“What’s Not on the Web”, is an article that argues that there may be important information that cannot be found on the internet especially when students are conducting research. It also explores credibility and accuracy of information that can be found on the web, and suggests search engines and databases to use. The article gives examples of the kinds of resources that are commonly not found on the internet and where you could find these resources.
I think that by conducting research on the internet you are meeting all 5 of the NETS Standards. By having your students research information on the internet this can facilitate and inspire learning. The internet maximizes student learning by providing them with rich content and context for what they are studying. As a teacher you can exhibit knowledge of navigating the internet by teaching your students to use specific search engines, or databases. This can also be acheived by teaching them key words and phrases to search by. Lastly, by providing students with guidelines for conducting research on the internet you are promoting leadership in the classroom by effectively teaching your students to best use the internet.
This article suggests that when conducting research students are missing out on great resources because they are only searching the web. I think this is a very valid point and have felt this way in the past when conducting my own research. I had a professor in college that assigned a 15 page research paper and in the guidelines told us we needed to find at least 3 internet resources, 2 scholarly journals, 3 book resources, and 1 media resource. I thought that this was a great way to make sure that the information that we were gathering was from a lot of different sources, and it also taught me how to find these types of resources.
Another interesting point that the article brings up is that it is hard to tell how accurate and credible a source is on the web. Because there is no guidelines or regulations to setting up a website it is much harder to know the information you are looking at is accurate. The article listed a number of websites and sources that are reputable which I found helpful to read through. I agree that not all information can be found on the internet and think that it is important for students to know how to filter through websites. I also that think that it is important to teach students how to conduct research in a library using books, journals, encyclopedias, and articles.
This seems like a great article and after reading your blog I am interested to read it in full. It is surprising that there isn't more regulations on what is put on the internet but is is really inportant in our journey as educators to inform our students that everything they read online will not always be the truth and that it is important for them to do backup research on most topics. When I was in school I did most of my research in the library and I still feel that it is a great resource for students today. There is no comparison on the time and energy saved by using the internet, but students should still have to use multiple resources besides the internet when doing research projects.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very important issue to discuss with students because there are so many sites out there that are full of fictitious information. We as educators need to know how we can guide our students in order for them to find reputable sources of information on the web. We need to assist their research habits in order for the students to do their own research in the correct way. The students may not know what is reputable and what is not. That being said it is up to us, the teacher, to show them the light and get them started in the right direction for research.
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