Academic Resources:

Play Methods & MaterialsECED - 4423

Frederic Murray Assistant ProfessorMLIS, University of British ColumbiaBA, Political Science, University of Iowa

Instructional Services LibrarianAl Harris Library frederic.murray@swosu.edu

Your Research Environment

How do you search this?

Or This…

Or This…

Research• Approach as the hunt for a right

answer….OR

• Process of evaluating different resources & coming up with your own interpretation…..

Internet Internet –  global system of interconnected computer networks using protocol suite (TCP/IP) 

World Wide Web- Content found therein

Search Engines-Applications

• Process of Academic Research• Tools of Scholarship

DataInformation

Knowledge

Wisdom

Terms of Understanding• Data comes about through research, creation, gathering, and

discovery.

• Information has context. Data is turned into information by organizing it so that we can easily draw conclusions. Data is also turned into information by "presenting" it, such as making it visual or auditory.

• Knowledge has the complexity of experience, which come about by seeing it from different perspectives. This is why training and education is difficult - one cannot count on one person's knowledge transferring to another. Knowledge is built from scratch by the learner through experience. Information is static, but knowledge is dynamic as it lives within us.

• Wisdom is the ultimate level of understanding. As with knowledge, wisdom operates within us. We can share our experiences that create the building blocks for wisdom, however, it need to be communicated with even more understanding of the personal contexts of our audience than with knowledge sharing.

Cleveland H. "Information as Resource", The Futurist, December 1982 p. 34-39

“Often, the distinctions between data, information, knowledge, and wisdom continuum are not very discrete, thus the distinctions between each term often seem more like shades of gray, rather than black and white.”

Shedroff, N. (2001). "An overview of understanding" in Information Anxiety 2 by Richard Saul Wurman. Indianapolis: Que.

Tools of Scholarship Content• Books• Articles• Journals• Citations• WWW

Tools• Catalogs• Databases• Lists• Indexes• Search Engines

Database• Resource for full text/citation

journal articles

Peer Reviewed

Education Databases • Education Research Complete

• ERIC (EBSCOhost)

• ERIC - Educational Resources Information Center

• Family and Society Studies Worldwide

Interlibrary Loan• ILL gives all SWOSU students,

faculty, and staff members a fast and convenient way to obtain materials that are not available in the SWOSU Libraries' collection.

• Services: Document Delivery: ILL: Articles

Search Fundamentals• Boolean

– And– OR– Not

• Keywords• i.e.

– Play Methods– Education– Early Education– Childhood– Development

Boolean• AND = Narrow

• OR = Expand

• NOT = Exclude

Boolean Operators• Connect keywords only• Must be placed between keywords• AND

– Narrows your search• OR

– Expands your search with synonymous terms

• NOT– Excludes words from your search– If used too much, it can work against you!

Identifying Keywords• Identify the significant terms and

concepts that describe your topic from your thesis statement or research question.

• These terms will become the key for searching catalogs, databases and search engines for information about your subject.

Keywords– Play Methods– Education– Early Education– Childhood– Development– Outcomes– Classroom Materials– Special Education– Games

Class Exercise: Create Search StringSynonyms / Antonyms

– Play Methods– Education– Early Education– Childhood– Development– Outcomes– Classroom Materials– Special Education– Games– Curriculum

Boolean: And/Or/NotCreate a search string using synonyms or antonyms from the key word list.

Write it on the board !

Potential Search Strings• Play Methods• Early Education and Curriculum • Education and Children and Play • Play Methods and Early Education

and Outcomes

Databases Journals 145 Databases 27,000

Online 12,000

Physical

Education Databases • Education Research Complete

• ERIC (EBSCOhost)

• ERIC - Educational Resources Information Center

• Family and Society Studies Worldwide

Database Tools• Full Text• Peer Review• Folders• Alerts• Email• Citations

– Cited References – Times Cited in Database

Databases Journals 145 Databases 27,000

Online 12,000

Physical

Periodical List – Early Childhood Journals

• Phi Delta Kappan– Academic Search Complete

• Early Childhood Education Journal–  Education Research Complete  

• Early Childhood Research & Practice

–  DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals

• Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education• - Education Research Complete

• Journal of Early Intervention– CINAHL Complete

Remember: We have 39,000 Journals in the Library!

Can you find/search/use these..?

Class Exercise• Locate the journal Early Childhood

Education Journal in the Periodical List

• Identify Database

• Search the journal using these terms:

Education and Children and Play

•

Class Exercise• Locate a full text article using the

search terms Education and Childhood and Play. Use the database ERIC

• Create a Folder for this Class– Play Methods & Materials

• Archive article in Folder• Email article to yourself

Review• Develop a good search

query/string

• Use the Relevant Databases

• Use the Periodicals List to find Relevant/Specific Journals

Review• Full Text• Keywords in Abstracts• Bibliographies/Reference Lists *

• Create Personal Accounts Ebsco/Ovid

• Use Interlibrary Loan (if needed) • RefWorks

Questions?• Contact me:

• Frederic Murray• 774-7113• frederic.murray@swosu.edu

Thanks!