Author: Connor Barbor

Originally published here.

Complete a blog post reflecting on the week’s assignment and your progress (include a link to the published assignment)
▪ How has it added to your understanding of conducting effective research?
▪ How do these skills fit in with your understanding of being an in(ter)dependent learner?
▪ How much progress have do you believe you have made as you approach the halfway point of the course?

Last week we had to research into the best way to cook an egg, this week was a follow up from this as we had to read through the information that we had gathered and process the information we retrieved in finer detail. This meant that the information we had allowed us to produce a table from as survey that we had put together to allow us to get the best results we could. I feel the fact we went away and did our own interdependent research allowed the individual to retain the information in their own preference, or how they effectively collect data. This is all good, untill you have to bring everything that you researched back into the group. This meant that you had to perhaps convert how you understand this research into something that everyone will understand. This could of been a bit of a challenge. You just had to make it as clear as possible so every group member understood.


I have noticed doing this course that my motivation to look for research and do some studying has increased slightly. As before, I didn't want to research or study about anything. Know with what I have learnt along the way from Crit101. I have slightly more confidence that It won't be as 'painful' as I thought.

My Google Doc Assignment:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YA3P2BrcnN9b5-z5h45gdsgCgAKRiE-x0no09d0rcGY/edit

Originally published here.

Week 2 of the critical skills 101 course. Our task was to work in groups of 4 to research about 'The best way to cook an egg' using Google docs as a source to record and use together as a group. A lot of people in the course from did primary research creating surveys for others to complete. This would allow them to see first hand what they are researching, mostly it was to get an inside into the publics preferred way to cook an egg and how they like it. Doing primary research created very accurate results as it was field research and you regularly retrieve what you were looking for. As my group that consisted of primary researched carried out by Pascal. He did a very minimalistic but thorough survey about how the public enjoy their eggs. It was very effective as it was clear for the rest of the group to understand as you to back up their points.

Originally published here.

I define independent learning as an inner skill. It is not easy to learn, some are born to do it well and some take time to gain this skill. I view independent learning as a mature way of learning, being comfortable enough to research and evaluate said research on your own. It's the ability to take what you want to learn about into your own hands and of your own accord read and take in what you are researching. An example is when a student goes home to research on a topic, is he A; Going to surf the web and struggle to take it all in. Or B; Confidently and efficiently going to use a variety of medias to gain knowledge about their topic.

Currently. I am student A. I feel sometimes I struggle to research information and learn about it. However, sometimes for myself it can be about enthusiasm. I did lots of ice hockey research in year 11 and enjoyed learning more and more about a topic I loved. On the other hand, sometimes it can be the information available.. or lack of it. I sometimes struggle to find articles about what I want to learn, let alone validate it.

I hope to come out of this course with confidence. I would like to go away whenever life requires me to learn. Not worry about failing and knowing I will struggle. But have the confidence to know what I am looking for and how to pull the parts away from the information that I need.