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My alternate title for this post was “The Internet is awesome. Start acting like it.” It is a call to arms to shift our attitude away from magnifying the perils of online research and towards examining the many types of useful information along with how and when to use them; to shift our primary focus away from teaching how to find information and towards engaging critical thinking skills. Often we have just one class period with our students and “the greater need is evaluation; they already know at least one method of finding articles.” [1]
The kernel of this post emerged from a recent conversation with my brother. He asked me, “What would you estimate the ratio of inaccurate to accurate information on the Internet is?”
I hemmed and hawed and asked, “on the free web or including subscription sites?”
He clarified, “Well anytime I’ve randomly wanted to look something up … I’ve never come across something I’ve noticed to be faulty, but I wonder sometimes if A) I’ve totally been mislead by faulty info or B) if most stuff I’ve ever looked up is OK. But they make such a big deal to not trust things on the Internet unless you know the poster is reputable. I think information is more likely to be incomplete rather than flat out wrong. Go find something wrong on the Internet and give me a link.”
I sent him some of the standards:
- http://www.dhmo.org/ [2]
- http://zapatopi.net/afdb/ [3]
- http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/
He asked, “What search would bring those things up that you’d actually be looking for? I’m just curious sometimes about these things. I’m skeptical of the skeptics, you know.”
A bit of background: My brother and I are both within or at least near the cusp of the age groups defined as Millennials, digital natives, net generation, etc. We also come from a family that highly values education. We both have masters degrees; his is in science education. He teaches 9th grade science at a public school. In short, he’s an intelligent, well-educated, and Internet savvy young man. So his questions made me think hard about what I had learned about how to teach students to evaluate Internet sources.
Personally, I only know about those sites because people use them as examples when teaching how to evaluate websites. There are scores of sites that list examples for teachers to use. But I would argue that they are not the examples we should be using. They are not what will be on the first page of results on a real life information query. Or at least they wouldn’t be if so many education sites weren’t linking to them. [4] The real things they will typically encounter are much more complicated. And in all fairness, more likely to have decent information.
I’ll interject here with another anecdote as a case in point. I was helping a student who had to write a paper on psychedelic mushrooms. This is a recurring assignment from a Comp I professor who has his students write about various drugs, so I already knew from past experience that our library had relatively little information on this particular topic. The student had a note from her teacher saying she had relied too heavily on one particular source. She was frustrated because it had been the only place she had been able to find much of the information for her paper and now she wasn’t sure where else to look. It turned out to be an excellent teaching moment, and a much better example of the type of site we should be showing students how to evaluate. I explained the importance of looking for and reading the “about us” information and how she might not want to quote Fire and Earth Erowid in a college level paper. I also showed her that even though Fire and Earth don’t pass the credibility test, they did document their sources. It turned out that nearly every quote this student had selected for her paper had originally come from a government publication. Even better, the Erowid site included a direct link to the original source. I explained that the dates on these reports were a little older and showed her how she could find more recent information from the same government organizations. I very much doubt she followed up on every one, but hopefully she at least learned something about evaluating websites and following citations.
In “Dissecting the Web through Wikipedia,” Adam Bennington makes a similar case for using Wikipedia to teach these skills. [5]
“The goal here is to show students how to gather the same resources that support the Wikipedia entry. This helps expose the searcher to the wide variety of quality material contained in the library including the physical collection, electronic resources, and inter-library loan services (for resources not contained in the user’s home collection). It also gives the librarian a chance to explain how this content is different from what one might find with solely a Google search.”
