The Infoethicist Is Now Connected

http://infoethicist.blogspot.com I'm working on my first posting, a revised ethics quiz. Let me know if you have any ideas for examples to use on the quiz.

The Infoethicist: Website Here

http://infoethicist.blogspot.com

I need to make sure that my two blogs are connected. For posts in 2006, look at The Infoethicist http://infoethicist.blogspot.com

Switching to Information Ethics Blog Soon

Look there for The New and Improved Ethics Quiz

Information Ethics Again

I'm planning to start posting again to my information ethics blog. I'll post the address here when I do.

Bye and Hello Again

Friends and Colleagues,
To borrow from Hilary Clinton at her final campaign rally-- this isn't the kind of year end memo I expected to be writing. First I want to thank so many of you for the gifts of friendship and good work over the past two years. I will remember the challenges and successes we've had and the joys of getting to know so many new people. I wish you all the very best for the future.

At church we have a custom to bring closure when a church member or pastor leaves or steps down from a particular responsibility. During Sunday worship, we have a liturgy to mark the ending and a new beginnning. If we apply the same convention to the current setting, I'd ask you to release me from my responsibilities and our former relationships and also ask you to forgive any shortcomings. At the same time, I would offer you release from the past and forgiveness for any shortcomings. Even from a distance, I feel a great deal of peace to think of us performing this rite of passage.

In the immediate future, I will be doing some guest preaching at various churches in the area and exploring my future career options. On June 1st, I lead worship over in the Conshohocken area for Gulph UCC. On the 15th (Father's Day) I'll be at my home church, Immanuel UCC in Shillington, for the 8am and 10:30am services. Some of you may not know that preaching is my most favorite activity in church while being in the nursery with the babies is a close second. With a Ph. D. in Biblical Studies, it's fun to get in the pulpit and make the gospel real. I'll be helping out at Immanuel later in the summer as our pastors are away on mission trips or vacations. I hope to do more preaching in the area as well. It may be that I'll do the training for intentional interim ministry. Years ago I served two churches in interim periods and enjoyed it very much. In case you don't know about this part of my life, I've been ordained in the United Church of Christ since 1983 (before that in the United Methodist Church--1971). http://www.ucc.org

April has been talking to me about our starting a consulting business. Combining our backgrounds, we could cover a wide territory from healthy eating (April) to online teaching (me). Right now consulting on the starting or growing online programs appeals to me. I'd be especially interested in online programs in seminaries. I'm still not ready to get back into teaching online or on a campus. I do love the library and working with new technologies, so in time I'll look into that area as well. I've also thought of doing some more speaking on information ethics, particularly in faith-based settings. Since I'm now free to travel, it would be fun to get back out on the circuit. As most of you know, I love to be "on stage." Writing still calls me, so do check here from time to time to see what happens with that.

To keep myself healthy, I'm going back to yoga and probably swimming. So far I'm still making progress is losing the weight to get back to my Weight Watcher goal. Three pounds so far is pretty good.

Please stay in touch. Even as we move along on separate paths, I'll be thinking of you. My email addresses for now are Google: martismith419@gmail.com and AOL: martismith419@aol.com I'll be glad to send you other contact info.
Peace and hope,
Marti

No Longer with Alvernia College

Please note that this blog will no longer contain any information about Alvernia College. I will continue as a personal blog.

Alvernia Reads for the 50th Anniversary

Alvernia Reads 2008-2009
The Little Flowers of St. Francis
Look here for more information.

Copyright Workshop Resources

Hi Gang,
This is such a busy time of year, so I decided to put the resources I'll be using in my workshops of Copyright and the New World of Scholarly Communication on the blog. Enjoy.
Marti

Workshop on Copyright and Scholarly Communication: Reminder

Saturday, April 26th. Please email me and let me know if you can attend. marti.smith@alvernia.edu 10-12noon and 2-4pm (The same material will be repeated.)

