At some point in all of our educational experiences, we all have had to analyze online resources. There are many resources out there on the world wide web that are very useful and professional in order to help people support any idea or topic that the need data or information for. However, there are also many websites that have reading material on them, but they are in no way, shape, or form useful for research purposes. This is why students are strongly discouraged from using Wikipedia. Obviously, this site is considered online reading material that is publicly well-known, but would students use this site as a creditable resource when it comes to research, writing a paper, or giving a presentation? Absolutely not. This site is not creditable enough for students to use this site, and it is important that students know how to decide which site is acceptable to use for research and what is not. In Bean, Baldwin, and Readence's Chapter 10, they offer two strategies for enhancing online reading comprehensions: SAND and ISSDAT. SAND, "helps students avoid retrieving misinformation from the Internet when they are searching for information." They must search, analyze, and note details of the sites they look up. The second strategy, ISSDAT, " helps students make intertextual connections across diverse websites when searching for a topic to be developed into a presentation, paper, or project." Here, the students must internet search, slow down, and think. After reading both of these strategies in this chapter, I think that they could come in handy when teaching the students how to conduct useful research no matter what field you are using research. At the college level, students are required to know how to research topics, and I think it is valuable to teach students these concepts in all aspects and domains during their high school career. I wouldn't particularly use this on a regular basis in my class, but I think that I could definitely mention it often.
Abbey,
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job highlighting the importance in teaching students good research methodology. The strategies explained in the book are great resources for teachers to use. I liked that one of the strategies required students to think about how the information they collect from the web ties into a paper or project. This strategy even mentioned using YouTube as a source. While this is an unconventional source, it could be beneficial for students to experience using YouTube in an academic way. Regarding Wikipedia, I think it is a great quick reference tool, and while it is not the best for formal research, it can be used to like to other great sources that are better suited for citation. Clearly, you do a great job at pointing this out, and I agree with your premise. Using the strategies outlined in the text can help us to make students more aware of best research practices.
Mindy