No Man is an Island: Maximizing Research Sidekick in Conducting a Study

The photo shows Research Sidekick, an Apple Intelligence-powered shortcut for iPad and Mac, designed to summarize web resources.

OVERVIEW

Research is vital in our society to fill gaps in knowledge, discover information, and analyze a phenomenon through a systematic process to generate data, solve problems, and support the study's hypothesis. In education, both teachers and students conduct research to study various topics in different fields with the help of technology and the internet. However, despite the promising advantages of technology in today's digital world, not everyone can maximize the use of modern tools to make the research process more convenient and efficient than conventional methods.

RESEARCH SIDEKICK: AN APPLE-BASED RESEARCH TOOL

Students nowadays are more exposed to content and information across the internet. However, in doing a research study, their perspective sees gathering data and information as difficult due to the overwhelming quantity of resources found online. Research Sidekick, an Apple-based research tool, allows them to summarize and organize concepts and information from any online material and filter the data they need for their study.

IMPACT ON CONDUCTING RESEARCH AMONG TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

• Summarize key information from websites - Helps student researchers to gather and summarize data from online sources.
• Minimize reading overload for students - Reading large amounts of online information can be overwhelming, so students might need software that could help them identify essential concepts and information related to their study.
• Encourage clearer thinking and ethical research habits - Scaffold students in understanding, organizing, and analyzing information, while observing the ethical research process comprehensively.

TUTORIAL

Step 1: Kindly visit Mr. Coby Reynold's Forum post featuring Research Sidekick by clicking the link or scanning the QR code below. From there, click the Shortcut link to download.

https://education.apple.com/resource/250015066

Step 2: Open the Shortcuts app on your Mac or iPhone and click the Research Sidekick shortcut.

Step 3: Customize Research Sidekick by adding prompts or rules in the "Text" section, depending on the type of information you need for the research study. 

Step 4:  On Safari, look for online resources (e.g., books, journals, articles) and copy the link or URL. Find the top pane and click Share.

Step 5: Click Shortcuts and paste the URL of the online source you copied into the blank space provided.

Step 6: Wait for the Research Sidekick to finish the process. After generating information from the online source, it will redirect you to the "Notes" app to view the results.