Bibliography Resources

When having students write a bibliography for their speeches, I often get bibliographic entries such as “google.com,” or “the Internet.” These, my friends, are not bibliographic entries. Even when more information is given, it is often incorrect.

Although some could argue that students need to know the bibliographic form, I am under the belief that our generation of students needs to know how to get the end result rather than emphasizing the process. There are two easy ways for students to write bibliographies. One way is through the use of online resources and the other is through Microsoft Word.

Two of the more popular online bibliographic sources are http://www.bibme.org/ and http://www.citefast.com/. Both sites allow students to enter the information needed to create a bibliography. (Of course, the students need to know the correct information in order to fill out the form!) Bibme has a citation guide so that students can actually learn how to create bibliographic entry as well as enter the information. Students can also create a free account so that their information is saved on the site. Citefast allows students to save their bibliographic entries, but there is no guide to teach them the rules.

Microsoft Word 2007 offers a plethora of reference assistance. By clicking on the “References” tab, information about all types of references can be seen. Students will be best-served by adding the information for their references when they “insert citation.” Then, when they’re finished with their papers or outlines, they can add the bibliography, which has been created using information from the forms. Here is a brief video showing how to use the citation and bibliography features of Word 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DYuUGP7vLg&feature=related. While this doesn’t give a lot of detailed information, it’s enough to get students started.

Students do need to have bibliographies for their work, and having them use these resources could prevent the dreaded “www.wikipedia.com: entries. If these are familiar to you, please pass along the information to someone who is less familiar with them.

Next week: Learning Styles

Starting Your Classroom Facebook Page

Are you on Facebook? Are you having fun finding that guy or gal that rejected you in high school years ago (and hoping they’ve gained lots of extra pounds)? Or are you going to Facebook to play Farkel or farm your land are Farmville? As an educator, you can put your Facebook skills to good use. According to the Top Colleges Blog, http://www.top-colleges.com/blog/2009/11/29/social-networkingacademic/, a recent survey by the Center for Community College Student Engagement which included 400,000 students from 663 colleges, shows that students who use social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, to interact with their peers, faculty and other staff, are more likely to succeed then those who do not use social media.

Facebook can be very helpful in a community college where students may not have much “college” interaction outside of classes. The study doesn’t recommend a specific way to building rapport and increase student interaction, but it encourages instructors to work to find the right match for their specific course and group of students.

According to a conference paper by Caroline Lego Munoz and Terri L. Towner,  http://www46.homepage.villanova.edu/john.immerwahr/TP101/Facebook.pdf, you can use Facebook in four different ways. You can create your own profile page and let students be your “friend;” create a group page for each class; replacing or duplicating web course functions, such as discussion boards, instant messaging, or posting information about assignments; and integration of Facebook applications. All of these options allow communication with your students at a different level than is possible in the classroom. One word of caution, however, is to be careful letting students be friends on your personal page. Letting students be a friend is like letting them into your personal life, which you probably do not want to do. Set up a separate class page instead.

How do you set up a Facebook page? Just go to the main Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/.
After signing in, you’ll need to follow the steps given. It’s not very tough to do. Once the page is created, click “Edit page.” There you’ll see information about discussion boards, events, links, notes, videos and photos. My suggestion is to have the students become fans and limit the interactions to the fans so you don’t have a lot of strangers commenting on your page.

Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? If you’ve tried using Facebook in your classes, let us know how it worked for you. If you have questions, just ask in the comments section below.

See you next week for another technology tip!

Welcome to the EPCC Faculty Development Blog!  This blog was created to help you become more familiar with online resources that focus on teaching and learning.  New online resources will be posted every Thursday and Faculty Development activites will be highlighted during the week.  If you have topic ideas, please leave them in the comments area.  I'd like to know what you'd like to learn more about.  When commenting, please use your name as a sign-in.  You do not need to put a URL.  I can't wait to hear from you!