Our first task in this unit of the Preparing for Success Program at Southern Cross University was to learn how to use the university library system to find relevant literature for our assessments. For this task we were to select three pieces of literature to write an annotated bibliography for each. I received a High Distinction for this assessment.
Please note my writings are published for educational purposes only, all of my works have been submitted to Turnitin so please do not copy and paste or you will be flagged for plagiarism. My reference list is included at the bottom.
The feedback I received from my marker was:
“This is a comprehensive assessment that demonstrates a productive engagement with the materials and unit content. The referencing is correct but for one mistake and the summary, evaluation and statements relevance of each section is handled with great care and accuracy. The written expression is clear and direct, addressing the ideas with a strong command of the language employed. Some small instances of repetition and use of first person remarked by the other marker, but so strong otherwise more care in these areas will suffice. This is an excellent first assessment and suggests you will continue through the future assessments with some aplomb.”
Annotated Bibliography 1
Greenhow, C. (2011). Online social networks and learning. On the horizon, 19(1), 4-12. doi 10.1108/10748121111107663
This viewpoint essay discusses the potential of online social networking sites to be a positive learning tool for adolescents and young adults. The author examines social networking in two key areas; the promotion of support for learning, and the provision of social advantages for education. The essay referenced a selection of independent sources and the author’s prior research to analyse adolescents’ social networking on two prominent social media sites, and utilised data from a Facebook application to link online activities to offline behaviour. Online social activities were found to have the potential to be a positive influence on learning, resulting in an increased sense of wellbeing in an adolescent’s offline life. Greenhow has published at least eight journal articles. At the time the journal article was published Greenhow was an Assistant Professor of Learning Sciences and Technology at both the College of Education and College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. The article is relevant to current standards of social networking use as social media continues to grow and expand into our everyday living. Although the author references her own prior research, a wide variety of independent literature has also been investigated to support the author’s view that social networking may be a positive influence on adolescents. This article is relevant to my final essay to counter my argument against social media use positively enhancing adolescent well-being. It clearly demonstrates the potential for social networking sites to have a positive influence on education and personal development, aiding adolescents in creating and sustaining social connections .
Annotated Bibliography 2
Katz, A. (2012). Cyberbullying and e-safety. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. (pp 36-47) Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/scu/detail.action?docID=944896
In Chapter 4, Katz explores the many types of bullying often experienced by adolescents and young children. The author draws largely on findings from a cybersurvey undertaken in 2010-2011 in several locations in the UK in which over 9,000 young people had participated in at the time of publishing. In 2011, questions specific to Twitter and smartphones/tablets were added to the survey. This chapter collates the results of almost 1,500 participants into graphs and tables of which types of cyberbullying had been experienced. Katz found that while some respondents had not experienced cyberbullying themselves, many had witnessed their peers being cyberbullied. Katz is a director of both Youthworks Consulting Ltd and the Bullying Intervention Group. She has authored several books and has assisted the UK Government to develop guidance on the bullying of special needs students. The cybersurvey has to date gathered over 30,000 responses. Published in 2012, the data gathered in the book is relevant and will continue to be current as the cyber world continues to expand into everyday life and have effects on the well-being of adolescents and children. The results come from a wide variety of respondents, however the survey was limited to the UK and may not accurately reflect global statistics. This chapter gives relevant information for my essay and will be useful to show statistics on the type of cyberbullying that children and adolescents can experience. This can be incorporated into my essay to help show that some aspects of social media use are not conducive to enhancing adolescent well-being .
Annotated Bibliography 3
Wood, M A., Bukowski, W M., & Lis, E. (2016). The digital self: How social media serves as a setting that shapes youth’s emotional experiences. Adolescent Research Review (2016) 1(2), 163-173. doi 10.1007/s40894-015-0014-8
In this article, the authors discuss the positive and negative effects social media may have on the emotional well-being of adolescents as they use social networking sites to forge and maintain friendships. The authors have undertaken extensive research in order to gain insight into the ways in which social media platforms impact on adolescents’ social structures. The article concludes that whilst the research has pinpointed many important areas within social media literature, there are also areas that require more in-depth exploration. The impact of social media use needs ongoing examination to understand the risks and benefits. Wood and Bukowski are affiliated with Concordia University in the Psychology department, with Bukowski having published at least eight articles pertaining to the emotional well-being of adolescents and young children prior to this publishing. Wood’s research focuses on the experiences of anxiety in children and adolescents. Lis is a psychiatrist based in Montreal, Canada and is the director of McGill University Psychiatry Perceptions of Emerging Technologies Labs. The article was published in 2015 in a peer-reviewed journal and therefore is current. The article states it’s compliance with ethical standards and the authors reported no conflict of interest in relation to the article. This review will be useful for my essay as it suggests the negative impacts of social media use are becoming more prevalent as social networking expands. Given the article’s recent publish date much of the information may be relevant to today’s social networking use and therefore of value to my essay.