I fully support Bennington in his focus on Wikipedia. It is a cultural phenomena that we ignore at our own (and our students’) peril. It is also another example of the complexity of Internet sources and another chance to practice critical thinking. When I discuss Wikipedia, I usually mention how Steven Colbert told his fans to change a Wikipedia entry on elephants to say “the number of elephants has tripled in the last six months.” So if you had seen it that day you might have believed that. In every class there are still students that didn’t know Wikipedia could be edited by anyone, so first it covers that feature. This example is not only about Wikipedia’s dangers though. The Wikipedia community responded quickly, fixing the error and protecting the page from further attack. So while it can be edited by anyone and errors do occur, so do corrections, another feature. We do our students a disservice when we dismiss such an amazing and useful resource, when instead we could be using it to teach them about the research process not to mention the power of individuals working together to share knowledge.
Using more realistic examples in our instruction and explaining the positive aspects as well as the negative will help both the students and our image. As my brother said, when he has searched for something online, he mostly receives decent information. Despite all the (certainly valid) questions about the secrets behind page ranking algorithms, a basic search will generally return fairly decent results with today’s technology. He (and our students) have every right to be skeptical of the skeptics. Condemning the Internet as a wasteland or a dangerous minefield when this is not the students’ personal experience only hurts our credibility.
Emily Drabinski summed up the severity of what is at stake in her comments on my first draft, “As a reference and instruction librarian, I feel like my entire job depends on whether or not students and faculty seek me out for help. Losing credibility by trying to convince students of a reality they have never experienced means I’ve lost a chance to seem authoritative and like I know what’s what.” If we continue to insist on this paradox between our authority and their personal experience we risk alienating the people we are trying to help.
In Free Culture, Elizabeth Daley discusses using various media in education, but her point applies here as well:
“You know, you’ve got Johnny who can look at a video, he can play a video game, he can do graffiti all over your walls, he can take your car apart, and he can do all sorts of other things. He just can’t read your text. So Johnny comes to school and you say, “Johnny, you’re illiterate. Nothing you can do matters.” Well, Johnny then has two choices: He can dismiss you or he [can] dismiss himself. If his ego is healthy at all, he’s going to dismiss you. [6]
In addition to using more realistic examples in our instruction, I’d also like to suggest a tiny change in vocabulary. When discussing sources let’s talk about whether they are appropriate to cite in the student’s paper, rather than whether they’re appropriate to use. There are many resources that are perfectly useful throughout the research process that may not be appropriate to cite in the final paper.
While pursuing my MSIS, I wrote a paper entitled “Writing Forms and Usage During the Viking Age.” Like every other student today, as part of my research process I did a Google search. I read Wikipedia entries. I also used the more encouraged sources, searching the library catalog and subscription databases, and browsing the shelves. This was an obscure subject and required a lot of digging. By far my most useful source was Vikinganswerlady.com. The Viking Answer Lady is Christie Ward. Her resume lists experience in computer science and web design, but no degrees and nothing related to viking studies. Our standard instruction would dismiss her site for not having an “about us” page and, after finding her resume, dismiss her as not an authority. Yet, reading through the site she is obviously dedicated, well read, and documents her sources.
from my bibliographic essay [7]:
“For a more in depth study of Viking Age literacy, I was lucky enough to be pointed towards James E. Knirk’s “Learning to Write with Runes in Medieval Norway” (Runica et mediævalia. Opuscula 2. Stockholm, 1994) and Aslak Liestøl’s “The Literate Vikings” (Proceedings of the Sixth Viking Congress. Uppsala, 1971). These two articles in particular provided much of the serious analysis that was missing from the easy to find general information. They also provided a large number of attempted and partial translations of runic inscriptions that helped inform my summaries of the various types extant.”
I was lucky enough to be pointed to those articles because I emailed Viking Answer Lady with my general thesis and asked her advice on where to look for more information. She might not fit the standard authority criteria that were established in the pre-Internet age, but I would argue she is most definitely an authority. Even if she is not an authority I would cite in a paper, she was an important step along the way of my research process.
We are quick to explain as it becomes easier and easier for anyone to put anything online that more and more incorrect, misleading, and otherwise “bad” information is becoming available. But the opposite is also true. It is just as easy for dedicated hobbyists, gifted amateurs, independent scholars and the like to put up incredibly useful information. (Not to mention marginal voices that are often excluded from more traditional modes of public discourse.) More and more organizations are providing their services and expertise online. We should be encouraging our students to take advantage of these wonderful resources, not handicapping them by refusing, discouraging, blocking, filtering, or otherwise denying access.
