Data Gather!

Using new-found knowledge of using my university's online library database, I was assigned a data gathering exercise and I went through trial and error to possibly find the least results with certain keywords. This is because I am merely typing a paper for within 6 months, but with hundreds of results that could take months to years for gathering all of that data. Anyhow, here is my reflection on this exercise...

            For this exercise I simply went onto the library.ucf.edu to use the One Search feature but it actually turned out different than I expected. The searches that worked were the keywords that gave more depth into what I wanted. And what did not work was the option to check other databases and articles. Another option that didn’t work was using general search terms such as ‘education and technology’; this made me end up with almost a million results. In contrast, the search ‘college freshmen academic literacy with technology’ provided me with 36 results, which drastically lowered the ratio of articles and journals. One unexpected challenge to m was the fact that I felt that I would never find enough sources to cover this paper. In reality, I was provided with over thousands of academic articles and a huge plethora of resources, that it became overwhelming. Three specific databases that I used were Publisher Provided Full Searching File, ERIC, and One Search. With skimming through the many articles, I found that my topic is really an issue that is concerning to the academic audiences and I learned about many other factors with it. Using the article I submitted, I learned that academics used an experiment to implement on using SMS to support the learning of new English language words and how it can potentially advance thinking and a creative process. Some primary documents I came across would include the many that created their own experiment to create results that reflect the accuracy of their data. One article I came across conducted a survey with students as to how they could function in school without their technologies and some couldn’t make it while others felt differently, but the point is people can’t simply make this up. Anyhow, as I research my topic more, I expect to discover the many skills and subconscious activities that advance a college freshmen’s literacy while simply enjoying their personal electronic or what not. Also, I feel I might have to change my question around a bit, or make my topic question slightly more specific due to the vast databases. I feel by narrowing it down to maybe college students and their use of technology in school would be ideal and would single out what I really need to learn about. What I still need to find would definitely be more primary documents that generated interviews and experiments on how students are affected academically by technology. Also, I would like to get more background onto how current technologies influence the mind or thinking process to advance literacy. My first few searches involved ‘education and technology’ and ‘college students using technology’, these terms yielded with over 15,000 results both. So I narrowed it down slightly and changed students to ‘freshmen’ and it slimmed down to 291 results, then after I added ‘academic literacy’ between to get 36 results in return. Finally, I changed the wording and used ‘college freshmen using technology as academic tool’ and I was given 12 results. All of these were on One Search because I tried the other databases and was too confused on where to go.