Week 6

This week's lecture covered various topics. Firstly, we were introduced to the university's online libraries. We learnt about how to log in and search for various resources for our projects which could be either e-books or other online material or the hard copies of these books,magazines that exist in the university's official library. (London Metropolitan University)

Secondly, we were introduced to other online databases which could be accessed through the university's official library website under the find databases link. These online databases were either for specialized topics (ex. Arts related or Science related) or they could be general databases which focused on various subjects.(London Metropolitan University)

Thirdly, we learnt about Harvard Referencing. There were many examples concerning this style of referencing for books,website,journals and many more.(London Metropolitan University)

This week's lecture was important because it introduced us to the online library of the university which is a link to find any kind of online material that would be of use in the future projects and to the dissertation. There was also an introduction to the Harvard Referencing  Style. This style was something new to me since in my previous studies i used the MLA referencing style but it was presented in such a way that was easy and understandable. We also had  a conversation about our projects that will be due in January and which is a good way in order to introduce our topic to an audience who hasn't any previous knowledge about it.

Week 5

In Tuesday's class we had a conversation about learning through the use of different kinds of resources. There are four steps that someone will need to follow in order to complete a project which are 

1) to search for information and then select which you think that will be appropriate for your topic (Race, 1999),

2) the analysis of what you have found and also to explain with your own words the resources you selected(Race, 1999),

3) to write down what you have found considering your topic in an organized manner (Race, 1999),

4) to be able to communicate the topic that you wrote with different ways such as presentation of it or hard copy of it or any other way that you think that is relevant to communicate it. (Race, 1999)

There are two kinds of resources that we can use which are the: a) human resources and b) non-human resources. The human resources can be of asking your tutor's opinion about something, a librarian, other students, and the non-human resources are the Internet, books, the use of pictures or any other multimedia program that you may think is relevant to your topic, newspapers and many more. (Race, 1999). These resources are an example of the Resource-based learning which means that  the kinds of resources that mentioned above are used in such a manner that now someone can have access very quickly to different kinds of information that they'll be searching for.(Race, 1999)

This week's class  was an interesting one for me and also an important one because it is something that we see  everyday when for example we want to search for something for our own learning (like to learn how a program works or what is the meaning of something etc)  or for our job, or university etc. With the use of the Internet now the resources that exist are various in relation to years before where we had to read through books that would be time consuming, now we can access a web site and find all the information we are asking for through e-books, journals or any other type of document.So, this lecture was helpful in the way that i could see different examples of human and non-human resources that while  working at a specific project i may end up not thinking of this resource and at that time it would be a valuable one to use. 

  

Week 4

In this week's lecture we had a conversation again on plagiarism and on the academic misconducts that are related to the university rules (source: London Metropolitan University). More examples were provided, while in class's lecture, concerning plagiarism, paraphrasing, quoting. This whole process was very helpful because it helped me (and i think and the others in class) to identify in a better way what is plagiarism, what is paraphrasing and what is quoting and how they are actually presented in an essay or any kind of a project. This lecture was important because it will help me and in future projects of this module and in other modules but also i think that apart from the university's rules, it will be helpful and in the future while working or maybe studying again but this time for a master's degree.

Apart from the academic misconduct of the university, the rest of the lesson focused on note-making and note taking. Now someone will think that it's funny or it is of non-sense to talk about note making and note taking but i personally found it very interesting and very helpful. If you try to think a little about note-making and note-taking you may find yourself confused a little in what is actually what but there is an answer to this. Note-making is focused on writing something with your own words in order to learn it better, understand it better, remember it better, to write the most important parts (the ones you believe as important) and also to help you in any kind of exams (Cottrell, 1999). Note-making is divided into two smaller categories the linear note making (which is about writing everything in a sequence) and the pattern one (which has to do with words joined together) (Race, 1999).

Note-taking is about listening to the words that someone says and then writing down the exact words of the speaker (Race, 1999).

This week's lecture was important because it helped me to identify in a better way what is note making and what is note taking, something that for so long i did without thinking of its actual name, but it is something that has helped me over a course of years and it still helps me. I personally use both techniques, the note-making and the note-taking, while the note-taking helps me more in-class where something new is presented and the note-making while reading something alone to summarize it or to use keywords in order to remember what's been written there.

References:

Cottrell, S. (1999). The study skills handbook. Macmillan Press

London Metropolitan University, 2010. Academic Regulations 2010-11.

http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/academic-regulations/ [Accessed November 11,2010]

Race, P. (1999). How to get a good degree. Open University Press

Week 3

In yesterday's class, we had a continuation of reflective writing from the second week's lectures and an explanation of a variety of subjects concerning writing.

There was an explanation of words such as plagiarism, paraphrasing, quoting and many academic misconduct definitions. The main focus was on plagiarism and even though I've been in a foreign university before and we had an understanding of what is plagiarism and what is not, the lecture provided a way to learn more things concerning this subject.

Definitions concerning other aspects of academic misconduct were defined such as of cheating, collusion and any kind of penalties that may occur while "breaking the university rules" in a project or essay etc