3 References - Do your students have them?

One of the many challenges I encounter when working with our youth is their inability to provide a minimum of 3 references that are not family members or some unknown digital connection made through social media. Most adults do not have an issue with providing three references because of their life experience.

Working with students and even some adults while developing a student resumes, you can see the struggles as they learn to document their own accomplishments. Many of them discount what they do in their community, schools, churches, and extra curricular activities.

One thing I kept for my daughter throughout our travels was a binder that we titled, "Me book" which contained everything from certificates of accomplishment/achievement/appreciation that she received over the years. This binder played a role when she created her first student resume in middle school. The "Me book" continued to be a repository for points of contact and organizations, which allowed her to reflect about adults she could list as references during her job searches and volunteer activities.

This activity also ties into them setting up Google Alerts for their own names and searching for those they list as references. Some students want to list their high school teachers as references when they apply for jobs or volunteer activities because it is where they spend the majority of their high school life. They are also encouraged to contact everyone they want to list as a reference and ask their permission and to verify contact information.

So encourage and work with your students, your children, your neighbor's children to get involved and make the community connections needed. If someone asks you if they can list you as a reference, be honest. Some people do not want to be listed as a reference and other people do not mind at all, they just want to be aware if and when their name is being used. It can be challenging to hide the surprise when recieving a call about a particular student and to reference their work, character, or lack of when an organization calls to verify a listed reference.

If you had to provide 3 references for a career or volunteer position, could you?

If your students wanted to list you as a reference, how would you respond?

Research Topic Ideas

For one of my assignments I had to narrow down my ideas and list research areas of interest and potential research topics.

Like many students I hit times in my day or night when I struggle with writer's block. To kick off ideas and have some fun I like to throw ideas and key words into Wordle or peruse the Wordle gallery. So here a couple of the results.


I modified the number of words to use, different layouts, and palettes, but creating the Wordle helped jump start my writing for the homework assignment.




How do you use Wordle?

Consolidating References

I am consolidating references from previous assignments created during my last few classes. NCU will switch from APA version 5 to APA version 6 in January 2010, so the references are listed in a text format. Web sites, books, and articles are consolidated and this blog post will be used as I progress through the disseration phase. Any of the research/scholarly articles were found in many of the databases through NCU's library and referenced in the Research Strategies blog post and making connections through Twitter.

This list is not all inclusive, simply a blog post with many references which may or may not be used in future assignments. Any of the books listed are also linked in my Google Books library if they are available in Google Books. Please feel free to comment and provide recommendations or improvements as you read through the post.

How cool would this be if I could have everything I have ever read in my ePortfolio? Another great reason that students should be creating one...if for nothing else a collection of references for reflection.

Adams, D. (2008). Gaga for Google in the twenty-first century advanced placement language classroom. Clearing House, 82(2), 96-100. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.

Badke, W. (2009). Google scholar and the researcher. Online (Weston, Conn). 33(3), 47-9.

Barrett, H. (2009). Google apps ePortfolios. Retrieved from: http://sites.google.com/site/eportfolioapps/.

Blachman, N. (2009). Google guide. Retrieved from: http://www.googleguide.com/.

Bodzin, A. M., & Cirucci, L. (2009). A land-use-planning simulation using Google earth. Science Scope. 32(7), 30-38.

Braender, L., Kapp, C., & Yeras, J. (2009). Using web technology to teach students about their digital world. Journal of Information Systems Education, 20(2), 145-153. Retrieved from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1755224741).

Braender, L., Kapp, C., & Yeras, J. (2009). Students meet and create knowledge (SMACK). Retrieved from: http://ismack.org/

Branzburg, J. (2006). Use Google maps mashups in K-12 education. Technology & Learning. 26(10), 32.

Brown, J. S. & Adler, R. P. (2008). Minds on fire: Open education, the long tail and learning 2.0. EDUCAUSE Review, 43(1), 16–32. Retrieved from: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0811.pdf

Buske, C., Dingman, J., McNally, D., Phil, J., & Wallace, B. (2009). Google tutor. – Tutorials, tips, and advice for Google users. Retrieved from: http://www.googletutor.com/.

Chillarege, K., Nordstrom, C. Williams, K. (2003). Learning from Our Mistakes: Error Management Training for Mature Learners. Journal of Business and Psychology. Vol 17, Iss 3.

Couros, A. (2006). Examining the open movement: Possibilities and implications for education. Campus-Wide Information Systems. Retrieved from: http://www.scribd.com/doc/3363/Dissertation-Couros-FINAL-06-WebVersion

Duffy, P. (2008). Engaging the YouTube Google-eyed generation: Strategies for using Web 2.0 in teaching and learning. Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 6(2), 119-129. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.

Fisch, K. & McLeod, S. (2009). Shift Happens. Retrieved from: http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/

Goodstein, A. (2007). Totally wired what teens and tweens are really doing online. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.

Google Apps. (2009). Go Google. Retrieved from: http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/gogoogle.html

Google Books. (2009). Retrieved from: http://books.google.com/

Google For Educators. (2009). Google web search - classroom lessons and resources. Retrieved from: http://www.google.com/educators/p_websearch.html.

Google Scholar. (2009). About Google scholar. Retrieved from: http://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/about.html.

Google Teacher Academy. (2009). Resources - tools. Retrieved from: http://sites.google.com/site/gtaresources/tools.

Hargis, J., & Wilcox, S. (2008). Ubiquitous, free, and efficient online collaboration tools for teaching and learning. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education (TOJDE), 9(4), 9-17. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.

Harzing, A. (2008). Google scholar - a new data source for citation analysis. Retrieved from: http://www.harzing.com/pop_gs.htm.

Holland, J., & Anderson, S. (2008). Google earth and GPS activities for U.S. history & geography, grades 5-8. Eugene, OR: Visions Technology.

Kousha, K. & Thelwall, M. (2007). Google Scholar citations and Google web/URL citations: A multi-discipline exploratory analysis. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(7), 1055. Retrieved from ABI/INFORM Global.

Petra, T. (2009). Using Google earth in the math curriculum. Retrieved from: http://realworldmath.org/Real_World_Math/RealWorldMath.org.html.

Pletka, B. (2007). Educating the net generation: How to engage students in the 21st century. Santa Monica, CA: Santa Monica Press.

Rienzo, T., & Han, B. (2009). Microsoft or Google web 2.0 tools for course management. Journal of Information Systems Education. 20(2), 123-127.

Stephens, K., Houser, M., & Cowan, R. (2009). R U Able to meat me: The impact of students' overly casual email messages to instructors. Communication Education, 58(3), 303. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals.

Vogel, C. (2009). A call for collaboration. District Administration, 45(5), 22-25. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.

Weinberger, D. (2007). Everything is miscellaneous: The power of the new digital disorder. New York: Times Books.

Windham, C. (2005). Father Google & Mother IM: Confessions of a net gen learner. EDUCAUSE Review, 40(5), 42-58. Retrieved from ABI/INFORM Global.

Yenerall, J. D. (2003). Educating An Aging Society: The University of the Third Age in Finland. Educational Gerontology. 29(8).

As always, comments are appreciated.