As we teach students to approach information critically we can also explain the importance of the intended use of the resource. To write a research paper on a medical condition you want to use reputable scientific information. But a chat room or forum might be much more useful for dealing with patients’ emotions and gathering first hand accounts, even if not all the scientific information in it is vetted. With these types of examples students can begin to learn to ask themselves questions about what types of information they need, who might have the information they are looking for, what type of person or group would have collected it and why, and where would it have been made available.
My brother asked in summary, “Basically, if you’re writing a paper for school, only use peer reviewed stuff.”
But it’s not that simple, is it? I sometimes moonlight at a wonderful four-year college where everyone has to take two courses that include in-depth position papers on controversial topics. Students (and even teachers sometimes) are often confused about whether what they’re looking at should count as authoritative. One of the examples I always give is that if you want to know the NRA’s stated position on gun control there’s no better place to go than the NRA website. If you want to know the statistics of children killed by their parents’ guns, I wouldn’t get it there. Another example: if you’re writing on Star Trek culture or the phenomena of fan fiction you would absolutely want to use fan sites. Rather than focus on these fan sites as examples of non-authority we should be focusing on clarifying your purpose and identifying what types of sources would fit.
I am calling for a shift in focus and in attitude. When deciding how to split your time, give precedence to critical thinking skills. Rather than extol the evils and dangers of the Internet, focus on the gems. In teaching how to find the gems we teach how to sift out the soil, sand and fool’s gold, but the emphasis should remain on the gems. Personal experience shows us that we can typically easily find anything we want online. Emphasizing the chaff discredits us. So as you go into your instruction sessions this next semester I encourage you to spend less time on Boolean and more time using realistic examples to help engage students in a critical discussion about how to best use the Internet for research.
Further Reading:
For lesson plans and concrete examples of how to incorporate these themes into your instruction see:
- Miller, Sara D. “Learning Outcomes, Instructional Design, and the 50-Minute Information Literacy Session.” Presented March 7, 2008 to the Library & Information Sciences Section.
- Bennington, Adam. “Dissecting the Web through Wikipedia.” American Libraries. August 2008: 46 – 48.
For more information on the growing importance of dedicated amateurs see:
- Howe, Jeff. “The Rise of Crowdsourcing.” Wired June 2006
Notes:
[1] Quoted from: Miller, Sara D. “Learning Outcomes, Instructional Design, and the 50-Minute Information Literacy Session.” Presented March 7, 2008 to the Library & Information Sciences Section.
[2] Just in case it’s not obvious: dhmo = h20 = water
[3] The tin foil hat site is often used in K-12 for website evaluation exercises. Read their response. Amusing and insightful.
[4] A fascinating aside: I did a Google search on “octopus” to see if the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus site would come up. It was the second result after the Wikipedia article, most likely because it is linked to off of so many education (read-reputable) web sites. But on the search results page, underneath the link, in brackets it says “Contains fictitious information.”
[5] Quoted from: Bennington, Adam. “Dissecting the Web through Wikipedia.” American Libraries. August 2008: 46 – 48.
[6] Quoted from: Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture. While not directly related to this post, I wanted to share that this quote continues:
But instead, if you say, “Well, with all these things that you can do, let’s talk about this issue. Play for me music that you think reflects that, or show me images that you think reflect that, or draw for me something that reflects that.” Not by giving a kid a video camera and … saying, “Let’s go have fun with the video camera and make a little movie. But instead, really help you take these elements that you understand, that are your language, and construct meaning about the topic.”
[7] I just want to put a plug in for bibliographic essays as an excellent tool for ensuring real thought goes into selecting sources.
Thanks to Emily Drabinski, Emily Ford, and Derik Badman for their feedback and edits.
