A7.7: Participation Memo

Deidra Darst
10/6/07

Aims and Objectives: 
My personal goals with regard to this week of CD 315 were to complete my assignments in an exemplory manner and in a timely fashion.  I set out to start my assignments about midweek and to do at least one assignment each day.  I set out to do this because I had a pretty heavy workload this week.  I had a diagnostics test Tuesday, observation hours to clock for therapeutics lab I, and I wanted to visit with my family on Wednesday evening.  I successfully completed everything on my “to-do” list for the seventh week of the fall semester of my senior year!  As I sit here late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, I am accomplishing another goal – completing my CD 315 week 7 assignments. 

Declarative Knowledge: 

I learned about several different topics through the completion of this week’s assignments.  First, I learned about “The Three “R”s of Inquiry” in an article by Raymond McInnis.  He wrote that students must master the arts of research, reading and writing in order to successfully complete tasks of inquiry.  I also learned how to evaluate sources from the Internet; I evaluated the site betterdogfood.com by completing a set of questions from Purdue University’s library’s website.  I learned even more about evaluating online sources from the article Evaluating Information Found on the Internet.  This week’s Library Searching II assignment taught me about manipulating keywords within various databases to find pertinent information regarding my research topic.  Through Monday’s virtual meeting I learned valuable information about working with adult patients within an acute care rehabilitation center.  I learned about patient history and patient expectations and how these will guide your clinical decisions.  By registering for a social bookmarking site via del.icio.us, I learned about the process of social bookmarking and how it can aid me in my everyday web-searching adventures. 

Procedural Knowledge:  

I learned to do several things this week.  First, I learned how to interact with my classmates within a virtual meeting place.  I created an account, downloaded the necessary software, logged into tappedin.org, and joined my classmates in a designated meeting place.  I learned how to communicate with everyone via text and emoting.  I learned how to evaluate information found on the Internet.  Purdue University and Johns Hopkins University provided useful tips and strategies to consider when evaluating online sources.  For example, it is important to learn about the author and his or her background, education and expertise regarding the topic at hand.  The information itself must be assessed – is it credible?  Biased?  Current?  Verifiable?  One should also question the reliability of online information and not take it at face value.  I also learned how to use the social bookmarking site del.icio.us.com .  I created an account and read the directions about bookmarking websites.  Now, whenever I visit a site I can simply click on my “tag” button at the top of my browser and the site will be saved on my del.icio.us account.   

Conditional Knowledge:
  This week’s assignments taught me how to critically analyze and evaluate online sources.  The Internet is a great resource when it comes to research, but I need to know when I can trust information.  The documents from Purdue University and Johns Hopkins University were very beneficial as they provided me with an outline to follow when evaluating online information.   

As a student I am constantly asked to find information and present my findings in a paper or presentation of some sort.  This week I learned how to gather information by completing the Library Search II assignment.  In the process of completing my Web Evaluation assignments I learned how to analyze the information that I find.  I have read many articles this semester and many allude to the same thing; finding information is easy in today’s technologically savvy world, but interpreting, evaluating, and affixing a value to that information requires skill and practice.   

As a pre-professional I can relate to Katie’s discussion with our class on Monday night.  She talked about many field-related things:  preparing for therapy, working with different types of patients, acquiring the necessary background information, and working interdependently with other professionals.  I know that I will one day be in her position and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing a “newbie’s” point-of-view.   

This may seem a bit off-topic, but I made another meaningful connection this week.  While I have always considered myself an empathetic individual, this week truly opened my eyes.  During our discussion with Katie about patient values and goals, I realized that I am quite selfish.  While I often know and understand other peoples’ points-of-view, I often regard mine as “right.”  When a speech-language pathologist is working with a client, both the SLP’s and the client’s values are considered.  However, it is ultimately the patient’s decision to be made.  If a client does not wish to partake in speech and language therapy, that is their decision to make and not mine.  I will have to work on relinquishing power and letting others determine what is right for them.