Reflection: Web Searching

The web searching assignment entailed using Dr. Yuen's Ultimate Search Page, in which he collected a number of search engines in one page as a metasearch tool. Our task was to locate five sources related to telecommunications in education, two college classmates or former colleagues, an author of a book or article, a professional organization or business related to telecommunications in education, and two software applications. This assignment was an introduction to using various Internet tools for basic research.

This task was simple and easy for me to complete because I spend so much time online conducting research for travel, shopping deals, and of course, my classes. I took the opportunity to try an locate a former professor in my undergraduate education program, however, I was unable to trace him. Dr. Andres Perez y Mena taught me that a revolution must be fought from the inside, an extremely valuable lesson for me. I am saddened that I could not locate him to thank him for encouraging me in pursuing my doctoral degree, a valuable tool in my own education reform aspirations. His writings seem to cease at about 1999, when I graduated from Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus. I did find that he taught at Brooklyn College briefly in the ensuing years, but that turned out to be a dead end as well.

In the same way that I argued with Dr. Perez y Mena that rote workbook assignments do not reflect true teaching (the conversation that prompted his lecture on revolution), I balked at this assignment initially as being "too simple" for me. However, I realize that introductory courses must start at the beginning. One thing that I know now that I did not understand as an undergraduate education major, is that students must understand the purpose and motivations for assignments in their courses, and that these motivations often go well beyond the activity itself.