FINAL COM10003 Assessment 3 Honeyman

The technology of social networking sites has established online collaboration tools and created opportunities for students to utilise the vast amount of communication tools for completion of their work. (Weaver et al., 2010). Throughout this unit I have developed skills to use and evaluate online sources of information not only for academic purposes but for social and personal interests too. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on my experiences from this unit by discussing how I have developed skills in finding, using and evaluating online sources of information for academic purposes. The scope of this paper will begin by discussing how my use of online sources has developed over the period of the course. It will then examine how Metzgar (2007) has influenced my ability to search and evaluate the credibility and reliability of various online sources. Finally, I will identify the advantages and limitations I faced whilst working in an online collaborative community and how I dealt with those circumstances.

My concept of using online resources has broadened since week 1 when I went back to the basics and touched on the history behind the uprising of what we now call the World Wide Web. Amazingly, the first e-mail was sent 43 years ago, back in 1971, and then it took a further 28 years before we saw the first online social network, Friends Reunited, in 1999 (The University of North Carolina, 2013). Now in 2014, living in a world filled with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, it seems as if the web is developing at an exponential rate. From the beginning of this unit I felt quite comfortable, as I am familiar with the Internet due to habitual daily use. I believe my computer skills are of a level where I am comfortable with new challenges. At the beginning of the unit I saw myself as what Forrester Research would refer to as a ‘joiner’ and ‘spectator’ when using social media platforms, but I have developed further skills and satisfaction from acting as a ‘creator’

References: Chiong, R. and Jovanovic, J., 2012. Collaborative learning in online study groups: An evolutionary game theory perspective. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 11(1), pp.81--101. Metzger, M 2007, 'Making sense of credibility on the web: models for evaluating online information and recommendations for future research ', Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, vol. 58, no. 13, pp.2078-2091. PennyStocks.la, 2014, The Internet in Real-time, viewed 10 June 2014, <http://pennystocks.la/internet-in-real-time/>. University of North Carolina 2013, The Brief History of Social Media, viewed 31 January 2013, <http://www.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SocialMedia/SocialMediaHistory.html>. Weaver, D., Viper, S., Latter, J. and McIntosh, P., 2010. Off campus students ' experiences collaborating online, using wikis. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 26(6), pp.847--860. Von Brockdorff, M 2010, The 6 Different Types of Social Media Users – Which one are you?, Web Geekly, viewed 31 January 2013, <http://www.webgeekly.com/lessons/social-media/the-6-different-types-of-social-media-users-which-one-are-you/>.