Lesson 7: Zotero - A Web Research Assistant

Think
1. Before you began this course, what did you do (or still do)when you needed to collect, manage, and keep a record of citation details of your Web research? How effective do you think these information management strategies were?

I made a document of the record with Word. On the point that I can just attach it to my essay, the way is somehow effective. However, I had to print the website out in order to annotate the sources. So I don't say the strategy I took was very effective.

2. In your view, what kinds of things would you want a Web research tool to be able to do?

I want the tool to have functions to keep sources in clear and well-organized way, and add notes or annotate on the snapshot. Also if it is possible, to have the function to let users output the WC of sources let the tool to be more and more useful.

Explore
It is easy to learn a new way to collect, manage, and cite your research sources. The video that follows explains more about Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Watch it a few times, stop and start it at critical points, take some notes. Try to identify a few things about using Zotero that could make studying easier for you. In the Zotero Quick Start Guide, under 'Introductory Screencasts', please watch 1) ztour, & 2) zdemo.

The video says Zotero let us take notes on sources, group sources with tags, export MLA WC of sources and annotate sources. I think the third one must be very useful for learners. MLA style is one of the major style used in study scene.

Do
3. During practice make brief notes that you can use to help you teach your partner what to do and how to do it.

Taking snapshot of the website is different from taking the whole information of the page(whole information includes WC of the website or even the WC of the book indicated). So taking snapshot is not enough. In order to annotate, we can use the marks on the left-top of the browser.


Explain
Write a post reflecting on Zotero with reference to the four SCICU Key Questions. 1. What are the main skills needed to use Zotero?

Zotero has many helpful functions. Though it has many functions, the skills which actually needed are just drag and click. So the main skill to use Zotero effectively is to know what we can do with Zotero and how we can do it.

2. What are the affordances of Zotero (what does it make possible, what does it impede)?

With Zotero, we can organize and use web sources very effectively. It has functions to categorize sources(such as TAGS), to annotate sources(in both direct and indirect way) and to output the WC of the sources. These functions are very very useful for our learning so Zotero must be a very strong learning tool for us. However, lack of knowledge of what we can do and how to do it through Zotero can cause some troubles. It can be said that it is important to know practical use of Zotero.

3. How can Zotero be used to network professionally and connect you (& other students) to learning resources?

As I mentioned above, it must help us with writing paper based on sources. It let us more effective learning with functions to organize, annotate and cite sources. Former two are important for our research and the last one is one of the most important part of paper.

4. What skills and understandings have you learned about Zotero that may promote your development as an effective learner
in the digital age?
I learned and get a very useful tool for my study. About sources, I must use Zotero. It has very helpful functions. I won't be bothered by annoying citation.