Research Competencies Students Need in a Technical World
Things were different when I went to school. in the fifties and early sixties. As an example of one difference, we trusted the information we received. Textbooks, encyclopedias, magazines, and films were there to supply us information we could depend on. We weren’t in school to question the information; we were there to write reports about, as examples, the Boston Massacre, the space program, the Holocaust or Martin Luther King.
No one questioned the resources we used to write our reports. It never crossed our minds to mistrust the materials our teachers supplied us. We were taught how to use the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature to find magazines, not to debate whether or not the information contained in the magazines was accurate. We never had to face the dark side of knowledge or even know that it existed.
As said, things were different when I went to school. The sources of information that are now available to our students have increased since then by the hundreds of billions. Before, an editor had to scrutinize a work before it was published as a book or in magazines. Today this is not necessarily true for the information sources our students have available (among these being web pages, blogs, podcasts, uploaded videos, etc.). For example, it’s possible for a student to find a web page written by a Northwestern University professor stating that the Holocaust never happened as well those proclaiming landing a man on the moon was a hoax and the tragedy of 9-11 was a conspiracy created by our own government. Students can find a web site about Dr. King which looks legitimate on the outset but which has facts skewed because it is published by a white power group.
It follows then that another type of literacy is very necessary; an information literacy. Students must be able to narrow their search using the best resources. For example, can they find evidence from both sides of a debate, such as what really did happen during the Boston Massacre? Can they evaluate information by determining its validity and reliability? Can they rephrase information to show understanding, or are their notes and written work simply a result of copy and paste? Do they respect copyright by citing their sources?
To paraphrase an old saw, knowledge is power, but only knowledge that can be trusted as true. As future citizens of our form of government, our students need to know how to find information, how to separate the wheat from the chaff and determine what the truth is. Teachers need to help our students by designing learning activities that fosters information literacy.
(This article first appeared in the ICE Cube Bulletin, Volume 2006, Issue #1 p.18 published by the Illinois Computing Educators)
Things were different when I went to school. in the fifties and early sixties. As an example of one difference, we trusted the information we received. Textbooks, encyclopedias, magazines, and films were there to supply us information we could depend on. We weren’t in school to question the information; we were there to write reports about, as examples, the Boston Massacre, the space program, the Holocaust or Martin Luther King.
No one questioned the resources we used to write our reports. It never crossed our minds to mistrust the materials our teachers supplied us. We were taught how to use the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature to find magazines, not to debate whether or not the information contained in the magazines was accurate. We never had to face the dark side of knowledge or even know that it existed.
As said, things were different when I went to school. The sources of information that are now available to our students have increased since then by the hundreds of billions. Before, an editor had to scrutinize a work before it was published as a book or in magazines. Today this is not necessarily true for the information sources our students have available (among these being web pages, blogs, podcasts, uploaded videos, etc.). For example, it’s possible for a student to find a web page written by a Northwestern University professor stating that the Holocaust never happened as well those proclaiming landing a man on the moon was a hoax and the tragedy of 9-11 was a conspiracy created by our own government. Students can find a web site about Dr. King which looks legitimate on the outset but which has facts skewed because it is published by a white power group.
It follows then that another type of literacy is very necessary; an information literacy. Students must be able to narrow their search using the best resources. For example, can they find evidence from both sides of a debate, such as what really did happen during the Boston Massacre? Can they evaluate information by determining its validity and reliability? Can they rephrase information to show understanding, or are their notes and written work simply a result of copy and paste? Do they respect copyright by citing their sources?
To paraphrase an old saw, knowledge is power, but only knowledge that can be trusted as true. As future citizens of our form of government, our students need to know how to find information, how to separate the wheat from the chaff and determine what the truth is. Teachers need to help our students by designing learning activities that fosters information literacy.
(This article first appeared in the ICE Cube Bulletin, Volume 2006, Issue #1 p.18 published by the Illinois Computing Educators)
posted by Rich Levine | 1:54 PM
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