Session 2- Notetaking, Bibliographic Managers, Wikis, Blogs, Collaborative Writing, Concept Maps, Surveys

Some of the best tools on the Internet are free and very useful. These are a few of the ones that I sifted through and found to be most useful, but there are many more that can be found at the Digital Research Tools wiki and by searching on google.

Blogs:
1) Blogger- This free blog by google is the one used by me for this class. It allows you to post blog entries, favorite links, receive comments, etc. There are also a variety of settings.
2) Live Journal- Similar to blogger, but with some different features.
3) Wordpress- Similar to blogger, but with some different features.

Wikis:
1) PB Works- A wiki is a website that can be edited by anyone who views the site. PB Works (formerly PBWiki) has a free version that you can use to create your own wiki about your research. This is just one example of a free wiki. There are many available and they can be found by doing a google search.
2) Wikipedia- Probably the most famous wiki; it is an example of how the collective can refine information to make it more and more accurate over time.
3) DiRT- This is the Digital Research Tools wiki that I referenced at the beginning of this post. There are many tools available and the purpose of this wiki is to find new tools for digital research and collaborate to create a solid resource for qualitative researchers.

Collaborative Writing:
1) Google Docs- This is another free tool from Google. It is helpful when writing collaboratively for research. It allows you to begin either a Word document, PowerPoint presentation, Excel spreadsheet, etc. and then add other uses so that it can be edited by multiple users. It is also a useful place to store documents so that they can be accessed from anywhere with an Internet connection.
2) Zoho- Another collaborative writing tool.
3) Writeboard- Another collaborative writing tool. Same basic features as Zoho.

Concept Maps
1) Mindmeister- A collaborative online mindmapping software. This could be used as you organize research or perhaps as a less textual way to interview participants.
2) VUE- Created by Tufts University, VUE is a concept map tool that must be downloaded to your computer, but is simple to use and could be helpful to organize your codes, research or participants in a concept map. Another similar tool that includes the ability to work collaboratively and was recommended by a few students is Cmap.
3) Wordle- This isn't a concept map, but I couldn't quite figure out where to put it. It's a handy little tool that allows you to copy and paste text and get a word cloud of the most frequently used words in that text and displays them by size.

Surveys
1) Survey Monkey- A free online survey tool. Functions are limited without a paying membership, but good for short surveys of participants and very easy to learn.
2) Zoomerang- This tool is very similar to survey monkey and has the same stipulations with membership.
3) Qualtrics- Another survey tool with more features and the capability to download date as csv files.

Notetaking/Biblographic Managers:
1) Evernote- This free tool allows you to store notes in one location. Notes can take the form of audio, video, photos, or text. This has a great mobile phone utility so that you can take pictures or record notes when you think of them and your phone then syncs with your account online. This website also has a helpful video that gives an overview of the program.
2) Zotero- This is another free tool that is an extension of the Firefox browser. It's a handy way to store documents, websites, and anything else you need for your research from the web. It also allows you to attach notes to anything that you store. This site also has a video overview of the program.
3) Endnote- I would be remiss to leave this tool out of the course, though it is pricey at $249.99 (update, thanks to Mike Chapman, it is offered at SBX at a student-rate of $80!). It is a widely-used bibliographic manager that can save your references and format them in any style you need. You can also take notes on each reference. Ohio State Libraries makes it easy to export a reference to Endnote.
4) RefWorks- This is another bibliographic manager available through Ohio State Libraries (this page has a link to the log-in). This description is from their quickstart guide: RefWorks is a web-based bibliography and database manager that allows you to create your own personal database by importing references from text files or online databases and other various sources. You can use these references in writing papers and automatically format the paper and the bibliography in seconds.
5) Mendeley- Similar to Zotero, but a download is required. However, this too allows you to highlight/annotate PDFs and then search annotations!
*Though learning to use these tools is somewhat time intensive, it can save you much tedious work in the future.

Assignment 2- Choose one of the blog tools above and begin your own blog based on your research. Then, select either one notetaking tool, bibliographic manager, wiki, collaborative writing tool, concept mapping tool or survey, try it out, and discuss on it in your first blog post. Please email the URL of your blog when you are finished.