Let me second what Todd said ... ... and add one more wrinkle. I require students doing research projects in my classes to include a certain number of "qualifying sources" (one of the criteria being that the work in question has to be scholarly in nature) ... but anything above and beyond those qualifying sources is fair game. After all, I don't want them to *avoid* sources that might actually provide them with useful information. I simply want to make sure that they engage in a particular type of research as part of the overall process. cheers gil On 10/20/2010 10:34 AM, Todd Harper wrote:
While I understand where you're coming from in not wanting freshmen to simply rattle off the top 5 google hits for their topic, I'm not sure that banning internet sources is going to accomplish the goal you're setting out to do. As you say, the more recent your topic, the more publication delay and other factors bite into your available sources on it.
My suggestion (and one that has worked reasonably well for me) is to spend some time with them identifying what the difference between a credible/acceptable source and a non-credible source is, at least in terms of what you consider those things to be. The usual offender here for me is Wikipedia; while there is a time and a place for citing a Wikipedia article, for example, I've had students use it as the end-all-be-all of knowledge on any given subject. This usually leads to me walking them through a recently-vandalized Wikipedia page's history (my favorite was a page for the *Transformers* animated shows that replaced all the image captions with rap lyrics) and explaining the ups and downs of wikis as information sources.
I think if you make it clear that "JOE BOB'S SUPER AWESOME GLEE BLOG!" is not a credible source, but the actual show website from Fox is, they'll get the drift. I just feel like, in banning Google as a research tool, you are inadvertently keeping good, useful sources out of the hands of your students in an attempt to get them not to use it poorly. If you spend the time to walk them through how to determine is information is reliable, credible, and substantiated instead, I think you will reap greater rewards in the long run.
On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 10:57 AM, Tery G<teryg93@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,
I teach a freshman level class called Digital Media Literacy. It's an introduction to concepts and tools related to digital media. Each student does a final project, which, of course, requires them to do research. I spend a lot of time with them -- read articles, give examples, do some hands-on work, etc. -- covering why Google in particular and websites in general are not the sources they should be using (or trusting). They know how to use the library databases, but the topics they're examining are so new that anything in peer-reviewed journals about those topics is dated.
Does anyone have suggestions about what might be acceptable resources in this situation? I let them use articles from *The New York Times* and the *Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication*, but I have difficulty justifying their not using some other sources I really would prefer they not use when they can't find new enough information in the peer-reviewed journals.
TIA, Tery Griffin
Associate Professor of Media Arts Wesley College Dover DE 19901 _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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