Interesting article about power, pollution, and the Internet

If you are interested, feel free to write about this in your next News Report assignment:

Glanz, James. "The Cloud Factories. Power, Pollution and the Internet." New York Times. 22 September 2012.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/technology/data-centers-waste-vast-amounts-of-energy-belying-industry-image.html?pagewanted=all&_moc.semityn.www&_r=0

Writing Article Summaries

After I have e-mailed you your grades from the latest Reading and Activity Report, review the following links to learn about how to summarize an article.

http://utminers.utep.edu/omwilliamson/engl0310/summaryhints.htm

http://www2.smumn.edu/deptpages/~tcwritingcenter/Forms_of_Writing/Sum_Resp_Crit.pdf (Focus on the "Summaries" section).

Review for First Test (9/25)

Things to know and/or review for the upcoming test on 9/25. This test will be in our regular classroom (RL #1039). You will not be asked questions related to the discussion on 9/20.

DO NOT e-mail me and ask me for the answers to these questions. You have the information. If you do not, look at the blog or talk to a classmate.

• Define "information" and "information technology."
• Draw or describe the information cycle. Be sure to include various sources of information and the timeframes for when they become available following an event.
• From "Signs of the Times" Video:
• List at least one important historical development related to the dissemination of information.
• Discuss at least one prediction that an "expert" made that did in fact become true (or did not come true)?
• Library Lingo (You do not need to know the trivia facts about Randall Library. Focus on the "lingo" only).
• What is the difference between "misinformation" and "disinformation"?
• Describe "media literacy."
• Discuss why instructors are concerned with students using Wikipedia.
• Use the CRITIC model to evaluate a website or article.
• Have a basic understanding of the Internet and search engines:
• Is the World Wide Web the same as the Internet?
• What is the "Deep Web"?
• How do search engines work?
• When you are searching Google, what exactly are you searching?
• Why is it useful to search multiple search engines?
• Describe one Google tool that you or a classmate presented in class.

How Search Engines Work / Using the Web for Research

The PowerPoint (How Search Engines Work / Using the Web for Research) is available: Open or Download.

No Office Hours on 9/24

I will be unable to hold office hours on Monday, 9/24. Please e-mail me with any questions that you have and I will respond as soon as possible.

Tuesday's Class and Evaluating Information PowerPoint

The PowerPoint about "Evaluating Information" is available: Open or Download

For Tuesday's (9/18) class we'll be playing catch-up and going over:

• Assignment #2 (Annotated Bibliography)
• How Searching Engines Work / Using the Web for Research
• All About Google
• EndNote Web (if there is time)

We will likely not have time to discuss your News Report #2. But be sure it is posted before class. If you are still having issues with your course blog, you may e-mail me your assignment.

No Office Hours on 9/17

I will not be able to hold office hours tomorrow (Monday, 9/17). If you have questions, e-mail me and I will be back in touch as soon as I can.

In Class Quiz: The Internet

In class (on 9/13/12) take the following quiz to see what you know about the Internet:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet-quiz.htm

Notes on Blog Posts

As I am grading your first News Report and your first Activity/Reading assignment here are some issues I have seen on a few blogs:

1. You must include all the information about your news report that is required in the assignment. The url is not enough. As we discussed in class and is posted on a previous post on this blog, you must include: The title of the story, the author's name, the date it was posted, and the url.
2. Choose a story that you likely will have some reaction to or opinion about. This is HALF of the assignment. The summary is one half and your reaction to/opinion about is the other HALF.
3. Be sure to summarize the ENTIRE article for your Activity/Reading posts. If you only summarize the first few paragraphs then I can only assume that you did not read the article. I did not make this clear on the syllabus and did not deduct points from your grade. Moving forward however, be sure to summarize the article.
4. It is extremely useful to me if you name/label your post according to the assignment you are working on: For example:
   News Report #1
   Activity/Reading #1
   News Report #2
   Activity/Reading #2 ...
5. Use the spell check in Word and in Blogger. I do count off for spelling and grammar issues. This is mentioned on the assignments and on the syllabus.

The InfoCycle

As promised, here is information about the Information Life Cycle (or "InfoCycle") that we discussed on Thursday:

http://www.library.illinois.edu/ugl/howdoi/informationcycle.html

http://www.lib.utk.edu/instruction/tutorials/information_cycle_final.m4v

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1rKEMIa1X4

You can find other websites and videos by searching Google and YouTube for "information cycle" or "information life cycle" or "information time line." If you learn best through reading, looking for websites. If you are more visual and prefer videos, search YouTube.

News Reports: URL is not enough

Remember to include ALL the information required in the News Reports assignment.

Only supplying the url is not enough. Why?

Because urls frequently change and it is important to list other identifying information such as: Author, Date, Title of site or page, etc.

News Reports

Reminder: Your first news report should be posted before class this Tuesday.

You do not need to find a news story that covers ALL the topics related to the assignment. As long as you find a story that relates to either libraries OR the Internet OR information technology you will be fine. You might find a story that does cover two or three of the topics but this is not required.