martedì 19 maggio 2009

MY PLE

hi guys, here's my personal learning environment!

venerdì 8 maggio 2009

The risks of the Internet

This subject is very interesting and very complex at the same time. The Internet has completely revolutioned our lives, it influences us in lots of ways and has become part of what we are, of our culture. Let's say it clearly: not only as a student, but also as a person, I am aware of the fact that I can't live without it anymore.

In this perspective, it is fundamental to be conscious of the risks that the Internet can bring. Some examples: privacy violation, plagiarism, fake information, unwanted violent contents, immense amount of information. What can we do to avoid these problems? I think the only solution is awareness: we can't change how the Internet works, but we can change our approach towards it. You can avoid risks only if you know them.

Reflecting on the risks of the Internet, I think something else must be mentioned. It's something that goes far beyond the field of information and the language learning issue. Well, I think one of the greater risks of the Internet is its consequences on our social relationships: all these tools that permit to communicate with everyone just make relationships superficial. It's just too easy!! I mean, do you really communicate when you use Facebook??

I don't know, maybe I'm just old-fashioned..but I am afraid that in the long run we are going to lose the capability to really relate to people, communicate to them, TALK to them!!! And how about the linguistic aspect??? I could go on and on discussing these issues, but this post is not the right place..so..What do you think?

To conclude, I didn't mean to say I am against the Internet, not at all. I am totally aware of the great possibilities it gives us, and I take advantage of them every day. But like everything, it has to be used in a proper, responsible and not superficial way. Just be careful!!

giovedì 30 aprile 2009

Google Docs

This week we learned how to use Google Docs, another magic tool available on the Internet. The purpose of Google Docs is sharing documents: whatever you are writing, you can put it there and share it with other people.

The fact that you can have your pieces of writing on the Net and share them with other users seems to be very useful for more than one reason.
First of all, now we have a place where we can put our written documents being almost 100% sure we're not going to lose them (I know several people who were stolen their pc with their thesis in..the only copy they had! It's better not to risk..)
The other fundamental function of this tool, as I already pointed out, is the sharing function: your documents are there, and they can be edited by other people. This can be great when you work in groups: you don't need to have thousands of versions of your work and look for the right one everytime! What's more, I think Google Docs could also be helpful for us when we'll be writing our final thesis: besides having it there safe and sound, we could share it with our supervisor and get our corrections there, saving time and paper!

In class we had to look at a document that we shared and edit the references in the bibliography following APA style. Sometimes it was quite hard to find what we where looking for, and we had to be very precise and punctilious (very difficult thing for me), but Google Docs made the whole thing easier and faster.

I like the idea that we can take advantage of other people's knowledge, and, of course, be helpful for other people by sharing our knowledge with them.

domenica 26 aprile 2009

Respond

Hi girls, today I'm going to comment your posts on plagiarism. Your posts are both well written and well structured. You managed to be coincise, precise and clear. I agree with you Francesca when you say how the limit between plagiarism and influence is not clear-cut: in anything we write, say or think we are influenced by someone else. Especially in academic writing, reporting someone else's theories and thoughts seems to be something we can not avoid. Now we know how to do it properly! Giorgia, I like your idea of Dos & Dont's. The tips you both listed are very useful.

As far as the linguistic aspect of your posts is concerned, I didn't find big mistakes..just a few suggestions:

Francesca
-Talking about plagiarism you wrote: 'I have to admit that its concept is not very clear to me'...maybe 'this concept' here would be better!
-You wrote 'other's work' and 'other's ideas'...isn't it better to write 'others' work' and 'others'ideas' here?
-'something that regard us'.....you forgot an s: 'something that regards us'

Giorgia
The only mistake I found is this: at the end you write '...any kind of suggestions on referencing issue'...here I think the plural would be better: 'referencing issues'!

That's it for the moment...see you!

mercoledì 22 aprile 2009

APA or MLA?

Both APA and MLA are referencing styles: they explain in details how to deal with citations and references in writing.

While APA treats a larger number of aspects regarding style, like structure of the page, footnotes, abstract, etc., MLA is more concentrated on referencing and citing, telling you how to write a reference of ANY type of writing available in the world!!

Instinctively I prefer APA, it looks clearer and easier for one's eyes!

