  
Data Management Help
Data Management HelpTalk to PeopleUse the Pyramid strategy in Look section to find people and "talk" with them in person, on the phone, or through dozens of Internet based systems of interact.Master Card Catalog SystemsThe general goal in searching an online library or libraries is to copy useful citations from your screen and paste them into a word processing file. You use Web browsing software as your hunting weapon and a word processor file as your capture bag. The Look section of the Learner Home Page has a link called Library Systems (e.g., Print/AudioVisual). that lists a wide range of libraries and special library resources to search. Generally these are citation oriented systems that point to the location of books and articles which then require you to visit that library to read them. However, most libraries are experimenting with putting the full text of selected articles online and sometimes books themselves. If you just want further coaching on how to set up collection systems, move to the section, Personal Data Management Coaching.Click Menu to return to it.
World Wide Web and General Internet HelpYou can also use the Web to search not just for citations which only point to the presence and location of a reference, but to obtain the source itself. Sometimes this is referred to as a fulltext search. See the base of the pyramid, the fulltext link, in CROP's Look section for a range of web searching tools. The text and web address of web pages can be copied and also pasted
into your project's word processor file. But that term is misleading, because
this is a multimedia world. So you may also be searching for files that
will be digital audio, photo, video clips or lengthy articles and books.
For these file types, your capture bag must be a folder, because a single
word processing file is generally too cumbersome for storing all these
kinds of data. This means that for your operating system, whether Mac,
Windows or other, you will need to know how to create a new folder (sometimes
called a directory). Label this folder with a title appropriate to your
project. But you still use a word processing file to store the names of
the files you capture and place in your folder. Create a brief discription
of what the captured file consists of or contains to go with the name of
the file. Your word processing file acts then as a table of contents or
master annotated index to everything in your project folder.
Click Menu to return to it.
Personal Data Management CoachingHow to CollectYou begin with a need for a container to hold what you will catch with your Looking and hunting. Make one now. To set up a folder or directory:
How to Organize your Collection (Pre-composing)As your "catch" grows, you will find that subsets begin to appear. As your collection builds, begin to look for groups of ideas that can be labeled appropriately. Look for tools that can assist this process. The organization of information according the personal reference of the collector makes an important leap. It moves the collector from a simple copier of information, like copying from an encyclopedia, to meaningful thinking that is current to the users situation. This puts the data in the current context, not the context of the setting in which the data was found and originally organized. This gives the data relevance to the current problem. Through this act of creative organization, the collector gives the data new meaning. Organizing afresh renews the very meaning of the data.Compare and contrast organizing and not organizing. Why is organizing useful? To get this usefulness concept across to the youngest learners, dump 4 or 5 dollars worth of pennies on a table, give them the paper sleeves a bank uses and tell them to put them in sets of 50. Think of further physical activities that serve as a basis to discuss the benefits of organizing, that enable you to ask the central question. Draw parallels between the benefits of grouping things and the benefit of grouping ideas. For example, just as it is easier to see and count (inventory) grouped items, it is easier to see an overview or list of your major ideas. On the other hand, when does organizing disrupt creativity? As your collection grows, your electronic folder should hold at least one word processing file which holds your own ideas, brainstorms, and the names of the other files in your folder. Think of this central file as the home file for your project. These other files in your folder might be images, drawings, photo's, digital maps, digital video clips and sounds, digital speech and so forth. The name of the file that you note in your home file may not be enough description. It may take an entire paragraph or more to describe or summarize the useful contents of related files. These groups will make better sense if they are sequenced in an order of your choosing. Then it will be helpful to order or sequence the elements or items within your groups. But what order or sequence? To answer that, you must decide on your audience. Are you communicating to yourself, just trying to understand and get your thoughts together on a topic? Then in determining this sequence you have only to ask yourself which is best. Do you like your most difficult, or your most interesting or your easiest topics first. But if you must communicate to others, then you must get to know them better. Who is this person or who are those people? What do they know? What must they know first, so that other ideas will follow? One of the most powerful ways to move from organizing to evoking a response from others (composing) is to use a word processor with outlining capability, but there are many related tools. Tools for Organizing (Grouping/Patterning, Labelling, Sequencing)
On the Drives: Computer-Assisted Reporting and Research, by Dean Tudor (see especially headings towards the bottom of this page titled Spreadsheets, Database Managers, GIS (Geographic Information Systems, Other Software and Multimedia)
Copyright, Dr. Robert S. Houghton, v.1.0, 1994; updated 10.16.99 10:38 am EST |
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