustrious than the folder you save them in on your computer. When you're done with your album, you can save it to look back on later, email it to friends and family (also to strangers, I suppose, but don't recommend), or post it to a web page. If you become addicted to smilebox scrapbooks and photoalbums, they do offer you the option of paying a monthly ($5.99) or yearly ($39.99) fee, which allows you access to the bonus features of "Club Smilebox," like more music to choose from, additional layouts, and the ability to print, save as a PDF or burn to a DVD. Personally, I could do without the extra music and layouts, but I have to say, being able to print it would be a nice feature; however, I'm just as content to be able to make them for free and share them online, as my laptop hardly leaves my side anyway.

Since my blog is focusing on all of the sites I wish I could see around the world and my dreams of traveling away from home, I knew this would be the perfect tool to use to not only talk and learn about other cultures, but to see them, you know, increase the envy and longing just that much more. However, I wanted my album to show you guys that even though I want to experience the whole world, I LOVE INDIANA. It's the bread and butter of my life (and believe me, I love my carbs), I hope it gives you a taste of online scrapbooking and a window into what I am blessed to experience every day! Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Welcome World!

2009-09-23T20:14:00.002-04:00

Hey there everyone (a.k.a. whomever in the class clicks on my blog link)! My name is Shea, and first off the bat, I am pumped to be writing a blog! I have a couple friends who either blog for fun or for their jobs, and I had never really understood the purpose behind it--well, excluding the ones who write for work because in that case I'm pretty sure the motivation there is the dinero. However, now that I have my own, I can't wait to see what I can do with it.

Before I get ahead of myself, I'll give you a peek into my life. I'm majoring in English, here at IUPUI of course, and have the most exciting piece of academic news anyone could give you-I'm going to graduate at the end of this semester! Of course, that's probably not nearly as exciting for you if you're not graduating as well, but trust me, once you get there you'll want to blog about it, too! Outside of academics, I spend most of my time daydreaming. Doesn't pay the bills though, does it? So I work, too. Don't worry! I do have a fun side, I'm not a mass of pencil-pushing. I love to read, I love kids, so I'm going to be an elementary school librarian. Also, I have big plans to one day own my own business. A book store perhaps? A day care maybe? Nope. After ten years of 4-H cake decorating, I have found a hobby that I cannot ignore. I love decorating cakes, reading about cakes, and naturally, eating cakes. My highly-improbable, sugar-filled dream is to own my own cake decorating business. Other than that, I love my family, best friends, adorable dogs,

(so cute!)

and, number one my list: all of the corn that Indiana surrounds me with!

When I first began to set up my blog for class, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do with it. I always thought people just used blogs as online diaries...that absolutely everyone could read...which doesn't make for much of a diary. Plus, I didn't really want to write about my own life anyway; I'm sure thousands of people in central Indiana could write my daily life story for me, because the routine belongs to all of us. Then, brilliancy struck: I could write about the things I dream about and live all of the adventures I wanted to take, through writing my blog! Since I have always loved learning about the traditions and people in other countries, I knew I would have a ball researching all of the things in the world I might not ever get to experience (I know, strange to think any kind of research would get anyone excited). Thus, I was able to come up with the title for my blog.

When you're making your blog, consider, "Why would other people want to read this?" With my "Homebody Traveler" idea, I thought hey, I bet there are a few people out there like me, broke (heck lots of those kind) and in love with learning about the world. Duh. Travel Channel exists, there must be loads of people out there who love a good vicarious thrill. And up went my motivation to carry on through the process of creating a blog! Everything was really simple: basically just eat out of the spoon Blogger is feeding you from. I have faith in you! The really tough choices are all in deciding what you want to name your blog (if you, like me, decide you want to continue blogging after this class ends) and what template will best go with the theme you're creating. My best suggestion is to just give yourself some time (it actually took me about an hour) to come up with the perfect title. It will give you inspiration to base your blog on and motivate you to keep coming back to blog some more.

Once you've created your blog, go crazy! Being the English major that I am, I wrote up my profile first. Just click on Dashboard in the top right, then click edit profile, and edit your preferences to your heart's desire. Make it as public or private as you want. Be sure to put down a good description though, so everyone that reads it will be able to get a good idea of what you are bringing to the blogging world! Oh! Definitely add a picture of yourself right after you finish with your description; it's like having yourself as a butler to greet you every time you come to the blog! Blogger makes it really easy to do. While you're in the edit profile page, just scroll to where you can edit your profile pictures, and from there it's a lot like adding an attachment on an email. Just click browse and go through your photo file on your computer to find the perfect picture, double click it, and you're done! Just be sure you save it everything so your personal, identical twin will be there to welcome you back the next time you log on...because you know how hard it is to find good help these days.