In 2008, the British Library and Joint Information Systems committee (JISC) have commissioned a report titled “Information Behavior of the Researcher of the future”, to identify hoe the specialist researchers or current students, are likely to access and interact with digital resources in five to ten years’ time.
According to the report, a research into how children and young people become competent in using the internet and other research tools, has identified the following:
- “the information literacy of young people, has not improved with the widening access to technology: in fact, their apparent facility with computers disguises some worrying problems
- internet research shows that the speed of young people’s web searching means that little time is spent in evaluating information, either for relevance, accuracy or authority
- young people have a poor understanding of their information needs and thus find it difficult to develop effective search strategies
- as a result, they exhibit a strong preference for expressing themselves in natural language rather than analyzing which key words might be more effective
- faced with a long list of search hits, young people find it difficult to assess the relevance of the materials presented and often print off pages with no more than a perfunctory glance at them”
The following then is related to both the current use of the internet by young people and, a technology generation earlier. There is little direct evidence that young people’s information literacy is any better or worse than before. However, the ubiquitous use of highly branded search engines raises other issues:
- young people have unsophisticated mental maps of what the internet is, often failing to appreciate that it is a collection of networked resources from different providers
- as a result, the search engine, be that Yahoo or Google, becomes the primary brand that they associate with the internet
- many young people do not find library-sponsored resources intuitive and therefore prefer to use Google or Yahoo instead: these offer a familiar , if simplistic solution, for their study needs
Source:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/reppres/gg_final_keynote_11012008.pdf
I agree with Nello in saying that students’ search strategies are far from effective. This is because when students are asked to research a topic or concept being dealt with, they simply choose to write in the search bar the first words that come to mind, without giving appropriate thought to other words or phrases which might be as closely related or linked. Also, when they are given a list of websites as results to choose from, there again they simply pick the first one imagining they will find all the necessary information in it, without even having the patience to read the short description of the results found underneath each website. This I can clearly relate to during lecture delivery.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion most of the students feel much more easier for them to search information through the internet then searching information through other resources. There is a huge amount of information available on the internet for just about every subject known to man, ranging from government law and services, trade fairs and conferences, market information, new ideas and technical support, the list is end less. Statistic shows that students and children are among the top users who surf the Internet for research. Today, it is almost required that students should use the Internet for research for the purpose of gathering resources. Most of the time we give assignments that require research on the Internet.
ReplyDeleteI found out a fact that almost every coming day, researches on medical issues become much easier to locate. Numerous web sites available on the net are offering loads of information for people to research diseases and talk to doctors online at sites such as, America’s Doctor. During 1998 over 20 million people reported going online to retrieve health information.
I remember the days when I used to make my research on a 1970s encyclopedia (I was born 1984) for my homework. The only alternative was to go to a public library and make some further research there.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the issue is not whether or not students are making good use of the tools available nowadays; but whether the tools are available or not. And they are!! Online encyclopedias, academia, technical websites, downloadable e-books - you name it. Students (and non) are spoilt for choice when it comes to research.
The point of this blog is that most students do not know how to use all of these tools. Agreed - but how is this the fault of the Internet? I would rather point my finger towards the educators (including myself) that are failing in showing students how to make some proper research.
It's therefore imperative that in our discussion we differentiate between technology and the use of technology. With regards to research potential, the technology is there, and it's the use of it that needs a lot of improvement.
I thought that this point should be raised since the original article implicates that students are not better off with the advent of the Internet. The students could be WAY better off, it's just that most of them either don't want to be (nothing can be done), or do not know how to be (teach them how to make proper research).
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Christian Calleja
IICT Lecturer
I would say that I only partially agree with Christian in this case. It is true that students should be taught ‘how’ to search for information pertaining to specific topics, yet I do not think it makes sense that we, as IT lecturers should be the people doing so. Otherwise, we might as well end up spending almost every lecture involving research teaching students how to sift the necessary information on that particular topic whilst discarding the unnecessary. Actually, I never remember being taught ‘how’ to search during any of my IT lectures; it was always by trial and error that I learnt. However, the difference lies in the quantity of information present. Earlier on in time, as Christian well mentioned, we only had to deal with short paragraphs of information from encyclopaedias for instance, whereas nowadays students are inundated with information about any topic they research on the Internet. Thus, this might call for some guidance when it comes to sifting the right from the wrong types of information. In my opinion as a result, one might propose the introduction of specific lessons providing students with the necessary and appropriate skills of ‘how’ to research particular concepts and areas being studied, so that these can then be well prepared during lectures where they are asked to conduct research of any kind.
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that the ability to be able to research information on the web should be a key skill taught to children at an early age in today’s digital age. My seven-year old son is already being requested to search for pictures regarding topics he is learning in science and geography classes. Initially I was doing the work for him but I only had to show him once how to type in a search and select pictures from the Google results before he could do it himself. It is also a fact that fewer and fewer people in Malta are using public libraries and this is possibly due to the fact that children are not exposed enough to the potential and opportunities libraries provide. This year, my son also had “library lessons” where they were introduced to indexing systems etc. and he really enjoyed them.
ReplyDeleteIn the context of MCAST, I believe the student orientation at the beginning of the year should be more extensive to not only cover a tour of the library building but an actual tutorial on how to use on-line library resources such as journal databases like Emerald etc. Most students currently use Wikipedia as the main source of information and so far I never had students quoting journals in any of their assignments. I also find that few students know how to reference their material correctly. Most students have possibly never had guidance on how to conduct research and acknowledge their sources of information so I do believe that it is our responsibility as MCAST to make up for this deficiency by offering students support in this area perhaps by providing complementary course modules such as research modules. Such modules would not only cover the variety of sources available on the Internet but also provide guidance to students on how to determine whether information is relevant or not as well as provide them with practice on how to quote and reference relevant sources.
Upon reading this post above, a video which I had recently seen on Youtube immediately sprange to my mind- Ref: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q75KhAeqJg&feature=related
ReplyDeleteWhat is particularly striking in this video are the parts in which it makes reference to the fact that a number of the jobs in top demand today did not even exist a few years ago. Similarly, today we are preparing our students for jobs which might not yet exist today and using technologies which likewise do not even exist today. I think that this highlights the fact that as educators we should not provide our students with ready made solutions. What we should seek to instil is the development of problem-solving skills in our students, in such a way that if tomorrow they encounter a problem which is slightly different to the one that they have encountered today, they would still be able to solve it. I know that this is not easy as I often encounter cases where students fare very poorly in assignment or exam questions just because the questions were a little bit “applied” and not exactly like what was presented in the book or in class or in the notes. Nonetheless, it is clear that transferability of knowledge from one problem to another is essential, otherwise one will end up extinct like the dinosaurs. I think that this point is relevant to this blog as reference has earlier been made to a situation where students seek ready made answers and do not engage in any evaluation. My hypothesis is that one reason which could be contributing to this situation is the fact that our educational system might be treating students as sponges which simply need to absorb a lot of knowledge which someone else decides is appropriate. An improved educational system should thus help students to better determine what it is that they themselves need (& why) and thereafter help them develop the capacity of looking out there, filtering the info available and finding the right answers for themselves. In developing this argument, it is also interesting to see how the concept of a learner-centred education is being integrated to that of the internet as a search tool and of contemporary information overload. Such terms may seem very topical and flashy however the Chinese might have come to this same conclusion long ago with the proverb: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
I think it is very important at post vocational level education that students are taught how to study and how to research, how to write an assignment, how to write a dissertation. These should be units apart from BTEC. They are so necessary, yet just because they are not part of the BTEC syllabus, MCAST does not offer them. How can we expect students to know how to write an assignment if anything remotely similar they learnt in secondary was creative writing or an argumentative essay? How can we expect them to know how and where to research and which sites are reliable and which are not if we do not guide them? At ICS, the English lecturers have volunteered to include referencing in their lectures...otherwise referencing is not tackled and let us face it, cannot be tackled by the topic lecturer because of time constraints.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think it is very important that students have sessions, even non-obligatory seminars, about researching. If we expect them to research, we MUST guide them.
Tatjana Chircop
It is so true that students , and not only students , do not know how to research and filter information from the internet. I am sure that most of us experienced students just typing in the assignment question into the search bar . Then what ever comes out is just copied and pasted. It is so true that the student have zero or next to zero knowledge of what they present as their assignment. It is bad enough that they juast copied it , but at least read it once so that you get a benefit from it!Let me recall such a case. In a Fluids assignment we were doing hydraulics, oil pumps and all that stuff. Hydraulic systems have accumulators of pressure in form of gas or springs. Some students just tped in accumulator, a word which is also used for electric batteries!! They had not even read the stuff they copied!! Such cases are very common in mcast. This is also a sign that students do not even know what to look for . They do not read what they have on their screen.
ReplyDeleteWell, this is a subject that we can all speak about as we meet students every day and it is not the first time to assign them a simple research on the internet. It is true that internet has become the first tool in the list which offers a wide range of resources. It is becoming increasingly important for the student and so it is in the interest of the educator to guide the student how to use internet as efficient as possible. Today, the internet is the solution for many people at any time; not only to students for research. Nowadays If we were to be honest, whenever we feel some kind of pain, we do not refer to a doctor immediately but we try to become self-doctors with the full support of the internet as if it were a nurse. Similarly, we cannot bar the student from referring to the internet whenever possible.
ReplyDeleteBut do students know how to search the internet effectively?
Are we offering courses about using the web efficiently?
Why isn’t this part of the ECDL?
Why are we blaming the student? All carpenters have learned how to use the hammer before they hammered the first nail. Most probably this is not the same with students; they are given the tool with no instruction manual!
Crisby
Handling Large Amount of Data
ReplyDeleteFrom my little experience in class, I can remember two scenarios of research. When the web was not so accessible in our country, whenever I instructed my students to research a particular subject, I used to suggest a reading text which could help the student to clarify the idea. Students used to read the text and rephrase or comment about their own ideas. In general, this produced reasonable effort and results.
Nowadays, if I assign a simple research to students, I leave them free to choose the text. In the vast majority, students opt to search the web rather than going through real libraries. This is only fair once better tools are available. But is this really producing better results? From my experience, students find it difficult to handle a large amount of data. Instead of the one textbook that I used to suggest, students are now faced with much more than that; with thousands of articles in a couple of seconds. Nonetheless, the end result of today’s classes is not any better in many cases. I can remember about some students’ assignments where you cannot even understand where an argument starts or ends. Asking students about a possible cause, recently I got to know that students find it difficult to pick and choose relevant information from thousands of websites. So are we any better today? Is the internet a heavy tool for the student or isn’t it?
Crisby
I totally agree with Tatjana’s comment. MCAST needs to build a system where especially non IT students need to be taught how to search properly. Also they need to be taught how to manage the data they are encountering during their search. Adding with this suggestion I would also like to say that we lectures need also training how to fully utilize the web. There are some lecturers who are not very familiar with the web and if taught properly they can make use it as one of their tools for teaching. An example is that many lecturers use the you-tube to give visual examples to sustain their topic but I am sure that there are other lectures who wish to use it but either do not know how or they are afraid to experiment because they might make a mistake during downloading.
ReplyDeleteI don't think its a question that our students being ICT or non, don't know how to search on the internet, its just a question that they are too lazy to do it!
ReplyDeleteAs Chris remarked, when we were younger (and I'm much older than Chris)we only had written outdated encyclopedias that weight a tonne and there was no 'Google' or other search engines to guide us through, but still we made the effort and got our research done.
Nowadays, our students have all the information that they need at their fingertips but do they really use it? Why spend two hours looking for information when you can spend them chatting with your friends? Isn't it better copying someone's work than going through loads and loads of pages and links on the internet? Why make the effort? and I ask you how many students READ a research paper/article more than a page long?
I think that it's a question that our students want everything ready with the least effort!
The internet can be either both a very good tool or a very bad tool for students doing research. I do not blame it on them if students simply copy and paste information from the net and print them as part of their assignments. There are faults very early in the educational system.
ReplyDeleteStudents should from the very first years of education be taught about the consequences of plagiarism. Instead of teaching students how to research strategically and how to evaluate the information found, children are simply being encouraged to use the internet as a browsing and research tool.
Worse than that, students are not taught how they should reference their material well. Therefore the idea of non plagiarising does not even exist. How can we say that plagiarism is taken seriously when not even University has a digital checking system by which assignments are checked for plagiarism? Is this because we know that we would be creating a very large problem for ourselves due to a high expected rate of plagiarism as a result of our failure to teach our students how good research should be done? Sometimes I do think that no one wants to really face this problem.
Foreign Universities are much ahead on such an issue. Each assignment would have to be submitted through the checking system at submission stage. Such a software would immediately recognize plagiarised material and indicate the exact source of it. Installing such a system at College would bring havoc if we do not first educate our students how they should research and reference work ethically. Despite the effort that needs to be done from our side, I am certain that the quality of our students would improve by far if we take this problem much more seriously.
This will help our students think about how they should analyse and build up their assignments. It would certainly help them to become much more critical about other people’s work, preparing them better to challenge what could not be necessarily true or best.
Moreover, I think that we should strive to have better sources of information.
Educational institutions should invest in having more quality journals and search for information sharing partnerships with other foreign public and private institutions, which can provide both qualitative and quantitative sources of information such as market data and market reports. This will help our students have access to latest information and market trends, exposing them better to the reality out there. The internet can be as cheap as much as a qualitative research tool it can be. It all depends on how we use it.
Mariella
The issue highlighted in this blog is very relevant to our times and, unfortunately, also very worrying.
ReplyDeleteI agree perfectly with the findings report that Nello quoted. I have experienced it with my students and something must be done to address this situation.
On one hand, everyone acknowledges that with the Internet, each one of us has been provided with an infinite source of information, millions of times the amount of information we had access to twenty years ago (in those days we only had libraries and encyclopedias).
Yet, on the other hand, we have to acknowledge as well that the e-Community has not been adequately prepared in step with the advancement of e-information. In simple terms, we have not created systems to train our community on how to tap correctly on the infinite information available, how to filter the valid information from the untrue. And our students are falling prey to this.
Apart from this, the Search Engines are really controlling what we read. Keep in mind that it is very typical that people doing searches on the Internet get their information from the first page of Search Results. This is worrying since it is well known that this is heavily influenced by how much the sites have paid and pushed the Search Engines to get their sites on top of the search results.
Eventually I see two possible solutions to these problems:
1. An extensive compulsory training programme in our schools (from a young age till secondary level at least) on how to surf, search and use the Internet properly.
2. A certification system for information on the Net, with a Sign mark to be put up on certified sites to indicate that they attain a high quality status in terms of valid information content.
I agree with all the above mentioned problems regarding our students' methods of "researching". Even in my case I learned to "research" properly back at the good old Uni times (some 7 years ago) with my friends Pulis, Calleja, Badger & Johnny, when internet access in Malta was low compared to today.
ReplyDeleteAnother problem I would like to point, which will affect some of us for sure, coming September: how are we going to discipline Pre-Foundation students (Level 1), coming from an educational background that leaves much to be desired, and from Foundation students' experience, wanting everything spoon-fed to properly research good material on the internet?
Remember that not all data is information!!
In my opinion the internet is a very useful tool for the student and the lecturer because it is an infinite source of information. On the other hand, whenever I need to do research, I tend to carry out my research at the library because I think that books are more reliable. So even though there are web-sites which are very serious and the articles are written by professionals, students have to be very careful in order to select and filter information according to their assignment questions. Nowadays a number of students copy and paste information from the internet without even reading it. Sometimes I find assignments and the students don't even delete phrases such as "click here for more information". So I think that despite the advantages of the information that is very easily accessible on the internet, this could also make today's students lazy.
ReplyDeleteI share much of the same sentiment with all of you and would like to focus my reply to particularly the comment above:
ReplyDelete'how are we going to discipline Pre-Foundation students (Level 1), coming from an educational background that leaves much to be desired, and from Foundation students' experience, wanting everything spoon-fed to properly research good material on the internet?'
I have had the Foundation Certificate (level 2) for the past 3 months, for Contextual studies - which for them is probably the most boring subject from all art and design! :))
What I have done is to dedicate 1 hour per week using an interactive media room with access to computers and internet facilities. I have them in a small group (of about 12 so they are easier to control). What we do is literally learn to research topics, and show them which sites are reliable ones, and how to go about searching, which key words to put in the bar, and how to make use of images. I show them how to make proper referencing as well as to teach them how to compare what they find on the net with what is found in books in our own library. I sometimes get books prior to the lesson and specifically ask the students to look up similar information in order to compare/contrast the images so that they will realize that not all sites produce the same reliable information. Images especially can be very misleading in art and design. You can have a copy of something which is slightly altered and then mistaken to be the original. Sometimes even for the trained eye it is tricky to differentiate.
I must admit I do have a problem sometimes with students ending up watching other things or chatting, but this is only an issue in the first couple of sessions. This exercise is the most successful with a small class that can be easily managed.
In the following lesson I will proceed with a discussion of what they had found out during the previous session. It is amazing how much more students remember by doing, rather than by listening only. Hopefully this approach will work with the level 1 as well!
Today students are faced with loads of data very easy to access. Children at their young age are already surfing unsupervised. They believe that everything they find is correct. Students believe that information in wikis especially the Wikipedia is correct and can be quoted which we all know that one cannot quote a site unless it is official. I always try to convince my 14yr old son that he can refer to Wikipedia but not believe everything which is in it. Believe me it is very difficult!
ReplyDeleteSo the educator’s role is to give guidelines to students, especially beginning from the young ones explaining what is right and what is wrong. The educator needs to explain what one finds in Blogs and wikis, how can one recognize the difference between official site and ones which are not.
Finally students need to be taught that ones they found relevant information they need to learn how to paraphrase before adding it as part of their work.
Internet has evolved in such a fast pace that sometimes I feel that it left us unprepared to the attractive and appealing things it managed to realize.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to the above post I feel that the internet like any other tool, it can be used well but it can also be misused or abused of. I think that as an educational system we were not enough responsive to address the expansion of internet. Hence we have not trained enough our students to learn how to use it responsibly and sensibly. The result of this could be misuse of internet and also dependency on it.
Furthermore, we have to consider that most teachers have furthered their studies when internet was not as developed as it is today and hence they have based much of their research on books and printed material. Hence they could not be familiar themselves with the use of internet which could make it difficult for them to grasp such concepts and guide students in using internet responsibly.
I think that we still need to train both ourselves and our students in understanding both the strengths and limitations of online information and the importance of personal input and judgment.
I agree with most of you commenting in this blog, that the students’ net-searching abilities are very basic and that there is so much useful information that is not being properly accessed. But I have to add on another issue here. I have to admit that even though I am an avid information-over-the-net-researcher, I do not feel that I am fully effective in my searching abilities. And this because I have learned by doing. Although most (especially employers in industry) state that learning by doing is the most effective way, I think that this is only partially true and that if one needs to use something to its utmost, he/she must be properly trained on it. I agree with Alison Shaw that we have to provide ways for our students and for us lecturers to be fully trained in such net-searching skills. These are basic tools and it makes sense to have proper training on them. Otherwise we may end up having the same issues as with Microsoft Word, Excel, Access. Again how many of us are using these at their full potential?
ReplyDeleteI total agree with Chris, sometimes it seems that students are too lazy to try to search appropriately. I spend an hour or so at the beginning of each semester trying to explain how to research things on the net but I yield little to no effect as if I wasted time..
ReplyDeleteEffective Hints and tips for internet search:
ReplyDeleteCHOOSING SEARCH TERMS AND SYNTAX
1. Enter synonyms, alternate spellings and alternate forms (e.g. dance,
dancing, dances) for your search terms.
2. Enter all the singular or unique terms which are likely to be included
in the document or site you are seeking.
3. Avoid using very common terms (e.g. Internet, people) which
may lead to a preponderance of irrelevant search results.
4. Determine how your search engine uses capitals and plurals, and
enter capitalized or plural forms of your search words if appropriate.
5. Use a phrase or proper name if possible to narrow your search
and therefore retrieve more relevant results (unless you want a large
number of results)
6. Use multiple operators (e.g. AND, NOT) if a search engine
allows you to do so.
7. If you receive too many results, refine and improve your search.
(After perusing the results, you may become aware of how to use
NOT - e.g. Boston AND hockey AND NOT Bruins)
8. Pay attention to proper spacing and punctuation in your search
syntax (i.e. no space when using + means +term not + term)
from:http://www.windweaver.com/searchguide.htm#CHOOSING
More hints and tips:
ReplyDeleteWHICH SEARCH ENGINE OR DIRECTORY?
Do you want....
to browse a subject area? USE Yahoo, Lookmart or the Open Directory
to search Newsgroups? USE Yahoo, Google Newsgroups, AltaVista, HotBot
to include older gopher files in your search? USE Webcrawler or Altavista
to search as much as the Web as possible? USE Google or AlltheWeb.com
to search every word on a site or in a document? USE AltaVista, or HotBot
to locate an obscure or hard-to-find document? USE AltaVista,
to locate a fairly popular site or easy-to-find document? USE Webcrawler or Yahoo
to retrieve a large number of results? USE AltaVista or a metasearch engine such as Savvy Search or Metacrawler
to retrieve few but relevant results? USE Webcrawler
to search only titles, urls or keywords? USE Webcrawler, Yahoo OR Alta Vista
to specify in what part of a site your search terms will occur (including titles, urls and summaries)? USE AltaVista (adv) or InfoSeek
to search reviewed and evaluated sites? USE Looksmart's select directory)
We are all talking about researching on the net...and yes no one can deny how important research on the web is, but what about researching from books and journals? Sometimes students fail to realise that not all information is found on-line. There are many good books and articles which are not available on-line and which offer very valuable information.
ReplyDeleteAll art and design projects start with tasks based on research. Unfortunately much of the research presented is very similar because they just present the first valid information which they find on the web. The few students who do indepth research and use all resources available for this come up with much more interesting and inspiring research. This eventually usually helps them come up with better projects.
As a tutor, I try to encourage my students to use a mixture of resources and references in order for them to widen their knowledge as much as possible.
By saying this I do not mean that searching on the web is not important but rather that research should be a balance from different sources available.
I agree that the key to succesfull use of Internet is a good use of a search engine, or search tool. Students are encourages to use Internet research to support their projects, although sometimes internet research tends to replace their own work. So I think we as teachers, need to keep a sharp eye.
ReplyDeleteTo effectively use a search engine, one needs to understand hoe to use the advanced search (using booleann logic to narrow down the search results.
RSS feed subscriptions are also very common, allowing updates when new articles are posted.
Nieħu mill-istudenti tagħna, dawn jippreferu jfittxu l-informazzjoni minn sors HTML minflok iqallbu ktieb, ktieb elettroniku, jew books.google; jippreferu jistrieħu fuq enċiklopedija ħielsa bħall-wiki minflok ifasslu l-materjal huma minn sorsi li tista’ tistrieħ fuqhom. Fil-każ tiegħi, għal riċerka lingwistika, l-internet hu nieqes ħafna minn letteratura, u allura l-materjal tal-elearning ikollu nfasslu jien stess.
ReplyDeleteIkun pass xieraq kieku L-MCAST jirnexxilu joffri korsijiet relatati tal-metodi tat-tiftix ta’ materjal għal riċerka, għax naħseb li l-istudenti tagħna b’mod ġenerali huma neqsin ħafna minn taħriġ simili. It-teżijiet tat-tliet livelli tad-diploma ftit li xejn juru żvilupp fil-ħila tar-riċerka, qishom qatt ma tgħallmu jfasslu kitba u lanqas l-isfond tagħha. Mill-istudenti, il-copy u l-paste jintogħġob għax faċli, u fil-każ tal-Malti kemm jgħaddu l-kitba mill-Google translate u t-test ikun lest. Iltqajt ma’ esejs bil-Malti (li jkollhom bżonn riċerka) li ma jkunu jagħmlu sens xejn għax ġew tradotti b’das-sistemi. X’aktarx l-istudent ma jkunux qrawhom qabel tawhomli.
Interessanti kieku kellna naraw x’inhuma l-iżjed kelmiet jew frażijiet imfittxija fil-Google bl-internet tal-MCAST.