EDST 630: Issues & Research in Educational Technology

Tutorials

tolivas@csusm.edu (Toni Olivas) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:39:59 -0700

These are various tutorials that will help you with navigating ERIC. Please turn on your speakers or use headphones to hear narration. If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to contact me!

Searching ERIC

Using ERIC's Thesaurus

Retrieving Articles

Save, Print, Email

Educational Technology

tolivas@csusm.edu (Toni Olivas) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:40:17 -0700

How do you identify current issues in educational technology? Specific journals are dedicated to this topic.

Some examples are

THE journal : technological horizons in education

Computers & education

Learning and leading with technology: The ISTE journal of educational technology practice and policy

You can find more in our catalog by doing an Advanced Keyword search for education technology in Journals & Newspapers.

Major issues will also be covered in newspaper articles found by searching Lexis Nexis Academic.

Books and Articles

tolivas@csusm.edu (Toni Olivas) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:35:48 -0700

Finding Books

Find books by searching the Library Catalog. Can't think of terms to describe your topic? Catalogs use specific subject headings to group related books together. A good strategy is to:

Enter a KEYWORD or two

Scan the list for one good item of interest

Click on the SUBJECT HEADINGS for that item

Scan the list of SUBJECT HEADINGS for ones that are of interest

Click on another SUBJECT HEADING to search for more items

Useful Subject Terms

Can't think of terms to describe your topic? Library catalogs use specific subject headings to group related books together. Here are some useful ones for this class:

Computer-assisted instruction -- United States

Educational technology

Information technology

Interactive multimedia -- United States

Internet in Education

Open source software -- United States

Circuit and Inter-Library Loan

Having trouble finding books in the CSUSM Library catalog? Try searching the Circuit or using Inter-Library Loan.

Finding articles

Journals articles include the latest research in a specific field. To find articles, you need to start with a research database. Each database will allow you to search hundreds or even thousands of journals at once by searching for keywords relevant to your topic.

The following databases are useful for this class. Try searching for keywords related to your topic:

Most Useful

ERIC
Good source for sociological and educational topics (Click 'Journal articles only' for scholarly articles).

Academic Search Premier
Full-text. A large, multi-disciplinary database offering full text for nearly 1,850 scholarly journals, including more than 1,250 peer-reviewed titles.

ScienceDirect
Provides full text access to over 1,000 journals covering all fields of science.

PsycINFO
Available via EbscoHost: A comprehensive international database of psychology, covering the academic, research, and practice literature in psychology from over 45 countries in more than 30 languages.

Sociological Abstracts
Use 'Thesaurus Search' to find descriptors for your topic.
Click 'Journal articles only' for scholarly articles.

JSTOR
Use the 'Advanced Search' to limit disciplines and article type.

Blackwell
Blackwell includes over 800 journals in Arts, Business, Health Sciences Humanities, Social Behavioral Sciences, and Science and Technology.

Sage Journals Online
Sage Journals Online includes over 460 journals in Business, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Science, Technology and Medicine.

See an article you want in one of these databases?

Look for "Full Text" in PDF, HTML, Linked or

If all else fails, fill out an Interlibrary Loan article request form. You'll get it within 5-10 days for FREE.

Or, any time you need help, ask a librarian!

Writing an Annotated Bibliography

tolivas@csusm.edu (Toni Olivas) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:53:44 -0800

An annotation is a brief summary of a book, article, or other publication. Its purpose is to describe the work in such a way that the reader can decide whether or not to read the work itself.

Annotations often appear as part of a bibliography (the list of sources that is standard in scholarly books and articles) including most student papers.

When a bibliography includes annotations it is known as an annotated bibliography.

These are 6 points to help you write your annotated bibliography (not necessarily in this order):

          1. What are the qualifications of the author?
          2. What is the main purpose of the text? (summarize in one or two sentences)
          3. How does this source relate to your topic?
          4. What is the viewpoint or bias of the author?
          5. Who is the intended audience of this work?
          6. What is your final comment on this work?

Here is an extended explanation and examples Basically, keep it short and straightforward by using the 6 points above.

Citing Your Sources Using APA

tolivas@csusm.edu (Toni Olivas) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:25:33 -0700

As you conduct your research, you'll need to cite passages and ideas from the sources you've found.

APA: Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. 6th ed. Washington, DC : American Psychological Association, 2009

For more information on APA citation style, please look at the library's Citing Sources page.

There are free online citation generators you can use, too. CAUTION: These online tools are not 100% accurate. YOU are responsible for knowing the correct citation parts: