One thing that surprised me as I read this week's readings is that this isn't very different from what we have always taught students to do. It's just that we are teaching it much earlier because our students have access to so much material now. In the past, students in elementary, middle and high schools were limited by the material that was available to them in the school libraries. Now, students at all levels have access to materials of all kinds from all over the world. The parallels between REAL (November, 2008) and the old-fashioned way of doing research with paper materials is remarkable. For example, when doing research with hard materials we are admonished to use only scholarly or peer reviewed journals, i.e. we need to make sure the material we are reading comes from a reputable source rather than material prepared to persuade or to entertain. When using web materials we do the same thing by "reading the URL (November, 2008)." Secondly, with books and magazines, journals, and newspapers, we often tell students to look at the abstracts, summaries, table of contents, etc to determine if the source we have includes information on our topic. With internet-based materials, November (2008) suggests we "examine the content." Thirdly, with print materials, we are cautioned to check the credentials and qualifications of the author, editor and publisher. Likewise, with materials retrieved from the web, we should "ask about the author and owner (November, 2008)." Finally, with books and articles we are often directed to pay attention to the references (works cited, bibliography,etc.) to verify that the book or article we are using is based on substantial and reputable sources. Similarly, November (2008) tells us to "look at the links" when we are gathering information from web sites.
Bibliography
November, A. (2008). Web Literacy for Educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Valenza, J. (2001). A Web Quest About Evaluating Web Sites. Retrieved May 13, 2010 from Springfield Township High School Virtual Library site: http://www.sdst.org/shs/library/evalwebstu.html
Sharon, You are right - there are many similarities when evaluating websites/looking at hard copy print. The only real difference that I can see is that you can click on other hyperlinks and get "distracted" or be led to unrelated information. This is often where students get distracted when using the web.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to me that you brought up the comparison of hard copy vs. online. I never had really compared the two, but have always been more skeptical when searching for online sources. And technically, as Wes' blog entry's Ithaca link pointed out, it is important to remember that we can find hard copy resources on the Internet as well.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading this weeks assignment, I didn't line up the online and hard copy comparison. As I read your Response 2, it clicked. I haven't decided which I like better - the online or the "old fashion way". I will say that I'm more comfortable with the hardcopy - probably because that is what I have done most of my life. I sometimes get a bit overwhelmed by the amount of information available online. Thanks for the eye opener!
ReplyDelete"Look at the links" - everytime I use Wikipedia for something educational, I immediately check out the references at the bottom of the page. I find it a good starting point for my research or whatever it is that I need to find, and go from there. I think even then there are some parallels between doing research on the web and using print sources (or at least how I conducted my research when I was in HS)
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