The Online World—How well do students understand it?
As each year passes, more and more students use the World
Wide Web--But it does not mean they know how to seek, evaluate and organize
information they have found on the Web. In fact, many students do NOT understand
the Web universe. Here are a few examples:
During the first semester I taught the Internet Skills
course, three students answered in a fill-in-the-blank quiz that .com stood
for "community."
Many students think that any web site that has .edu is
educational and therefore, reliable (never mind many students have personal
pages on such sites).
A student once selected the following web site to discuss
harmful health affects of cigarette smoking. The web site was: http://www.smartlink.net/~phillipj/smoking.htm
(a seventh grade science fair project). She selected this site because it
was the first result that appeared in Google, and she felt it was therefore,
the best.
Another student selected the following web site because
it has statistical facts regarding cohabitation. When I showed her that the
author was a minister that believed cohabitation was sinful and that
a lot of the resources he cited are from radio shows given by Focus on the
Family, she didn’t care because she still found statistical "facts."
http://members.aol.com/cohabiting/
The problem of the Web
When it comes to searching periodical indexes and databases,
students are often looking for "relevant" information, not "right"
information. They just want to satisfy the assignment (i.e. the first three
articles they find if that is what the assignment requires) (Taylor, 1990).
Now, students are searching the Web. All the more, they need to know how to
evaluate web sites—because often the information they find is poor, not complete,
not accurate, or simply opinionated. They also need to know that Libraries
do provide better information online, including originally printed materials
such as newspapers, magazines, journals, and reference books.
Full text searching. When a student is searching the
Web, the search engine actually searches for words on any pages available.
The results retrieved are pages from anywhere. It’s like getting results from
random pages from the Journal of Sociology, Time magazine, National Enquirer,
a billboard advertisement, a flier from a car, and a page from junk mail all
in one’s search results. The problem is that students do not pay attention
to what "book" the "page" is coming from.
Phrase searching. Some databases give the illusion that
search engines understand language, including long phrases and questions (Ask
Jeeves). They cannot! But when students use an online database, they often
get no results because they need to combine terms—not enter long phrases (such
as "pro and con of gun control") or questions ("who invented the light bulb?").
The web is not organized, and furthermore most
of the quality information that can be retrieved on the Web, cannot be picked
up by an ordinary search engine, because some results can only be retrieved
by a particular site's database (you need to go to cheaptickets.com or expedia.com
before you can find flights from Oakland to Seattle), or come from sites that block
out search engines (This is called "The Invisible Web").
Students have the illusion of "instant gratification"
because search engines such as Google provide relevant information on the
top of its search results, thus appearing to satisfy the research query. Searching
for a book in the catalog or for an article in a database sometimes requires
knowledge of subject headings, the ability to search broader or narrower,
or think of like terms to get results. By contrast, the Web seems "easier,"
when in fact, the information found can be inappropriate, mediocre, or takes
the wrongful place of being the first point of learning about a subject. Imagine
a student who knew nothing about Martin Luther King and came across this racist
web site: http://www.martinlutherking.org
There's no screening process to the Web. All that is
required to be "published" on the Web is access to a server and server space
available. Search engines are computer programs that do not understand language
let alone whether the information it collects is truly "informative" or not.
By contrast, a Library web site, just like a physical Library, will contain
materials selected by Librarians, who have looked at the subscription databases
and web sites, have evaluated them, and found them beneficial to their users'
education. At Chabot College, we link to web sites that can truly add to a
students education. Quite a difference from what a search engine can do.
However—
Forbidding the Web for research actually blocks out important
information resources. In spite of its faults, it still has many informative
sites and sometimes may be the best or only place for research.
Students will resent you for forbidding the Web. They
will think you are judgmental or not "with the times." They will
not understand why you are not allowing it, in spite of your best explanations.
Cyberspace is a universe students have learned and think they know well.
Solutions:
Encourage students to use other resources, first. Books
in the Library, magazines and journal articles retrieved through online periodical
databases. Try to have them focused on finding traditional published sources
(those that are originally published in print form). Definitely set up criteria
that they find books and articles, and not only publicly accessible World
Wide Web sites.
Instruct students how to evaluate web sites or contact
a librarian for an orientation. The practice of evaluating materials is important,
anyway. Students should recognize the difference between a magazine and a
journal, recognize a political slanted magazine such as the National Review
and Mother Jones. As well as be able to evaluate a web site and be able to
find out who is the author, what is the web site’s intent, determine the site’s
accuracy and objectivity, and how comprehensive does it treat its topic.
Have students who hand in web site citations, submit
to you also a print out of the first page of the site. Or have them fill out
the Web Evaluation Checklist (whether the Library’s or one you devise on your
own). Students would take what they select from the Web a bit more seriously
and you can work with them if they do not seem to know how to recognize substantive
information found on the Web.
Encourage students to take a course in Internet Skills
or Library Skills.
If telling students not to search the Web, please make
it clear that they can still use library subscription databases on the Web
(whether from Chabot College, Alameda County Library, or a site that focuses
on printed materials such as findarticles.com or the On Line Books page from
the University of Pennsylvania). Students will only remember "no web
allowed" and be totally stumped, since in most cases, the Web is needed
to find the Library's materials from its web site. Students find books from
the online catalog and magazine/journal articles, including those that are
in the Library's print collection are found from the subscription databases.
Encourage students to find web sites by starting on the
Library Home Page and then going to "Online Subject Indexes," and/or "Class
Handouts and Library Research Guides." They can also go to "Search the World
Wide Web," but ask them to use the search tools listed underneath "Academic
Searching" Tell them that while Google is probably one of the best search
tools available, they should use it as a last resort, not as a first stop
to research.
Tell students to be prepared to think out search strategies
and that they may have to make a few efforts when it comes to searching a
database or one of the research portals on the Web. If they are stumped, they
should be encouraged to talk to a Librarian. A Library Orientation will often
help as students will have the opportunity to meet the librarian, get acquainted
with the online resources, and can then ask further questions to a friendly
face they have met.
This handout was put together by Norman Buchwald,
Information Literacy and Technology Librarian.
