Tery, I like the fact that the research aspect of your final project itself becomes an exercise in digital media literacy! Do you approach it that way in terms of grading criteria? On similar projects, I sometimes pre-approve (or disapprove) topics based in part on my estimation of what lit they might find. Also, I have allowed students to use, in more or less ranked order: Journal articles; conference papers, which are at least minimally refereed, but with less delay than for journal articles (a lot of International Communication Association conference papers, e.g., are on a data base our library subscribes to--EBSCO, I think); works by journalists generally--not just NYT, but also L.A. Times, Washington Post, Wall St. Journal, Chronicle of Higher Ed., even Wired Magazine; finally, blogs and other web sources that may/may not be as reliable, but that I ask students to consider critically, and in the context of the other, potentially more balanced sources they (I hope) have found. This approach isn't 100% effective--but I am convinced that often the students with weak sources weren't as persistent or careful as others, and I grade them accordingly. Christopher J. Richter Associate Professor, Communication Studies Hollins University 8015 Quadrangle Lane PO Box 9652 Roanoke, VA 24020-1652 Tel: 5403626358 Fax: 5403626286 crichter@hollins.edu www.hollins.edu -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Tery G Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 10:57 AM To: Air-L@listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-L] acceptable sources for undergraduate research in new media fields 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 Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/