Page 219 - Foundations of Learning, 4th Edition (Revised)

The Information Processing Methodology:
A Simple Example

Scenario: Fred has decided to major in graphic design. He’s also
interested in animation and thinks it would be great to work a summer
internship with a company that does animation.

Step Explanation

1 Perform Fred needs to find out what companies are in the business of animation and
a needs whether they have summer internships. He also will need to find out how the
analysis application process works and the date of the application deadline.

2 Create a The Internet is probably Fred’s biggest resource. He can search for web sites of
collection companies that meet his criteria (those who offer summer internships and offer
plan computer animation). He can choose to narrow his search even further, such as
considering only companies physically located in areas where he has friends or
relatives he can potentially stay with. He can also ask his instructors if they have
any contacts that meet his criteria. The campus library may also have specific
databases he can use.

3 Evaluate the Fred will need to evaluate the company web sites he visits for several things: how
resources professional the site is, whether or not they make the information he needs available
on their web site, and so on. Fred is aware that in the world of professional graphic
design and computer animation, the presentation and look of a web site says much
about how professional the company is and how advanced their tools are. Fred can
do some basic .gif animations himself, so he’s also going to be looking for web sites
that offer animation samples that are beyond what he’s capable of doing himself;
this assures that, should he apply and be hired for an internship with that company,
he will be in an environment where he can expand his skills.

4 Organize the Fred will develop a table with the following columns: name of the company,
information location, web site, types of internships available, advantages, disadvantages.

5 Retrieve the Fred uses the Internet and library resources to gather his information. He fills out
information his table and identifies three companies that meet all his criteria. He sends an
application to each of them, according to the instructions listed on their web sites.
Fred is contacted by a representative of one of the companies and an interview
is scheduled. Fred gets the job!

6 Assess and Fred found the most useful information online, rather than through the campus
review library, although he was able to use a few library resources that are not available
online in order to do some additional checking on the three companies that made
his final list. Fred realized that one reason he got the job was because he had
researched the company carefully; Fred’s prospective employer was impressed by
how prepared and informed he was. Fred also found that there was a high degree
of correlation between his assessment of company web sites and their financial
standing according to the library resources. This tells him that the criteria he used
in assessing company web sites was fairly reliable.

Chapter 8 — Living in the Information Age 213