Reflection

On Tuesday, two guest speakers joined to our class. They portray concrete pictures about the function of digital tools in research sharing their real-life experiences. Due to the fact that they both came from academic background and have immersed in technology, their explanations were more relevant and made sense. To start with Dr. Lebke, she shared her transition process from paper-based work to paperless.  I really like that she mentioned about both practical and theoretical side of  “ go paperless”. Having an I-pad was her entry point to go paperless. One of the important points of her speech is digital tools allow researchers to collect and organize their works in one place. As an example, Dr. Lebke talked about her favorite reader, Good Reader, by which she is able to underline, take online notes. She goes on to say that researchers should try couple of digital tools including e-readers, citation management software and then should choose ones that might work for them.

Dr. Varga introduced the features of  Mendeley. I have not used Mendeley before, however I like its some functions.  One of good functions of Mendeley is it can automatically organize and rename all pdf files. I love it.  It also seems like very easy to make transition across computers when we set up watch-folder to drop box.

Both Dr. Varga and Dr. Lebke’s discussions reveal a notion that each digital tool has both constraints and affordances. The important thing is to choose appropriate tools for our works. Individuals’ needs are significant in adapting a certain digital tool. Also institutional access and training opportunities play a main role in using digital tool. For instance, I earned my master degree from Boston University. At there we used MLA style rather than APA. In the first semester we, all graduate students, were trained to use Refworks, and it worked for me at that time. After started to IU, I was recommended to get Zotero training , so then I began to use Zotero as reference management software.

     

 I have a different story regarding “ go paperless”. It was not easy for me to quit papers, consequently last semester I went paperless in my academic work. In previous semesters, I always exceeded the library quota, and paid extra money for printing. I felt like I understood better when I read hard copy.  After a time, I had the same experience with Dr. Lebke. There was no space in my room to put all my folders and articles. I also thought about how I might carry all of my articles and notes to Turkey. Starting from that time, I forced myself to go paperless, but I did not succeed.  I was using PC that was quite heavy, and my prominent reader was Adobe Reader. Even though I read articles via Adobe Reader, I printed out all of them and I was reading again. Having Mac computer changed my life. It does not hurt my eyes, so I am able to read articles online. I primarily use Mac Preview for reading, annotating and taking notes with different colors. I am carrying my light Mac air to everywhere and doing all my academic works with it. Thanks Apple J.