Time really flies; it now comes to the end of UIR lessons, or rather the end of this block. It seems like yesterday when we just started having our very first lesson for this block. Sadly, every journey has an ending. Forgive me for saying all these emo words right now…cos I am very emo now. One of my favorite quotes saying, “Some people come and go quickly; some stay for a while and leave their footprints on our heart, and we are never the same.” This applies to many parts of our life, and of course, it applies to UIR too. Example 1, some of my group mates, come then goes quickly and quietly. Example 2, through the process of the UIR learning journey, I have changed along the way. Though it’s only a few weeks time, UIR has taught me a lot in doing research. For example, in the past, I would just copy and paste the whole chunk of words into the search textbox to do my research. Now, I am able to apply the knowledge in doing the research online more effectively, efficiently and professionally. First thing is to identify the keywords. Then apply other knowledge. However, though I have already know how to use the Boolean operators like AND , OR, * and others in the past, I did not use them to do my research at all. I don’t know why, maybe too lazy. But this time, because of UIR, I have been applying it in doing my other research subjects most of the times. I am just glad that UIR has changed me for the better.
I guess every UIR lesson is important, because all the lessons are linked together and they all come back to the same purpose – Using Internet as a Research Tool. However, there are two lessons that left the deep impressions on me. One of them is teaching us how to evaluate a resource website, another one is the introduction of different search facilities. These two has greatly helped me a lot in my learning journey and for sure those who like me took UIR will benefit tremendously in the future.
Evaluating a website makes me realize a website is not just a simple website. What do I mean by that? Well, a website may contain different purposes. For example, education or entertainment. A website’s authority is important too, because it tells you whether the website contains any biasness. Thus tells us the reliability of the website. And there are also other factors such as Accuracy, Currency, Accessibility, Usability, Presentation and Arrangement and finally the Overall factor. Therefore, it is very important for us to evaluate the website before using its contents.
The introduction of search facilities is the one that makes me go ‘Wow’. Because since the first time I do research online, I only know and use Google and Yahoo searches. Yap..I agree I a bit lagging behind with the technologies in the world. However, now, after going through UIR, I make friends with MetaCrawler, Galaxy, Yahoo!Directory, Clusty(formally known as Vivisimo) and etc. Indeed, internet has provide us a vast pool of many useful tools and innovations to make our life better.
Through UIR lessons, I have also acquired knowledge of my research topic, “Discuss the development of AIDS research”. Other than the research part, I also have deeper understanding about AIDS.
Last but not the least, UIR has been fun, enjoyable and fulfilling for me. And thanks to the friendly Ms. Farida for the guidance and all that for making UIR so happening.