Destination: Teaching Electronic Researching Skills

Foundation

Reseaching tools have evolved in quantum leaps in the last decade and will continue to change, but one thing is clear--more and more reseach is done sitting at a computer (whether in a library or not). To teach researching skills--especially to the current generation of students raised on the internet--you must teach students how to use these electronic tools effectively.

These are the basic things students need to know to research effectively with computers:

1. They need to distinguish WHERE to research, especially the difference between using the internet for research and using online databases available through the library.
2. They need to know how to evaluate internet sources in order to distinguish credible sources from non-credible sources
3. They need to know the difference between SUBJECT and KEYWORD searches
4. They need to know how to do effective keyword searches (using Boolian and other keyword operators).
5. They need to know the characteristics of different search tools (search engines like Yahoo or Google and online databases like General Reference Gold or Academic Premier) so they can choose the appropriate tool for researching.
6. They need to know how to document electronic sources.

While a Library orientation will SHOW students many of these concepts and tools, and a chapter in the handbook will EXPLAIN many of these same items, the computer classroom offers you the opportunity to let students gain hands-on practice and knowledge. The other benefit of taking students to the computer classroom to work on some of these electronic researching techniques is that you are right there to answer questions and show students how to research effectively.

Practice

Evaluating Internet Sources
A single days exercise for the computer classroom might include a two part assignment where students read a page about evaluating web sources and then do an actual evaluation of a website.

General sites about evaluating internet sources:

• Criteria to Evaluate the Credibility of WWW Resources by Virginia Montecino http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/web-eval-sites.htm
• Evaluating Web Pages from the UC Berkeley Library (excellent)
  http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html
• Virginia Montecino also has a good collection of other sites dealing with critiquing web sources if you want to look for other general sites: http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/webcritique.htm

Examples of in-class exercises

• Example Group exercise: http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/analyzeweb.htm
• Example Individual exercise: http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/critiqueone.htm

These evaluations could then be posted to an online bulletin board for discussion and review.

Keyword Searching and Using Different Searching Tools
Keyword searching is relevant both for internet researching and for researching with databases. Many sites exist dealing with keyword searching, but these two are excellent for hands-on experience with using these searching techniques:

• Scott, Foresman handbook online: http://occawlonline.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/hairston_awl/chapter2/medialib/cust4reading.html#boolean
• Web Search Strategies by Debbie Flannagan: http://www.learnwebskills.com/search/main.html
  --this is an excellent site with hands-on tutorials on searching strategies. You can take your students to the computer classroom and let them go on this site.

Citing Electronic Sources
I am not aware of sites that offer exercises in practicing citing electronic sources, but these two sites have some of the best information about using MLA Style to document electronic sources:

• Diana Hacker's Research and Documentation Online: http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/humanities/english.html
• from Online! A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources
  http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite5.html

Another comprehensive site that you might find helpful with your students (especially if you adopt the textbook) is the Bedford Researcher by Mike Palmquist: http://www.bedfordresearcher.com/.

Students can use the site to create a researching log, as described by the site: "Create a personalized online workspace in the Research Log. Get advice on research writing, define your research question, create a working bibliography, take and organize notes, and manage your project. The Research Log allows you to save your work and share it with others."