Wishing

Upon completion of this project I feel relieved but also energized.  I learned a lot about the process of inquiry and how messy it really is.  It was a new thing for me.   Much of the process forced me to use things that were new.  Things I will need to learn and be able to show when I graduate.  (Delicious, Bubbl.us, Powerpoint)  I am very lucky to have classmates that are teachers already.  Many of you steered me in one way or another.  My experience with personal inquiry is probably similar to a child or young adult since this is the first time I have done something like this.  However, I hope I know the where to look a little better.   I can see there are things being used in classrooms today when I was working on bubbl.us, the brainstorming/mapping site, my 11 year old son walked by and said "Dad are you doing an idea web?  We do those all the time!"  School has changed in the last 20 years, or at least there is a push to change how information is sought, processed and presented.    

However I also learned it is best to be more open at the beginning of this process.  At the onset, I was so focused on the glassware angle that it mislead a lot of my research.  And then to find out it really isn't that big of a deal according to an expert who lives in Belgium didn't help me feel too good about my original line of questioning.  I would have been better served exploring more questions at the onset and may have gone a totally different direction.  As I look through all the materials I compiled, the use of yeast, different strands of yeast and how the yeast works in the process of beer is just one area I could have explored more.  Especially since the Belgians use of yeast is considered one thing where they stand above the rest of the world in how they produce beer.  

The biggest challenge of the process was lack of reallly good resources at libraries at my disposal.  I could have done a better job expolring other libraries for more materials.  But time and distance made that difficult.  Since this wasn't so much a scholarly topic there was little journal literature to use as well.  This challenge weakened the overall product in my opinion.  Had I gone more into the science of beer or the culture of Belgium, I probably could have done more with IUPUI's resources.  The internet became my safety net.   

But that is a good thing to remember.  Students will have limited resources and abilities. Knowing what they have to work with both physically and mentally is a must when considering the curriculum.  In the Blue Book, Callison stressed the importance of improving library skills, levels of learning, technology skills and media literacy skills as they relate to the inquiry process.

I really saw the value of the blog in this process and I think that is the most valuable part, not only my personal one, but having to sift through my peer's work as well.  That is where I feel this project works for all levels of learning.  Perhaps the younger ages would be better suited to just do a log or journal of their thoughts.  But older students 5-12 probably could handle blog entries as it relates to the process and the project.  But the ideas they get from collaboration is where I feel the learning process sprung to life.  It sends you in directions you may not have seen on your own.    

I feel this project works within the guidelines of standard 9  from the INFORMATION LITERACY STANDARDS FOR STUDENT LEARNING, or the old AASL standards that Indiana still uses according to Dr. Lamb.  
The student who contributes positively to the learning community and to society is information literate and participates effectively in groups to pursue and generate information.

9.1 Shares knowledge and information with others

9.2 Respects others’ ideas and backgrounds and acknowledges their contributions

9.3 Collaborates with others, both in person and through technologies, to identify information problems and to seek their solutions

9.4 Collaborates with others, both in person and through technologies, to design, develop, and evaluate information products and solutions

Tech Tools

Powerpoint for final product

Delicious for links http://delicious.com/shumphrey574 

Bubbl.us brainstorm, idea mapping 

http://bubbl.us/view.php?sid=519257&pw=yaahFMK34I7NIMjdVSFBLV01YNTFRMg 

Ask an Expert - Tried one from Belgian Brewing Union website, didn't hear back

Have one more day for allexperts.com to return my email.  

A Google Scholar search was performed: Belgian Beer and Michael Jackson were searched, I was looking for articles that cited his works, then backward chained to read some articles to give me a better understanding of the beer making process.  

Waving

As mentioned I created a powerpoint you can see that here: 

http://mypage.iu.edu/~shmhumph/Belgian beer.pptx  

I will share this with my family members.  I have a large family on my mom's side where our Belgian heritage is embraced.  While we don't particularly keep any Belgian customs as sacred, a few in the family do like to know little tidbits about the country.  I know for sure one of my brothers has tried a lot more Belgian beer and probably has some other suggestions for which ones are better.  And since he's the one in the family with a MLS, I trust his opinion.  

Furthermore this project has me wanting to go to Belgium someday and experience the beers as they should be experienced.  I suppose maybe I am a life long learner after all, Life-long learning is about anticipation, exploration, and reflection as defined by Lamb (Information Age Inquiry Web materials).

I have been to my other "beer mecca" the Guiness Brewery in Dublin.  That was an incredible experience that I was able to share with my wife during our honeymoon.  She's great like that.  Oh and we'll be watching the Super Bowl tomorrow too, she's great like that also.  Well I am off topic, time to unwind, but I am having tea tonight.  

Wrapping part 2

So I went back and looked at my original questions.  The reason I set out on this project turned out to be the way I am going with my final presentation in the form of a powerpoint.  Mainly it will suggest a few Belgian Beers and what type of glass to use.  I also will have information such as ingredients and how the ingredients are used determines what style the beer is.  