For more details, see posting for March 6th.

April 5th Workshop: From Finding Information to the PowerPoint Presentation

Outline of the Workshop: Finding and Using Quality Resources
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Dr. Marti Smith

Schedule: (15 mins. presentation and 15 mins. for questions and personal assistance)
10:00 Finding Information from Quality Sources: Library Subscription Databases

10:30 Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due (Citing sources, print and electronic; Avoiding Plagiarism and Other Intellectual Property Mistakes; Protecting Your Intellectual Property Rights)

11:00 Academic Research Sources to Inform Original Research (Google Scholar and Peer-reviewed Sources; Dissertations and Faculty Websites)

11:30 PowerPoint for Impact and Understanding

http://mmslearningplace.blogspot.com/


Part 1: Finding Information for Scholarly Research
If the goal is to identify current research in a particular area, then here are some of the steps you mind take.
1. Start with two or three of the database(s) and search for some key names or terms. For example, search for a scholar (Brenda Dervin); a method or theory (sense-making); and a methodological approach (participant observation).

2. Quickly note the results for quantity and quality. Document for later use the key terms, descriptors, technical terms, names of journals, or other aspects of your searches. Note the history feature in the EBSCO databases.

3. Review how to save, email, and print your results.
After some general searching, review your results and decide what to do next.


Part 2: Intellectual Property: Theirs, Yours, Mine
To become a part of the community of people who create new knowledge and cultivate the preservation of knowledge, the new scholar will need to learn the customs and conventions of his or her particular field. In the digital world, this is a special challenge. Today we will review some of the basics and invite you to continue to build your awareness and competences as you move through your studies.

1. Most of us will use APA style or a variation of it. http://www.apa.org
In submitting manuscripts, we can be guided by the conventions of the specific journal. Usually, copy editors guide the final revision of the manuscript.

2. What about one’s own intellectual property? Is it always necessary to sign away right to publishers? What about retaining copyright?


Part 3: Google Scholar for Scholarly Research http://scholar.google.com

1. Google Scholar and Citation Databases: What do new scholars need to know about patterns in scholarly communication? See a useful article on citation indexing in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citation_index Also see the Web of Knowledge web site http://isiwebofknowledge.com/

2. Alvernia databases integrated into Google Scholar Review access to full text holdings through the Full Text Periodical Finder
Alvernia holdings and Google Book search http://books.google.com


Part 4: PowerPoint and Poster Presentations http://www.microsoft.com
1. Using a Pp template: Simple is best. Don’t read the slides.
2. Doing a poster presentation starting with Pp.
3. Pp and pdf

It's a bird, it's a plane, No, it's a book. Google Books

Cited by 1041. How important is J. Lofland?

[BOOK] Analyzing Social Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Observation and AnalysisJ Lofland, LH Lofland - 1984 - Arden Shakespeare, TheCited by 1041 - Related Articles - Web Search - Library Search

J Lofland: Look at the Dates

Ask yourself. What is the value of finding articles and books from decades ago that have been cited by many?


Tip: Try removing quotes from your search to get more results.

Doing Social Life: The Qualitative Study of Human Interaction in Natural SettingsJ Lofland - Chapter One - questia.com... The leadership of Leon H. Mayhew in that milieu has been particularly appreciated.JOHN LOFLAND. Davis, California July 1976. -ix-. Questia Media America, Inc. ... Cited by 106 - Related Articles - Web Search - Library Search


[BOOK] Analyzing Social Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Observation and AnalysisJ Lofland, LH Lofland - 1984 - Arden Shakespeare, TheCited by 1041 - Related Articles - Web Search - Library Search

Look for the Lists of Citations

Even if you can not find one particular article, see what you can find in the citations lists.

J Lofland

A Bryman

L Smith

T Jick

A Vidich

Authors in Google Scholar: Leadership and Participant Observation

J Lofland



A Bryman



L Smith



T Jick



A Vidich

JSTOR: Why is JSTOR such an important resource for research?

