Research II.

Alan Aragon's Blog
"Alan Aragon has over 20 years of success in the fitness field. He earned his Bachelor and Master of Science in Nutrition with top honors. Alan is a continuing education provider for the Commission on Dietetic Registration, National Academy of Sports Medicine, American Council on Exercise, and National Strength & Conditioning Association"

Directions toward a career in fitness – part 1, part 2, part 3.

"Through rose-tinted lenses
The fitness field is so appealing to so many, and why wouldn’t it be. The combination of looking good, staying healthy, performing better, and affecting these changes in others is quite idyllic. Given this, it’s not surprising that one of the most frequent questions I’m asked - other than how many milliseconds are allowed to elapse between meals - is how to secure a career in fitness. A fair amount of people who follow my work want to eventually do what I do. That’s very flattering, and the least I can do is offer some insight into the process that led me to a place where I feel empowered enough to talk about it.
In this article series
I’ll start by discussing the pros & cons of being a gym-employed trainer and a self-employed trainer. I’ll do the same with nutritional counseling (yes, I’ve done both), then I’ll cover lecturing. Next, I’ll give you the amusing scoop on how my writing career snuck up on me. My aim for this article is not to provide the end-all set of answers. What I can do is offer my own experiences to give you ideas and a solid framework for making decisions. There’s a lot to cover, so I’ll break this up in parts, and wrap it up with some action steps and resources."

Research I.

Library Journal: Ebsco Host Discovery
AUM Montgomery Library

 What Trends are Driving Personal Training?
from the 2011 IDEA Personal Training Programs & Equipment report.
September 2011 IDEA Fitness Journal
Jan Schroeder, PhD, and Ayla Donlin, MS


"Since last year's survey, we've seen a modest uptick in the economy. Perhaps with that comes increased optimism for growing your businesses and expanding your services to new (and old) clients who are looking to loosen up some dollars to spend on their health and fitness. How do you best prepare for this? How do you know in what direction to steer your offerings or what equipment to buy? This survey, specific to personal trainers, is a bellwether of what you can expect and plan for in the coming year. Nearly 700 IDEA personal trainer members mostly independent, small-business entrepreneurs—completed the 2011 survey Read on to discover what they are seeing in their day-to-day operations, why they are making certain decisions about programming and equipment and how they are positioning themselves for 2012 and beyond."

Googlepedia: Turning Information Behaviors into Research Skills; Response

In this article written by Randall McClure the author examines how students today of the "Google Generation" use Wikipedia and Google as research havens.  No longer are students using the library or rarely using a school's online database to find information when they can just "google it".  The author call these two websites our "web research home".  We also use these sites for "pre-search" in most cases to gain further information.  The problem that may arise is trying to shuffle through all the crap that possibly will not pass the "CRAAP" (currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose)test the author notes.  This calls for "information literacy" in the collegiate community to fully recognize the data that you're working with.  The author reports on two students who conducted research in a typical "Googlepedia" way but maybe not the most efficient.  McClure goes on to share his "8-steps" with the students to help them research and gain a better understanding of the process.  In conclusion he notes the benefits of using the two "pre-search" web-sites and understand we all can learn something new from our technological advancements but must make sure to slow down, appreciate the process, research  and grow.  Society is going to continue to change and make many more advancements but we must be careful in our approach to an abundance of information.  We must continue to think critically and use our value judgement to make the appropriate actions in our daily lives. We can benefit from both sides of the equations, we can benefit from better research and will benefit with better products.

Why Blog? Searching for Writing on the Web

Why Blog? Searching for Writing on the Web is an article written by Alex Reid on Writing Spaces that explores the benefits of creating a blog. The author states that being a blog writter can possibly make you a better overall writer especially in the academia world. He notes famed writer Malcolm Gladwell "10,000 hours" of practice to become an expert at something and see's that it would take thirty six years to accomplish that task for the average college student. So while that may not be your end goal in mind, the idea is obviously the more you right the more you get better at it. Blogging helps with this process. The more you blog for internal satisfaction the easier writing may become. We tend to write for extrinsic value, especially for good grades in school but writting informally while blogging allows you the freedom to write what you feel. It could be just a sentence, a response to something you seen, a story, anything you want to write. That's where the magic begins to happen when you're able to express yourself and learn your writing behavior.

"Wikipedia Is Good for You!?"...If you use it right!

In the Writing Spaces reading, "Wikipedia Is Good for You!? the author James Purday makes the case that "yes" it can be good for you if used appropriately.  Purday breaks down Wikipedia as a a potential source for information to use for cited works.  He also recommends even posting information yourself to get use to sharing and revising information as you would when successfully writing a research-based paper.  The author makes a lot of convincing points and uses examples of others who have used Wikipedia as a source to make his case that the bad rap that Wikipedia gets is often because people mis-use it rather than take advantage of the source of opportunity.  I appreciated and learned quite a bit while reading the article, especially regarding the Wikipedia interface and the opportunities to post in the discussion page.  I was convinced as well that if you actually go to the sources where the information is cited that you can actually use Wikipedia as a great starting point.  Teachers often say how incorrect Wikipedia is and recommend to not use it but from reading this article I beg to differ.  Along with any source from the Internet, books and encyclopedias information can sometimes be wrong.  It was noted in the article that some information previously in the Encyclopedia Britannica was wrong before.  So in conclusion just like any other source of information Wikipedia can make or break you. Use precautions and good judgement but more importantly use it!

Ken Robinson: Changing education paradigms (Review) by Tiawan Johnson

In the presentation; Changing education paradigms by Ken Robinson, education reform is discussed as we see a change in society amongst globalization, financial turmoil and failing education institutions.  The presentation is presented in a very artistic format which was pleasing to the eyes for a visual learner as myself.  The artist did a wonderful job of interpreting Sir Ken Robinson's work.  Robinson discussed how the current education system is failing students, and not so much the students that are excelling in academia but those that are not because of a perceived learning disability or mental capacity.  The other problem Sir Robinson proposes is with the industrialization of education and a learning system founded during the Age of Enlightenment, an 18th Century movement.  We live in a more fast paced, attention grabbing era where sitting and reading competes with video games, iPhone's and a bombardment of advertising on television, billboards and the Internet.  So how do you expect any student to sit still in school and especially one diagnosed with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).  So how do you challenge these students?  How do you bring about the kind of creative thinking that is required to be successful in the real world?   These are the type of question we have to ask as educators, parents and students.  If know one bothers to answer these type of questions then we will continue to be stuck in a educational dark age.  Education is about learning, evolving, imagination and problem solving.  We all have the responsibility and capacity as human being to see these issues resolved and a new educational paradigm come to fruition.