This is important to me because I enjoy beer.  I'm old enough to savor and appreciate them now.  I like to have one when I grill, or when I unwind after a long day.  ONE being the key word!  (College the second time around is different in another way).  But in order to savor a beer it helps to have the right glass and the right serving temperature.  I have a better handle on how to do this now.   If you are a beer lover, you would benefit from this as well.  

I was able to apply my library skills to help me along the way, as Kulhthau was quoted in the Blue Book, we use library skills to expand our understanding and better enable us to make decisions and choices. (p. 86)   I never thought those skills would involve drinking a beer, but what this process proved to me is that there is no limit what you can learn or teach using the library. 

Wrapping

I am supposed to be packaging my thoughts for presentation.  But I am really trying to wrap my brain around standards.  I've avoided this until now.  

I am going by the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action, and I am following the skills chain. 

1.1.1 follow an inquiry process (blog to final project)

1.1.2 use prior background knowledge as context for new learning (Belgian heritage, knowledge of beer)

1.1.3 develop and refine a range of questions to frame the search (covered in previous blog posting)

1.1.4 find, evaluate and select appropriate sources (searched libraries, web, journals)

1.1.5 evaluate information on basis of accuracy, validity, appropriateness... (while peforming searches I bookmarked what I felt were valid, authoritative sites)

1.1.6 Read, view and listen for information presented in any format (used mostly books and web readings)

1.1.7 Make sense of information gathered from diverse sources (still a work in progress)

1.1.8 Demonstrate mastery of technology tools for accessing information (still a work in progress)

1.1.9 Collaborate with others to broaden and deepen understanding (still waiting for reply, may have to go another route)

One thing that makes this project different for me is the use of technology skills.  Callison states that technology tools can also play an important role in effective analysis, synthesis and presentation of information.  (Blue Book p. 87)  I can go to Delicious and gather my bookmarks, and search other people's bookmarks for more ideas.  I can go to Flickr and get pictures because going to Belgium is not in my budget.   I can even sift through a Google search and find websites that are both good and bad.  It does make things easier, you can take the messy process of inquiry and tidy it up using things like bubbl.com (I am trying to learn that one too) or charts or make a concept map.  

Weaving

At this stage I am actually getting organized!  I set up some links on Delicious:

http://delicious.com/shumphrey574 

That at least gets me looking at them and now I can look at them at work or at school or wherever.  I didn't know that feature of Delicious, allowing me to see my bookmarks anywhere.  I do like learning new things, especially ones that I foresee making my life easier.  Yeah it's just a little thing, but a potential time saver down the line.  And I can use it in a variety of ways.  

Oh and I also searched Belgian Beer while at Delicious, there are over 1000 bookmarks already registered.  Thanks to labeling I presume.  Reminding me to label this post now.  

I have also been saving a few images, I don't think I mentioned that yet.  Those will likely appear in the final portion of the project.  Or they may not depending on how this goes.  I also emailed The Union of Belgian Brewers.  According to www.beerparadise.bu this union is one of the oldest professional associations in the world and all Belgian breweries belong to it.  Among the questions I asked were about the glassware and designs, why brewing is considered an art in Belgium, how does beer fit into Belgian culture.  I hope I hear back from them.  

In Stripling's Curriculum Connections, Harada states that as society changes, the skills that citizens need to negotiate the complexities of life also change.  I don't think she was specifically talking about my ability to learn Delicious, but it is one of the technological changes that we also need to learn to negotiate the complexities of information access and organization.  Just like labels on posts help to organize catalogs and searches.    

Wiggling

More like squirming.  I agree with Lamb calling this the toughest phase for students (Callison's Blue Book p. 54).  I still am not too sure which way this project is leading.  Or maybe I am trying to overthink, I am definitely not used to free inquiry projects.  So many choices and I struggle with which to use, make, think about at any given time.  Backspace has been used heavily on this post!  

It shows me how my information Fluency needs some work.  Callison (Information Fluency, 2003) uses confidence, effiicience and effective as words to describe the information fluent.  I feel am short of that level by far.  

Perhaps a model of some sort or a table will help me see things from a different perspective but before I move to Weaving....I have to take my son to Wrestling - Hey that's a 9th W!

Webbing part 2

Well the Westmalle Tripel was worth the effort but I did not have the proper glass.  I needed a chalice like you see to the right.  Which as I am finding is very important to the experience.   Unfortunately this link is about all I can find about the glasses themselves.

http://globalbeer.com/body_pages/Texts/Glass&Beer/glasses.html

I may need to dig somewhere other than the web because the subject of the glasses is not really as deep as the information on Belgian Beer itself.   The glassware is what grabbed my interest but I find it fascinating that the Belgians produce so many different types of beer.  

