I
find that, without question, the accessibility and growing
collection of online data bases is the digital tool that has had the largest
impact on my studies and more than likely will continue to do so, well into the
future. I know it’s not the most original answer given that as a history
student, I am expected and will be expected to find a multitude of sources to
support anything academic I might write. Additionally, beyond first year, the
resources available through Primo and the university library are simply not
adequate to more expansive and specific research projects and essays of higher
level courses. Students are required to continually look to new and different
databases for sources and information.[i] As
a student thinking about his potential future in academia, I can only assume
that my familiarity with these databases and search engines will only increase as
I delve deeper into research topics and papers. The uses of these online
databases are not just limited to a student’s research but have also become an
invaluable tool for professors. In the
2014 fall semester, I enrolled in the 4th year rural Canadian history class
taught by Professor Catharine Wilson. This class had numerous assigned reading
articles from many different digital databases including a couple of Professors
Wilson’s own articles, one of which was hosted on Project Muse, a data base I
was not overly familiar with.[ii]
It was this particular reading that made me realize how vital such digital
databases had become to teaching as they were now allowing professors to
provide students with a multitude of resources without burdening students with
the cost of additional physical texts. I don’t think I am alone in believing that
this trend will continue well into my future either as a student in graduate
studies or teachers college where physical texts are becoming more and more costly
when compared to the digital alternative. I also think this trend will follow
me to the potential career in teaching high school where access to databases
provide teachers with far more resources than a traditional set of textbooks. An additional benefit of digital texts is the
automated citation tools they provide. These automated citations are ever evolving,
streamlining the citation process by allowing users to customize the citation
in whatever style they desire.[iii] Such a convenient resource is an obvious asset
in any future academic endeavor. There are so many other ways that digital
tools have and will influence my academic career that I can’t possibly address them
all in one post but suffice it to say the flexibility and growing availability
of academic information is a key way digital tools are changing our learning
and teaching practices.
[i] http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/
The University of Guelph library’s main page and the first of many databases available
to Guelph students.
[ii] Catharine
Anne Wilson. "A Manly Art: Plowing, Plowing Matches, and Rural Masculinity
in Ontario, 1800–1930." The Canadian Historical Review 95,
no. 2 (2014): 157-186. http://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed January 11, 2015).
[iii] Data bases such as Project Muse and JSTOR
allow for users to request the citation in a particular style. See the side bar
of the above listed text on project muse for an example.
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