Click on the title of this article:

An Evolving Logic of Participant Observation, Educational Ethnography, and Other Case Studies - Full-Text @ AlverniaLM Smith - Review of Research in Education, 1978 - JSTORAn Evolving Logic of Participant Observation, Educational Ethnography, and OtherCase Studies. Louis M. Smith. Review of Research in Education, Vol. 6, 316-377. ... Cited by 100 - Related Articles - Web Search

Using Google Scholar with the Alvernia Databases

This posting is only for the brave and determined. The good news is that we have a wonderful software program that links our articles databases with Google Scholar so that it's easier for us to find full-text or abstract information about the rich resources in Google Scholar. That's the bad news too. Don't give up yet.

First, you can see that my search found 19,000 entries. I searched leadership and the exact phrase "participant observation." Below are the first few results. Note too that under All Results there are several names. These are key names/authors found in the search.
Now look at the first result, and you'll start to see the good news and the bad news. It looks like you can find the full text in the Alvernia database, but it's not quite that simple. Do not despair. Even when you can't get directly to the full- text, often because Alvernia does not subscribe to that particular journal. But sometimes you will find it. At the workshop, I'll show you how to get the most out of this interface.

From Google Scholar Search:
All articles - Recent articles
Results 1 - 10 of about 19,900 for leadership "participant observation". (0.12 seconds)

All Results
J Lofland
A Bryman
L Smith
T Jick
A Vidich


An Evolving Logic of Participant Observation, Educational Ethnography, and Other Case Studies - Full-Text @ AlverniaLM Smith - Review of Research in Education, 1978 - JSTORAn Evolving Logic of Participant Observation, Educational Ethnography, and OtherCase Studies. Louis M. Smith. Review of Research in Education, Vol. 6, 316-377. ... Cited by 100 - Related Articles - Web Search

Qualitative research as the cornerstone methodology for understanding leadership - Full-Text @ Alvernia - all 2 versions »JA Conger - The Leadership Quarterly, 1998 - Elsevier... The author has employed observation and participant observation in two researchprojects on leadership (1985, 1992). Without a doubt ... Cited by 57 - Related Articles - Web Search

Participant Observation and the Collection and Interpretation of Data - Full-Text @ AlverniaAJ Vidich - The American Journal of Sociology, 1955 - JSTOR... In view of this widespread dependence upon participant observation as a ... betweencompeting factions, competing leaders, or leadership- membership cleavages. ... Cited by 37 - Related Articles - Web Search

Grounded theory and social process: A new direction for leadership research - Full-Text @ Alvernia - all 2 versions »KW Parry - The Leadership Quarterly, 1998 - Elsevier... Participant observation Unstructured interviewing Life history Grounded theory analysis ...s (I 99 1) content analysis of the construction of leadership images in ... Cited by 62 - Related Articles - Web Search

Doing Social Life: The Qualitative Study of Human Interaction in Natural SettingsJ Lofland - Chapter One - questia.com... The leadership of Leon H. Mayhew in that milieu has been particularly appreciated.JOHN LOFLAND. Davis, California July 1976. -ix-. Questia Media America, Inc. ... Cited by 106 - Related Articles - Web Search - Library Search

Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: Triangulation in Action - Full-Text @ Alvernia - all 2 versions »TD Jick - Administrative Science Quarterly, 1979 - JSTOR... same conclusions, provide a more certain portrayal of the leadership phenomenon ... Forqualitative methods such as participant observation, this can be re- flected ... Cited by 1115 - Related Articles - Web Search

Looking for the Acronym

Find the acronym. See post right below:


OBEMLA


Proceedings of the Second National Research Symposium on Limited English Proficient Student Issues:
FOCUS ON EVALUATION AND MEASUREMENT
Washington, D. C.September 1991
VOLUME 1 VOLUME 2


United States Department of EducationOffice of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs Published August 1992

Note that the US Department of Education publishes a great deal of research in education and related area.

