A8.6 Week 8 Participation Memo

Deidra Darst

10/10/07

Aims and Objectives:

My personal goals in regard to CD 315 this week were to convey the knowledge I gained by completing the weekly assignments with thoughtful consideration.   And, as always, I wanted to complete my assignments before the due date.  I set out to complete at least two assignments in one sitting.  I started the assignments on Monday as soon as I saw that they were posted on the CD 315 website.  I hoped to complete all the work before the weekend.  I set out to do this because I plan on completing some work in my other classes this weekend, and wanted to make sure that I had plenty of time to concentrate on this course’s material.  Here I sit on Wednesday evening, completing my CD 315 week eight assignments.  Finished on Wednesday – I think this is a new record for me! 

Declarative Knowledge:

This week I learned about digital literacy again.  I reread the article Experiments in Digital Literacy and applied the concepts to my life.  I learned more about how the components of digital literacy are constants in my everyday activities.  I also learned about APA formatting this week.  I read about the word “prospectus” and learned about its application in research projects, such as in my literacy-related research for this course.  I learned more about copyright laws, infringement and fair use policies during Monday night’s small group discussion on TappedIn.org. 

Procedural Knowledge:

This week I learned to do several things.  First, I learned how to edit APA citations.  I skimmed through my research resources on my wordpress.com blog and located several formatting errors.  I referenced the APA Publication Manual to determine the correct formatting.  As I read through the book I realized that I had several other errors!  I know now that I need to look more carefully at APA citations because they are more complicated that I previously thought.  This week’s assignments required me to create a “project prospectus,” a statement of a prospected plan of action regarding my research project.  To create this prospectus, I revisited my essential question and foundation questions.  I evaluated the questions and formulated a “point” that I wished to make with my findings.  I then answered some questions about the process that led me to my questions.  This challenged me to decide what I really wanted to learn from my research.  I considered the information that I so far and decided what I have learned from these sources. 

Conditional Knowledge:

This week’s information has been beneficial to me as a student, as I can utilize the knowledge gained during the remainder of this course and for the duration of my academic career.  The most pertinent knowledge that I gained this week was from the small group discussion about copyright laws.  The copyright is a powerful and useful creation that should be taken seriously.  I, as a student, must respect the works of others.  Because I cannot use works created by others I am given the opportunity to create things for myself.  The copyright comes into action here as well because my works are protected by copyright laws as well. 

 As a pre-professional I feel abliged to abide by the ASHA Code of Ethics.  The Code of Ethics states that professionals must give credit where it is due.  I cannot claim to own something that has been created by another person.  This goes hand-in-hand with copyrighting laws.  I would not think about stealing from another person regardless because I abide by my own standards and morals, but nonetheless, I will one day be representing the profession of speech-language pathology and should do so in a professional and respectable manner.

 I think this week’s copyright discussion benefitted me as a citizen.  I think everyone should be knowledgeable about copyright laws and the like.  By understanding these laws I can remain a law-abiding citizen!  The article Experiments in Digital Literacy also “spoke” to me as a citizen.  In order to be digitally literate in today’s world, an individual must have many different skills.  The digitally literate individual must be a multi-faceted, multi-talented, and have multiple intelligences (as in Gardner’s hierarchy of multiple intelligences).  It takes many skills and abilities in order to thrive in a digital society.