Unfortunately, I am finding I cannot really verify the validity of the websites I am using.  Wikipedia had a little info and several resources listed to try.  But some of the other websites I've found, I cannot tell who authored them, so I am hesistant to use them or need to find other places to back what they are saying.  Authority on the web is a concern for me.  My first professor in Grad school was keen on Wikipedia, I have always been a doubter.  I am warming to it, but hesitant.   But now that I am more in tune to things like the resources at the bottom, I am more willing to visit a wikipedia page and do some browsing.  

Not quite ready to move to Wiggling.  But a few more questions came up in this stage:  Why do they brew beer in a monastery?  Why is there a Paton Saint of Brewing?    

Webbing

I really thought this stage would be look up stuff on the internet but I just couldn't maintain focus with all the distractions home has to offer.  Unfortunately one of those distractions isn't a Belgian Wheat Beer.  So I headed to the local library and did this one old school.  

In the catalog I searched Belgian Beer.   Beer.  Belgium.  Just to get an idea of what the library had to offer.  I wrote down 641 and 914.93 and headed to the stacks to browse.

Knowing that Michael Jackson is one of the experts in beer, I chose one of his books, "World Guide to Beer" along with "Encyclopedia of Beer" and one other that I didn't really find useful in scope and I didn't even write down what it was.  Plus I added Brew Chem 101 because in an email  correspondence with Dr. Lamb, she hinted that the chemical reaction of beer might make a good topic.  But this book was targeted at Home Brewing... And I really don't know much about chemistry anyway.  

I did find one Travel Guide that had an extensive section on Belgian Beer, reenforcing my thought of Belgian Beer being a big part of the culture.  One of the key things I learned about Belgian Beer in this stage is that Belgian brewing is an art.  Or as the natives say "Brouwen is een kunst."  

Also among the things that fell into the "web" were: ingredients and how culture and economics play a role in what is used and what certain countries can produce, Belgian beers are traditionally unfiltered and have yeast or sugars added, and that there are several monasteries that brew beers, 5 of the 6 Trappist Beer's in the world are made in Belgian monasteries.  (What's a trappist beer?  Have I had one of those yet?  Can I use that for project 2?)  I had questions like these for many of the tidbits I came up with.  I still focued on finding out about the glasses that they are served in.  I found the different types of glasses and what purpose they serve, mainly the size and shape is for the sensory experience of the consumer.    

Possbily I am on my way into recursion as discussed by Stripling.  I still want to know more about the glasses and how each beer has their own specific kind.  So I will look more into the glassware.  

OK enough, I'm thirsty, both for more knowledge and a beverage, off to web some more, this time on the web.  

Watching

I've decided on Beer.  But I have to narrow that down.  My most recent bad experience with a beer was being served a Belgian style beer, Fat Tire,  in a tall frosted glass.  I really didn't care for it.  I had the same beer before in a Fat Tire glass and I liked it.  So what made the difference?  I know this particular beer is not made in Belgium, but that shouldn't be a factor in my liking it.  I know many Belgian beers have glasses with the brand on them in all shapes and sizes.  I guess I figured this was advertising or branding.  Is there a reason for the shape?  Does that affect the taste?  Or was it too cold?  Or both?  I should mention I am part Belgian, (with a lot of other things sprinkeld in) so this is part of my heritage.  

I've mentioned I am back in school.  I graduated from IU in 1993, since Information Inquiry was developed by Callison in 1991 (Blue Book On Information Age Inquiry, Instruction and Literacy, pg. 5), it's no wonder I didn't hear about it until now.  The internet was in it's infancy when I was in college, so instant information was not as accessible.  But I can relate to Kulhthau, Information Search Process Model, many of the feelings listed apply here.  Especially in selection, I had bouts with confusion and anxiety but have moved to elation and anticipation as I ponder Belgian Beer.

Project One

This is the first post for my project one and I am definitely dazed and confused, juggling three classes is proving to be too much at the moment because I can't seem to focus on one at any given time.  It has been too long since I have been in school.  Oh well, I should stop complaining and work.  I think I have narrowed down my topics to the following: Lacrosse, Civil War, Beer.  I am pretty good at jumping off springboards, not literally, but figuratively.  Dr. Lamb gave me a few suggestions and Civil War was one of them.  

Yes I have often been fascinated by the Civil War and really have only skimmed the surface of this topic.  But this topic is very broad and I am not sure it will hold my interest if I try to narrow it.  

Beer is starting to bubble to the top.  And why not, I like it.  There are a lot of questions I can come up to study, When was it created, how many types are there, how is it made, what comprises the different types, etc.  

Lacrosse has some personal interest because my oldest son played for the first time last year.  I was able to follow the game, but there were some things I did not understand.  At the initial meeting we were told that it was played by the native americans and also has ties to the creation of basketball.  But I cannot come up with a lot of questions besides the normal who, what, when, where and how.  All good questions but I don't see much more depth than that.  

I will ponder this a little further...