Trojan Horse of Research Shirkers has Undercut Internet's Wonders

Thursday, June 10, 1999

tech.life@school | Joyce Kasman Valenza

Warning: Beware of G(r)eeks bearing gifts.

Along with the huge and wonderful gifts the Internet has delivered to our gates, there have been a few unexpected visitors.  Out of today' s Trojan horse, a legion of research slackers is emerging.

Let me describe the invaders, then we'll join forces to plan strategy.

Over the last couple of years, as students have grown comfortable with the Web, I have seen a marked decline in the quality of research.  My colleagues confirm that this occurs across grade levels and disciplines.

The signs are easy to spot. Papers and presentations may look perfectly polished.  But take a close look at the bibliographies.  Are the entries attributed to curiously unknown authors? Are there any books or journal articles listed? Do ALL of the sources begin with http?

I hear it from teachers and professors around the country: Students are increasingly reluctant to open a book when they research; they increasingly depend on the free Internet as their sole information source.

If they cannot print it or copy it to disk, they do not want it.  You see their impatience as they tap their feet, waiting for a slow processor or printer to split out information.

Many are under the impression that collecting the printouts is the end of the research job.  It is not.

At once the most overrated and underrated medium of all time, the Web is unbeatable for accessing breaking news, statistics, primary sources, multiple view-points and popular culture, and for developing instant personal connections.

What is not on the free Web? Merely 75 years of copyrighted literature, including the best fiction and nonfiction writing - adult, young adult and juvenile.

When students use the Web exclusively, they ignore the careful, analytic, comprehensive treatment that book authors generally devote two or three year to developing.  Students often ignore the best sources.

"A student came in and asked for information on obsessive-compulsive behavior," said a colleague, Margaret Kleppinger of Hatboro-Horsham High School.  "I showed him the Encyclopedia of Psychology and a book - The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing. He actually replied: 'This is a book - I need information for a report!' I can't believe the number of times students say to me: 'Isn't the information on the computer?'"

"The one thing that still drives me crazy is the thought by students, as well as some teachers, that the Internet has everything," said Margaret Shaffer of Easton High School in Maryland. "Even when I bring two books to a student on the topic, they would rather keep searching [the Internet] for another 30 minutes, then give up, because they couldn't find anything."

The Web is convenient, yet if students do not have to leave their homes or dorm rooms to complete their research, they are less likely to solicit or receive the adult guidance and perspective they need.

Children are displaying a new "information cockiness." That many student feel confident about their ability to use the Net is cause to celebrate. But I encounter students (and some teachers) who are so confident that they feel they have little more to learn.  We all have more to learn.

I'll present a 10-minute strategy session, point out some of the Web's best resources, and watch students retreat into a Yahoo-dependent approach, neglecting to include any particular strategies in their searches.

They may have Internet access at home. They may know how to use a search tool or two.

Yet without strategies, search engines are like slot machines. The odds are not good that you will hit the information jackpot unless you use your wits to fix the game in your favor. (As I searched for the phrase Greeks bearing gifts, the first six pages of hits were almost all references to an episode of Xena, Warrior Princess.)

I worry about sloppy information ethics. I have seen it in colleagues' presentations at national conferences.  So I am not at all surprised to see it in student work.

There is a growing feeling that everything on the Internet is fair game.  Many of my colleagues simply scan or copy those little cartoons, graphics, sounds and movie clips into their presentations without bothering with a citation.  There is a growing acceptance of low-quality information.

"I just had a prize from a sixth grader who was researching Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel," said Cathie Miller, middle school librarian at Princeton Day School. "He had found a Web site which he told the teacher was really great.  He then told me that the site said the ceiling was commissioned by Julius Caesar. He was depending on the Web site put up by an eight-grade student."

When students fail to evaluate the sources they use, they often choose poor, inadequate or inaccurate information - summaries of summaries of work by other students, or corporate propaganda.

Adults must accept responsibility for this problem. We have it within our power to embrace the enormous gift of the Internet while we hold the slackers at bay.

The strategy: Discourage surfing, encourage searching.

All students need to learn how to identify an information problem and select appropriate keywords for searches. Students should know the difference between a search engine and a subject directory; the addresses of a few good search tools; how to do a phrase search; and when to use the Boolean operator AND.  Research should be considered the fourth R.

Home or classroom bookmarks or Web pages will guide students to gateways and search tools.  The selection of a few "best sites" will show students what a good site looks like.

A school should provide students with an online reference suite that includes, at least, an online encyclopedia and a full-text magazine index. Ideally, the suite should include specific curricular products: scientific, historical and literary reference.

Balanced bibliographies in which students synthesize ideas from a variety of sources should be required.

Students should be encouraged to assess their sources for authority, credibility, currency, bias and purpose.  Older students might document the efforts with an evaluative, annotated bibliography.  Younger students might simply include print-outs of the Web pages they cited.

Students as young as second or third grade are capable of research beyond fact-finding and retelling.  But they won't reach unless they are asked questions that require them to compare, restructure and analyze information. Better yet, encourage students to develop the essential questions themselves. 

The fast-food approach must be discouraged.  Though information may pop up automatically, the processing and communication of information remain hard work.

Is the Web a wonderful research gift? Absolutely, especially when students know its strengths and its limits.  And when they know when to stop searching and pick up a book.

Joyce Kasman Valenza is the librarian at Springfield High School in Erdenheim. Her column appears each week in tech life. E-mail joyce.valenza@phillynews.com

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