Time for More Webbing?

     I wanted to expand my variety of resources and formats. I have watched a movie set in Italy to get a feel for the landscape (The American). I learned from the Internet Movie Database that it was filmed in multiple locations in Italy including Rome and Castel de Monte. If I had more time, I would like to watch more films set in Italy to learn visually.

Image Courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net

     I also made an informal questionaire on Survey Monkey and posted the survey to a social networking site in hopes of getting information from individuals who have traveled to Italy.
    I found out what I didn't know by taking a quiz at National Geographic Traveler. Ten questions designed to help teach the user about facts of Italian culture. This was fun and educational at the same time!
     I also visited my local library looking for print resources and nonfiction DVDs on Italy. I found more guidebooks such as National Geographic Traveler's ITALY and I also looked in the youth/juvenile department where I was pleased to find books with lots of pictures and basic information about Italy, such as Ted Park's Taking Your Camera to Italy. I also picked up a guide book of a different nature, a nonfiction memoir Under the Tuscan Sun: at home in Italy which I would love to read for pleasure as well as for information. No DVDs were available at my local library on Italy.
     I also remembered an article in my local paper about a group of women from my hometown visiting Italy within the last year. I search my local paper's archives to locate the article. I realized that I was acquainted with a few of the women in the group. I have called one to schedule an interview about her experiences in Italy.
     I feel like I could find more and more, but it is time to begin weaving things together! I think HS students and younger would definitely need specific time frames so for each stage of an inquiry project to keep them on track. However, this may be hard to put into practice since the process appears to be nonlinear in many ways. Have I exhausted my resources? No. Do I have a wide variety that answer my initial and subsequent questions? Yes, I think so! Cominciamo bene! We are off to a fine start!

Wiggling

     During the process of exploring Italy through these sites, an idea began to form related to the focus of my final project. After watching a brief video on marble quarrying in Italy, I began to imagine a parallel life in Italy. The marble quarrying reminded me of my own hometown's industry of limestone quarrying. I feel that by "investigating" Italy by tying it to my life in a small town in the US, I can authenticate the project and the endeavor will be much more meaningful to me. My focus will be to "move" through Italy in much the same manner that I have moved through my life here in the States. This will enable me to focus on many aspects of Italian life instead of just the popular tourist attractions.
     This process of inquiry closely resembles to Daniel Callison's model of information inquiry found in our text, The Blue Book. The process I have experienced so far has been a continuous cycle of raising questions, finding information that raises new and/or additional questions, and assimilating (and sometimes re-assimilating) information into new facets of inquiry. This experience is best illustrated by the figure found in The Blue Book on page 6, Callison's Cycle and Interaction of Information Inquiry Elements.
     My new focus with explore Italy like I had imagined, but also make the information meaningful to me. I may need to raise new questions and do additional searching to satisfy my quest for knowledge based on this focus.

Webbing

Today was a big search day for me. To prepare for my search, I first reviewed my Delicious account and updated my software so that I was well prepared to save and tag a wide variety of sites. By using this social networking bookmarking resource, I was able to easily and quickly bookmark and tag sites I found useful without having to stop and take notes which would have slowed the pace of my search. By tagging my sites, I will be able to go back to sites I have found and find specific elements I am looking for to produce my final product. Some words I used in tagging include Italy, maps, travel, and historical among others. You may see my bookmarks concerning Italy at: http://www.delicious.com/cs34
Since I was still unsure about my focus and needed more information before I could make a decision about my focus, I started with the key term "Italy" in general information websites such as Wikipedia and Britannica Online. I wanted to learn more about Italy in general and generate some more key terms to use in additional searching. I tried to focus on my questions noted earlier in my Wondering post. I found that my questions were leading me to a wide variety of travel guides, such as the World Travel Guide and WhyGo Italy. I was able to find many images, articles, videos and databases, such as populstat.info which shows statistical data for Italy. related to Italy. I feel like I need to continue brainstorming sources and exploring ideas from my WebInspiration. There is SO much to see and do in Italy, that finding a focus is difficult.

Wondering

Today I wondered about Italy. Specifically I thought about what I "think" I know about Italy and what I would like to learn. I used the Idea Mapping template at Webspiration, an online visual thinking tool, to help me brainstorm some ideas. I hope to publish my Italy Idea Map here! Some things I thought about:

What languages are spoken in Italy besides Italian?
What is the climate of Italy? (weather, people, etc.)
How do I get around in Italy?
What is the exchange rate there and possible costs?
What is there to see in Italy?
Is there anyone famous who once lived in Italy?

Watching

When pondering the topic of this blog, I thought about my interest which include exercise, reading, and travel. I also enjoying learning new things. For example, I have been independently learning the Italian language for the last several years by listening to an audio study course on my iPod during my morning runs. The idea for this blog spawned from my interest in traveling to new places and my desire to learn a foreign language. At this point, I am concerned about the scope of this blog. I want to focus on what I want to learn about Italy. The best way to do this is by exploring and asking questions of myself!