Conference Paper: Sense-Making and Science Education

If we're trying to find out if sense-making might apply to a research idea we're considering we could look at papers from conferences as well as articles in scholarly journals. Here is an example:

http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/symposia/second/vol2/science.htm

Science Education as a Sense-Making Practice
Proceedings of the Second National Research Symposium on Limited English Proficient Student Issues: Focus on Evaluation and Measurement. OBEMLA, 1992.

Formal Title: Science Education as a Sense-Making Practice:Implications for Assessment
Authors: Beth Warren and Ann S. RoseberyTechnical Education Research Center, Cambridge

Where would you find this acronym? OBEMLA (Think first of using the URL as a way to get more information.)

Workshop, April 5th: Sense-Making as a Methodology

I'm going to highlight the variety of settings identified by Dervin as appropriate for research using sense-making as a methodology.

http://communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/

Look here to learn about Brenda Dervin's Sense-Making Scholarship...See the quotation below:

"Sense-Making is an approach to thinking about and implementing communication research and practice and the design of communication-based systems and activities. It consists of a set of philosophical assumptions, substantive propositions, methodological framings, and methods. It has been applied in myriad settings (e.g., libraries, information systems, media systems, web sites, public information campaigns, classrooms, counseling services, and so on), at myriad levels (e.g., intrapersonal, interpersonal, small group, organizational, mass, national, global), and within myriad perspectives (e.g., constructivist, critical, cultural, feminist, postmodern, communitarian). The approach has been developed by Brenda Dervin and is being expanded, transformed, and enriched daily by the efforts of some 100-plus persons worldwide (academics and practitioners, teachers and students). This web site is designed to provide access to these efforts and links to those who are involved. On this site, Sense-Making (capitalized) refers to the methodology; sense-making (not capitalized) refers to the phenomena of making and unmaking of sense.
Since Sense-Making has been under development since 1972, it cannot be encapsulated in a few sentences or even the intersection of all the documents on this web site. It is important, however, for the reader to know that the project has been based on three central assumptions regarding communication practice: (a) That it is possible to design and implement communication systems and practices that are responsive to human needs; (b) That it is possible for humans to enlarge their communication repertoires to pursue this vision; (c) That achieving these outcomes requires the development of communication-based methodological approaches."

Using EBSCO for Help with Citation Management

http://www.alvernia.edu/library


Go to Article Databases and select one of the EBSCO databases such as Education Research Complete. EDUCATION -- EBSCO

Using Advanced Search, you can probably find a good list of 10-20 full- text articles on a solid research topic and narrow it down enough to see the trends in the research.

Note that you can print, email, and save your results. Note also that after several searches you can use the "History" feature to see what you have searched and go back to previous results or combine searches. I suggest you save and email results so that you will have electronic files to document your work. We all forget what we have done and found almost as soon as our fingers leave the keys. Keep your results electronically even if you print some. You don't want to have to enter data more than once.

Enter the name of a scholar in the field and see what you find. I'm using Brenda Dervin for the workshop and also one of her dissertation students. Dr. Dervin, Ohio State, has developed and used a research theory and method called "sense-making" for several decades. I think that her work will serve as a good example for our workshop. I've chosen Dervin and sense-making for illustration because (1.) Dervin is well-established and works with the level of theory and with the methodologies most likely to be use or at least understood by students in our program in leadership studies; (2.) Sense-making as a theory and a method is used by students in a wide variety of disciplines and particularly in professional, action-oriented research; (3.) Dervin and sense-making are not so popular that as terms are the easiest to find so I can illustrate some of the subtleties in searching the electronic resources in scholarly communication.

You should be able to find "Dervin, Brenda" and "sense-making" in all of our social science databases, in Google Scholar, and in the academic regions of the web.