Monday, January 30, 2012

Inquiry Assignment- Selecting a Topic & Finding Information

Using the I-Search model, I explored the use of e-readers in school library media centers.  As often happens, my topic question changed and developed throughout the research process.  This is my first experience doing a project of this nature and I have never put so much thought into the actual process of doing research.  It was interesting to see how much my ideas, and even my topic, changed from beginning to end.

Step 1- Selecting a Topic
I just bought my own e-reader (a Kindle) so I thought it would be interesting to do a little research on using e-readers in school libraries.  I initially thought it would be a fairly simple process to go through the qualities of each e-reader and find one that would be the best fit for a school environment.  I did not realize how many options there are today so I began by browsing the internet for some basic information on e-readers.

Step 2- Finding Information
Thinking this was going to be a really easy project with a definitive answer as my end result, I began to do some research on different types of e-readers.  I started with a basic Google search for websites comparing the merits of different e-readers:
http://ereadercomparisonchart.org/
I quickly got frustrated and a little overwhelmed with facts about screen size, storage size, battery life, etc.  This was all useful information for someone shopping for an e-reader... but I got stuck.  I had all of this information and I didn't really know what to do with it.

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