Some basic differences concerning the styles in referencing a source are:

-APA uses italics for the title, while MLA prefers underlining it.
-APA tends to use the initial for the name of the author, while MLA tends to prefer using the complete firstname.
-APA puts the year of publication right after the author's name, while MLA puts it at the end of the reference.

Anyway, these are pure matters of choice: no style is better than the other. The important thing is once you've choosen one, you have to keep using it.

Without realizing it, in my BA thesis I used APA style, which my Professor recommended me.

martedì 21 aprile 2009

Readability 2

Should blog posts follow the features of a readable text mentioned in the previous post?I think that they should, like any other kind of text. Every writer should be interested in making their text easily comprehensible. So, any post that has a certain consistency should follow these five rules. If we want our blogs to be taken as a serious means of information and communication, we need to make sure they are also well written.
More generally, I think school and university should insist more on these writing issues!

Readability

A readable writing should be:

-well structured
-logical
-cohesive
-clear, precise and concise
-coherent

Today I'm going examine a research article found on the Internet for my final thesis, trying to see if it presents the features of a readable text, which I have reported above. The article I choose deals with translation of comics; I'm not sure I'm writing my thesis on this topic yet, but I find it an interesting field, which I would like to know more about. The writer is Federico Zanettin, and the title is: "Comics in translation studies. An overview and suggestions for research". Let's see:

1. Does it follow the hourglass structure?
Yes, it does. The article presents an introduction, a body and a conclusion.

2. Is there a logical flow of ideas?
The article doesn't really follow a logical order. As the title says, the text is "an overview": it considerates a series of aspects regarding the translation of comics, which do not necessarily constitute a logical flow of ideas. However, I don't think the choice of the order of the themes is casual. The aspects treated are conceptually connected.

3. Is the text cohesive? What is done to make it cohesive?
Yes, the text is cohesive. The use of connectors and linking words is appropriated. Connectors are not 'over used': the aspects presented are already 'conceptually linked', so often they are not needed.

4. Is the writing clear or complex?
I think the writing is very clear; probably, the fact that the writer is Italian makes the text more understandable for Italian readers. Anyway, the author doesn't use too complicated syntax nor terminology, and he often gives examples that make the comprehension easier.

5. Who is the text's assumed audience? What indications of this do you have? How does this influence how the text is written?
The text is clearly addressed to an academic context: it refers to previous academic writing on the topic, it aspires to be a suggestion for further research. Then, the readers will presumably be people with a certain knowledge on comics: specific terminology is used, there are references to many comics from different countries and epoques. As I already pointed out, this does not imply a too complex structure.

lunedì 20 aprile 2009

Plagiarism

Last week we dealt with another important aspect concerning sources: plagiarism. This is something we have always heard about, but we never got to analyze properly, at least at university.

The basic idea is that when writing anything, be it an academic essay, our final thesis, or any kind of research work, we can not use someone else's thoughts without pointing out that we are doing so. This is worth both in the case of quotation or reformulation of someone else's words, but also in the case of the use of images.
As far as quotations and reformulations are concerned, there are several styles of reference. We can choose the one we prefer, as long as we keep using the same. Regarding photos, there are tools which permit to share our pictures and to use other people's ones without any problem.

There are many ways to find out how to avoid plagiarism and respect copyright and IPR: as always, the Internet is the fastest solution. You can find lots of online information on these topics.

Finally, I think CONSCIENCE must be mentioned. Very often, especially in our field (and in our country), there is not sufficient control on these issues. How many times have you heard of people writing stuff just by copying and pasting here and there?? How many times we prefer easier and faster solutions?? How many times we prefer being 'furbi' than 'onesti'?? (I prefer using the Italian words here, because this two concepts, in particular the first one, are soooooo Italian...)

Let's just be honest!!!!

martedì 7 aprile 2009

Evaluating online sources, part 2

I read the posts by my peers on evaluating online sources; we agree on the importance of a careful analysis of the source we are consulting. Besides giving us more awareness on this issue, this week's activity got us to learn about some new tools that are going to be very useful in the future, for any kind of research. (Notice the use of the relative clause here..I think it's a non-defining, so I didn't put any comma and used that instead of which...Is that right??)
That's all for the moment, see you soon!

