One of the big tasks for this subject I believe is getting your head around the research tools, platforms and software out there. Research is never been something I have considered or looked at in the past despite having close friends and relatives all working within academic fields. I am growing to appreciate the ‘science’ behind the processes and tools researchers use. I big thing for me this week was learning what EndNote is and how to use it.
During my studies to date I have had little need to write papers of any sort. As a hard core programmer I have loved the technical subjects that place an emphasis on practical deliverables. So coding subjects where you get to code or learn about coding concepts and techniques. Writing essays, whitepapers and other research based deliverables has always to me seemed like a visit to the dentist. Painful but at times necessary – and something to avoid at all costs.
So along comes EndNote.
Firstly I ask myself – what is it, and how will it help me. From my basic understanding to date it is a tool that allows you to store retrieved research resources in your own personal vault. This vault can then be referenced and provides tools like reviewing the resources and creating bibliographies on the fly.
So installing the tool on a mac is a breeze and then using the tool during searches on primo for example seems pretty straight forward. Things get a little more complex when trying to use the insight features and this is where I’m currently at. I have installed the CSU APA 7th referencing style, created my group and assigned field 10 to the research notes for display. The software has – a lot – of features. It provides a lot of functions and tools outside my needs for this subject however the journey of learning the software adds to the understanding of a researchers role.
Learning the tool also helps build a better understanding of critical thinking for me. The way my brain works I seem to learn better by doing then reading and consuming theory first. So for me reading software user guides is never the first step. I much prefer playing around with software and increase understanding by trial and error. Once I have a good grasp of the basics I then delve into blog posts and youtube videos to see more of the advanced features. This has always been my way of learning any software throughout my career. So with EndNote I installed setup the basics then hooked into my library searches to see the new references as they are added.
While this approach may not be the most constructive or complete is seems to work for me. How do you learn to use new software?