To Google or not to Google? That is the question.
In today’s world, access to information isn’t the obstacle that it used to be. Let’s face everyone “Googles.” I do – I’ll admit. As a librarian, why would I Google? Because, just like everyone else, I find using Google easy, quick, convenient, and I’m successful often enough that I go back to it. Surprisingly, from what I recall from my educational psychology classes, the occasional, random success I achieve from using Google is one of the strongest kinds of reinforcement of behavior. With this being said, however, I don’t rely on Google as my main way of locating information. I know enough, depending on my information needs, to use other sources.
What, if any, responsibility do teachers have in expecting students to use various resources to complete assignments? And if this is a learning goal, what methods work best to accomplish this? Should students be expected to use multiple sources to complete certain assignments? If so, why? Is finding “good enough” okay? Or should students always look for the “best” information? What skills do students need in order to be successful researchers?
What, if any, responsibility do teachers have in expecting students to use various resources to complete assignments? And if this is a learning goal, what methods work best to accomplish this? Should students be expected to use multiple sources to complete certain assignments? If so, why? Is finding “good enough” okay? Or should students always look for the “best” information? What skills do students need in order to be successful researchers?
posted by tmurphy at 7:08 AM
11 Comments:
I agree that Google is an awesome tool! You can find just about anything in a moments notice. You can even do the Google challenge – you choose two terms to Google together and try to get the lowest number of results. If you can get less than 10 results you are a champion googler. Try it. It can be addicting.
Anyway, the students love to use Google. The problem I find is that when you ask them to cite their resources they cite google.com. They do not understand that it is only a search engine. They also do not realize that not every website on Google is reliable. I find that even when I restrict them to .gov, .edu, and .org sites they still can find bad information. Using multiple sources would be helpful for students because they can then trust the validity of the websites. I also encourage students to read journal articles that they find on EBSCO.
I am like most students an could always use guidance with my searches. I sometimes get stumped with the right combination of words to use to find the best information. As technology increases students are going to need more education earlier to help assist students on how to use technology. We provide keyboarding to students, but do we show them how to use, word, excel, PowerPoint? What about showing kids how to build web pages, photostory, and other programs? People always say that students know more about computers than the teachers, but I would have to disagree. They understand things like myspace or blogging, but they do not truly understand how to use technology.
I would agree Google is a great and powerful tool. I think for non-academic research it is fine to just use Google. However, its important to diversify our resources when doing academic research. Books, textbooks, professional journals, and many other sources are important to use when reseaching. I admit its easier to just Google, but important for all of us teachers and students a like to get out of our comfort zone.
Last year, Karl had time to share the effectiveness of online searches. It was amazing to me how popular google was, and continues to be, with everyone! I was unaware of how a site gets "to the top" of google, which is simply due to the number of hits a site gets (the more hits, the higher up on the list). When we typed in Martin Luther King, the first site that popped up looked like a good one (Don’t we all click on the first one?). However, when we started to get into it, we realized that it was a white supremacist groups site. It was full of hate! It made me think of the students when they research a topic. As teachers, have we taken the time to explain how google works, as well as other search engines, how to find a legitimate site that can be sighted in a research paper? Just wondering…
I find that students use search engines such as Google as their primary source of information. They type in their topic and click search then choose the first link that pops up. I think part of the problem is that most students are not discriminating when it comes to quality vs. not quality information. Personally, I did not become a "good researcher" until I was in college. Even through high school I relied primarily on encyclopedias and other reference books with backup information from other sources such as books and periodicals. Teaching students to become "good researchers" is very important now that so much information is available to students with so little effort. Requiring students to use a variety of sources is important, but teaching them how to decide if a source is appropriate/relevant/quality is equally important. I have worked in schools where a semester long research methods class is required for ninth graders. This seemed to be effective in the short term, but by the time the students were seniors, many of them had fallen back on their old research habits.