This post made my morning, as did this line in particular: “Condemning the Internet as a wasteland or a dangerous minefield when this is not the students’ personal experience only hurts our credibility.”
I feel pressured by some nebulous notion of good librarianship to teach students the “right way” to do research with the “right sources,” even though I know in my heart, mind, and gut that there is no absolute “right.” You’re absolutely right about librarians needing to guide students through more realistic methods of conducting research (ones that we often use ourselves). I want my students to think critically about different sources when they are conducting research, rather than simply checking the “peer-reviewed” box on an EBSCO database.
Time to revise my teaching once again! :-)
I think we really need to let go of our need to be “right.” There’s no right – only partial perspectives/strategies that work in some situations and not others. I feel like fields from composition theory to anthropology to science studies have ‘known’ this for so long, and I’d like to see our field open the door and let in a little of this light, too. And I’d rather teach students the hows and whys of struggling and grappling than teach them What They Need to Know. I mean, how in the world could I know that for all of them in all places?!?
Ellie, this is so, so good. I always kind of feel like a heel when I’m pointing out these cherry-picked “bad” websites that everyone uses and now I know why. Of course the focus should be on the good information, not the bad stuff. It’s just easier to say what not to use.
I’m finding this post particularly helpful, if not inspirational, as I prepare for my first instructional session.
Very thoughtful, useful post by Ellie.
Ellie writes:
“When discussing sources let’s talk about whether they are appropriate to cite in the student’s paper, rather than whether they’re appropriate to use. There are many resources that are perfectly useful throughout the research process that may not be appropriate to cite in the final paper.”
That’s a great point, but I worry that that kind of distinction might confuse students who struggle with what to cite to avoid plagiarism. A reassuring rule-of-thumb is, If you’re not sure whether to cite something, then cite it – it’s better to over– than to under-cite. But now we would be entering into discussions with students about gathering information and not citing it.
I don’t think that many librarians anymore inveigh against the free Web as a minefield of dangerous information. Instead, I think the problem comes from poorly designed classroom assignments, where students are required to only use peer-reviewed articles as sources – and you see those assignments in 100-level classes, where beginning students really need to use (and cite!) some trustworthy, popular material as they begin to understand a subject.
Thanks for the thoughtful discussion on this awesome blog.
Well done! I agree that the internet is awesome!
Thanks for this thoughtful post. I love how you use your discussions with your brother to illustrate ideas.
I agree that your shift in language towards whether sources are appropriate to “cite” rather than “to use” is a great idea. Also, your emphasis on helping students with critical thinking skills shines a spotlight on how librarians can help students with the gray area between finding information and doing something thoughtful with it (which is often way harder for students and I imagine even more anxiety-provoking).
But I agree with RMM that I don’t think most librarians present the Web as a “minefield of dangerous information,” and librarians are frequently trying to work students through poorly envisioned assignments.
One of the things that I most passionately believe about teaching students is that they need more context — context for how information is created, vetted (or not), and packaged…as well as the economics that so often surrounds information. It’s easy for “library instruction” to remain point-and-click training about how to use different information resources. While I’m with you that we should spend less time on Boolean, I’d also argue we should step back and make sure we carve out time to have *conversations* with students around questions like “what is peer review in the first place?” “What makes someone an ‘expert?’” “How does information get into Wikipedia?” “Why exactly do you see those messages to buy an article through Google Scholar?” These concepts are directly tied to critical thinking and lifelong learning.
Thanks for a wonderful, thought-provoking post just as we head into another semester of instruction!
A thought-provoking post, Ellie. I really like idea of information appropriate to cite v. use. This is something I end up having to stress a lot with students doing statistical research. A lot of students want to cite some random web page they find with a simplified statistic, when they can track down (often by simply following a link on the same page they are looking at) the original statistical report/data containing a wealth of information.
Ah, I’m feeling validated. Thanks for that!