domenica 5 aprile 2009

Evaluating online sources

Hi everyone..
today I would like to start with a little reflection on information. Like Pirandello said, absolute truth does not exist! It all depends on the point of view from which one sees things. This concept can be applied to the world of information: anytime we read or hear something, we need to stop and consider who is writing or saying it, in what context, for what reasons, when he or she did it. Culture, political believes, purposes are some of the factors that necessarily determine how people perceive things, and, as a consequence, how they report them. In this perspective, the concepts of reliabilility and trustfulness of the sources are relative.
During last week's lesson we reflected on this issue; we asked ourselves how can we evaluate the reliability of online sources. What I wrote above is even more relevant if we consider online information: since anyone can publish online, we have to be really careful and spend even more time thinking of what kind of source we are dealing with. The greatest revolution brought about by the Internet is the fact that we have access to an enormously greater number of sources. This is why we need to learn how to choose and filter them.
In class we were asked to think of the aspects we usually consider when we evaluate an online source. Generally, we agreed on the fact that we need to consider who is the author, if we can consider him/her authoritative in the field, if he/she is cited in other sources; then, what is the domain of the website, if the content is reliable...
Later we took a look at some University's recommendation. This gave us a larger perspective, and gave us some suggestions. For example, San Diego State University suggests to consider the date of the document, if the document has been updated or modified, and the reason why it has been written. I had never really paid attention to these issues before.
Besides making me more aware of the fact that I need to analyse the sources I am consulting more carefully, this lesson showed me some new tools I didn't know about, like google blogs, google books, google scholar, DOAJ (directory of open access journals). Hopefully, these tools will be useful for me, not only when I'll be writing my final thesis, but anytime I'll consult an online source!

mercoledì 1 aprile 2009

Delicious

Hi everyone!
This post is dedicated to social bookmarking, a tool which we just learned to use. Basically, It is all about sharing knowledge, information and recommendations with your peers; there's a very nice website called delicious which makes it possible! It's really simple and quick to use: you enter, look for a topic you are interested in, the site gives you a list of website which deal with it; at this point, you just have to choose the websites you prefer and post them in your personal page. It is also possible to create a network in order to see the websites selected by your peers, which is what we did. What should I say..this is great! First of all, It's a good way to filter the huge amount of information available on the web. Then, it is also very interesting to share information with our course-peers: in looking at the website they chose, I noticed we have many interests in common: learning languages (of course), travelling, reading, writing..It's just like exchanging information with your friends! I mean, we are more or less the same age, we study the same things, we are (almost all) girls...of course we have a lot in common, not only as students but also as persons. So, delicious is a good way to share information on what we like; the fact that a website has been selected by a peer is a sort of guarantee...On the web you can find anything: sometimes a help by someone you trust is the best thing.
In fact, among the websites recommended by my peers I found something very interesting. I explored a website about London posted by Giorgia: two Italian guys living in London keep a blog on their lives there. I spent a couple in months in London, too, so It's always nice for me to read or hear something about it (It is also the city where I fell in love..so you can understand my nostalgia..). I love London, and anything that has to do with it just reminds me of the great time I had there. Moreover, I hope to go back and stay for a longer period; so, any information about it is useful. Anyway, I was expecting to find more about the cultural aspect..but the two guys started keeping the blog only a few months ago...so, we'll see...
Then I chose a website posted by Francesca about vegetarianism. Recently, I've been meeting quite a few vegetarian people, or heard about people I know who became vegetarians. In the flat where I live now there are two of them, so vegetarianism is something we talk about everyday, especially when we cook, of course. Well, this site gives specific information on the topic. In particular, ther's a section called 'meet the animals', which gives detailes on the way they are treated. I agree with all of the points supported by vegetarians, and I don't like meat very much anyway...so I've been considering the idea of taking a definitive decision. Probably more information is what is going to give me a little push. Finally, It's always good to see someone supporting their ideals.
Thanks to both my peers!
See you soon

giovedì 26 marzo 2009

SORRY!!

Hi everyone
I just wanted to apologize for not updating this blog for so long and missing out the last e-tivities...It's been quite a hard period for me. I PROMISE I'll try to catch up and I'll update the blog on a regular basis! A special sorry to my peers, who were supposed to work with my blog and couldn't do it. See you soon!

giovedì 19 marzo 2009

Hallo

Finally I have a blog, too. Unbelievable! My friends wouldn't believe it. The most difficult thing was to find an available name for this blog. I could have thought of something more creative I guess.. Anyway, if I managed to to that, I'll definitely manage to keep this blog.
Welcome!