OPAC Search Experience

1. I am probably going to do my research project on the elderly, particularly the elderly of MN.

2.  I am looking for general information and also something more in-depth, like their living conditions and how they keep track of their finances.

3. Not Applicable.

4. I can't real find many EBooks on the subject of the elderly because it seems like such an obvious thing to many people.  I think I will have to go look at gerontology textbooks.

5. Not Applicable.

6.  Not Applicable.

Critical Thinking

What is Critical Thinking? I have heard this term in several classes such as Philosophy 194: Introduction to Critical Thinking, and Religious Studies 150: Old Testament/ Hebrew Bible Studies.  I understand Critical Thinking to mean that when you see, read, or hear something that you have the ability to remove all previous biases you may have had and form your own opinion on the subject, regardless of what anyone else has tried to convince you of.  Also I understand the term to mean that when someone is trying to convince you to agree with them, that you are able to differentiate between fact and opinion.  Criticalthinking.org defines critical thinking with the quote: "Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action." I understand from this source that if there was a particular process that a body would have to engage in to think critically, it would be evaluating information.  

I think that the connection between critical thinking and IM 204 Research Strategies is that to have good research strategies, when researching you must always be engaging in critical thinking.

What Do You Assume to be True About the Elderly?

Professor Wexelbaum has asked me to pick a population of people that I know very little to nothing about and write about what would assume to be true about the members of said population.  Well before I worked at an Assisted Living I thought that all old people were just generally unhappy people who are just waiting to die.  In the media, most depictions of the elderly show them to be either extremely unhappy and grumpy (like the comic character Crankshaft), or more of a Betty White character, the person that is semi unconnected that everyone laughs at at social gatherings.  When I got a job at Parkview Care Center I learned that although there are many of the elderly who behave in this manner, there are many of them who are very happy people!

Hello

Hello I am Ava and I am starting this blog for my IM 204 class.  I think this class is going to be interesting and informative.  I am a 2nd year Nursing student at St. Cloud State University.