I like the idea of this course because it provides support for term papers and other long term research projects while teaching formatting, citation, proofreading, and appropriate research practices. For many of the students who took the course, when they ran into trouble researching it only took a quick jog of their memory to get them back on track as opposed to a refresher course in why you have to cite your sources in the first place.
Good topic Tracy. I too use Google as my main search source. It is so quick and so easy that it’s hard for me to try anything else. However, I do think that our students should be held responsible for utilizing other methods of locating information for projects or homework. I always felt that this was such a pain in the butt when I was forced to do it throughout high school and college, but I’m thankful that I know how to utilize different methods of locating information. Every now and again I do use this knowledge to my benefit. YES physical education teachers have to research once in awhile as well!!! Google is great but I feel that it is our job to inform our students that there are other effective ways out their.
I think it's important for us to teach students when and how to use google (and similar sites). As Tracy showed my class, there are some really cool aspects about google - you just have to know how to use it correctly. If the students are only clicking on the top link and then copy and paste it into their assignment - that's not very beneficial to anyone. But if used correcly, google can lead to some very interesting sites and is a good STARTING point for many types of research and analysis.
Hi, my name is Jackie and I am a googleaholic.
I feel better having that off of my chest. I do like Goggle, Wiki, etc... I have never had a steel trap mind for remembering specific dates - a bad trait for a history teacher. Therefore I have become hooked on how quickly I can access info online with tools such as Google.
I encourage my students to use a variety of tools when they are doing research. We have converstations about the purpose of what they are doing and what kinds of resources are the best match. Sometimes, a tool like Google is the best match. I have a difficult time convincing them that Google is not the answer to all of their needs, though.
One area I need to learn more about is how to check the validity of sites. I think that kids think that if it is on the web, it is legit. That is simply not true, but I do not know enough to help them edit sources.
I myself am a perfectionist when it comes to research, I have to research not just the internet but libraries and prospector and articles, etc. until I am satisfied with the amount of research to complete the project. I think it is a personal preference and how motivated are the students to research. I think the not so motivated students will type in the topic on google and use the first thing that pops up while other will read carefully and chose their souces wisely while looking into other areas.
I myself discovered Wikipedia fromt he kids here and my is it amazing! You can type in anything and i mean anything and it comes up lke a TV show or a work of art or Qdoba! Sometimes when I am bored I like to challenge it! Ok TMI.
But it is true that you can not always trust everything on the internet and it is up to us to guide the students in their research and requires them to use different sources!
In my Current Events class, students do a great deal of research on topics outside of the classroom and I encourage, and in some cases, require them to seek information beyond Google. I agree with Aaron when he said that using a multitude of sources to compare information is paramount to quality research, especially when it comes to information found on the Internet.
Tracy and I have had a number of discussions regarding the reliability of information found on Google, and with the resources available through the school (online databases), students should be required to learn how to use these tools, for they will see them again in college. As CJ mentioned, it is frustrating to use these research tools that take more time and effort than Google, but it will benefit our students in the future. Now, if students choose to use Google to find their information, I require them to use more than one website so they can compare and analyze the information they are getting.
Although I don’t encourage the use of Google in my classes, I have used Google as a tool to teach students how to evaluate websites and how to detect bias that is presented on various sites.
I often find myself using Google for all the reasons mentioned by everyone else, but I know I must be more critical of the information I am getting off these types of resources and we must encourage our students to be critical as well.
I, too, love google and have used it extensively in my current school program. I particularly like the Scholar link and have found the information there to be quite valid and accurate. Of course, as all of you fabulous teachers have pointed out, it is not enough to conduct research using only one site. Triangulation is a powerful tool for finding the best research, but Google does provide tremendous access (For Free!) to many scholarly articles!
I use Google everyday. My home page on my personal computer is Google. I found my son’s name on Google (and its meaning). I have read about how Google continues to dominate the field by their "secretive" mathematical formulas related to target words. I have dreamt about buying Google stock when it first went public. So yes, I use Google. I also believe that students (me included) need to use more sources when it comes to research.
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