Assignment:
Part 1
The research article organizer tool was an effective way in parsing the various relevant information of the four articles discovered in my research. The benefits of the tool are obvious, and appreciated, in that it provides a breakdown of all the key information contained within the articles that I had read for this assignment.
A tool like this not only was effective for this assignment but I could see how this tool could be very helpful when it comes time to organize the numerous articles I will be required to organize in writing my dissertation. Although the tool was of useful benefit in my attempt at organizing and summarizing the information from the four articles I found on the liberal education versus vocational debate, there was modifications I made to the tool to make it more useful to me.
The trouble I often have in writing academic papers, is trying to organize and remember the key points of each research article. Trying to properly synthesizes and extrapolate the information from various sources is tricky but having it parsed into meaningful bits, like the tool attempts to do, makes very helpful. However, articles often several lines of inquiry of alternative points that divert from the main premise but still provide valuable insight.
Useful data might very well be found in a study that, on the surface, might not have an obvious link to the subject one might be looking into. As such, I added sub-categories of the findings section to track any addition lines of discovery or findings that might be related to my search. All of my articles were primary exploring the same theme but if I was exploring several themes or lines of inquiry I probably would further modify the tool to allow me to do that for easy reference.
Part 2
The Research Article Organizer tool is an extremely useful tool that helped me analyze, summarize, explore and understand my scholarly articles/documents more thoroughly and effectively. I did not think that it would take me long to complete my four articles using the tool, but it took me even longer than expected because the form's layout/topics challenged me to truly figure out the answers and understand the why of them as well. This tool allowed me to put all of the most relevant information from all of the articles in one place; so that they are easily accessible.
It also challenged me to make sure that I found articles that were relevant to our case study and how it pertains to the issues in higher education. Therefore, this organizer tool really helped me to think more precisely and critically, and it allowed me to establish a solid foundation to complete a literature review.
I did not make many modifications to the tool because it is already in a pretty simple format. The theory section of the tool was very difficult for me to complete because it felt like I was intertwining the purpose and the problem descriptions into one. Even though it was difficult, it challenged me to thoroughly read through the research numerous times and figure out the actual theories to the best of my ability.
Overall, this tool has greatly help me organize and identify key elements and information in my four articles that I can use effectively to complete the literature review. I will definitely continue to use this tool to help me organize and explore other articles and documents. Did anyone have any small difficulties with the tool?