In addition to the thoughtful feedback that’s here in the comments, I wanted to mention that even when I’m teaching a “check the peer reviewed box” type of class I still begin with and continually refer to what I call the “self-check” (most important part of the research process is what I call it) in which I urge students to ask themselves if what they are looking for (expert commentary of some kind, usually) is likely to be found where they are looking and with the terminology they are employing.
Then I ask something like: If you were writing a paper about the struggles of moms in the Pacific Northwest to supply their children with raw milk would you choose the Moms for Raw Milk blog or the USDA Dairy Facts page? So far that analogy is working (but maybe because legalizing raw milk is an actual issue here?)…
So far that idea that the student with the assignment has some expertise and should depend on their common sense a bit has been encouraging and seems to resonate with students.
Thank you everyone for all the support and additional tips.
RMM — You make a good point about being very careful when discussing citations and teaching about plagiarism. I agree that it’s better to over-cite than to under-cite, but I still think the process of gathering information and realizing you might not use every single resource in the final paper is a useful discussion to have. Derik brings up another example — the student finds the information on one site, but would be better served to use that to find the original source, rather than cite the random web page. Better to cite than not cite, but even better yet to use it to get to better information.
RMM & Kim — As to whether or not librarians portray the internet as dangerous, I’m sure there are many approaches and it is shifting with time, but as I look at instruction pieces coming out of educational institutions around the web I still see an emphasis on the perils rather than on the good stuff. The danger of writing about it here is that I’m just preaching to the choir.
I also agree on the topic of questionable assignments and introducing students to peer-reviewed articles when they are likely to be less useful or completely over their head. Maybe we can coax a guest writer to give us some tips on talking with teachers. :)
Kim — I love your discussion questions! Thanks for sharing them.
shinylib — I like that example for the self check. I don’t think raw milk would resonate as much in Texas, but the idea that by virtue of knowing their assignment they have some expertise is definitely something I’ll use.
Bravo! I like the part about figuring out what is good to use in a project and what is good to cite. And I appreciate how you break down the evaluation sites between credible and useful. Despite the fact that a site may not be credible, there may still be useful information there.
It’s gotten me thinking about research in general and what it really means to do research. Has it changed with the way information is available today. Or is it really the same and we just believe it is different because of the amount of information we have access to?
I was reading something recently about every generation complaining about too much information being available and the need for better categorization and finding tools, which was an interesting bit of perspective.
[…] with the Lead Pipe. (Great blog by the way. AND it is peer-reviewed!). The post is titled “In Praise of the Internet: Shifting Focus and Engaging Critical Thinking Skills.” It is a great post about rethinking how we teach the evaluation of websites. She does a much […]
I just wanted to share this fantastic related post I just read.
http://info-fetishist.org/2009/01/03/discovery-and-creation-and-lies
thanks ellie — I think I was reading your post while you were reading mine!
There are many things I love in your essay, but I think the distinction between use and cite is a really, really important one. I think it is more authentic in terms of how it describes how we really do research and learn from research — and I also think it’s always a good idea to reinforce that idea of research as something bigger than a process of finding quotes to support an argument.
Our beginning composition require students to use both “background” and “speaker” sources to get at this idea, and that concept of “speaker” sources really helps get us all thinking about how the sources you might want to cite in an academic argument paper can come from all kinds of places.
thanks!
I think the most common weakness of web pages is they are superficial more than wrong. Also, the point about the NRA site being useful for some info on guns but not others is important. That’s something to focus instruction on, I’d say, more than the truly goofy sites (although they can make an impression on students).
[…] I read a fantastic blog posting “In Praise of the Internet: Shifting Focus and Engaging Critical Thinking Skills” by Ellie Collier (In the Library with the Lead Pipe), which talks seriously and critically about […]
[…] Quoted from Ellie Collier’s “In Praise of the Internet: Shifting Focus and Engaging Critical Thinking Skills” In the Library with the Lead Pipe, January 7, […]