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Faced
with the sea of information available on the Internet, the student
who is given a research assignment, but no research strategies is
bound to flounder in that sea. Recently sites have sprung up from
highly respected sources which make searching easier by the click
of a button or the fill-in-the-blank approach. While these sites may
help students cobble together some available data, they do not help
students develop concrete, transferable research and search strategies.
Left to their own devices, students will often go to a popular search
engine or directory, type in a keyword and then wade, overwhelmed,
through the deluge of information. It is small wonder that the retrieved
information is often superficial, inaccurate or only peripherally
related to the topic.
The American Association of School Librarians (Librarians, 1998) has
set forth The Nine Information Literacy Standards. The first standard
reinforces the need for effective Internet search strategies.
Standard
1: The student who is information literate accesses information
efficiently and effectively.
1.1
recognizes the need for information
1.3 formulates a question based on information needs
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Invitations
to Inquiry
From a review of current literature on search
strategies, it is evident that formulating the question is the
critical first step. Technologist Jamie McKenzie states, "Questions
and questioning may be the most powerful technologies of all…If
we hope to see inventive thought infused with critical judgment,
questions and questioning must become a priority of schooling
and must gain recognition as a supremely important technology
(McKenzie, 2000, p.1, p.6)."
Certainly, the step of questioning is not new, but rather a
reiteration of the scientific method of inquiry. Springing from
the Academic Reform Movement of the 1950's and 1960's as described
by Joyce and Weil in Models of Teaching (Joyce & Weil, 2000),
the use of the scientific method of inquiry has been infused
into public schools as the model for research in academic disciplines.
Before one can even put fingers to keyboard, a clear statement
of the question must be developed. Called "task definition"
by Michael B. Eisenberg, Doug Johnson, and Robert E. Berkowitz
(1988), this first step in the information problem-solving process
is to recognize that an information need exists, to define the
problem, and to identify the types and amount of information
needed (p.28).
One strategy used with success in K-12 classrooms has been to
literally have the students write out their research question.
With a little prompting, students can be motivated to be as
specific as possible. An example of such a research question,
one with great appeal to junior high school students might be
"Where can I learn skateboard tips and tricks?"
The next step involves circling all the relevant parts of the
question. This reduces the sentence to a series of keywords,
such as skateboard, tips, and tricks. This parsed research statement
may now be succinct enough to raise the accuracy and relevancy
of an Internet search (Eisenberg, 1988). However, where to apply
this set of keywords is now the most relevant question.
Information Sources
In the rush to apply high tech solutions to research
and problem solving, some of the more mundane but highly effective
sources of information may be overlooked. Print sources still
offer accurate information on topics that are not affected by
time, trends, or new discoveries. The online biographies of
inventors may have new interpretations of their lives and accomplishments,
but print sources can still provide valuable information for
the research quest.
Students can collaboratively brainstorm and assess the value
of various types of electronic resources for data gathering,
including databases, CD-ROMs, commercial and Internet online
sites, electronic reference works, community and government
information electronic resources.
Location and Access
The American Association of School Librarians
states in Standard 6 of The Information Literacy Standards that
a student who is an independent learner is information literate
and strives for excellence in information seeking and knowledge
generation (Association, 1994, p. 42). One might note wryly
that this is the standard, but hardly the reality in public
schools.
All too often students gravitate towards a favorite search engine
or directory, regardless of its suitability for the research
task at hand. Indeed, due to the commercialization and proliferation
of search engines and directories which now offer ancillary
services such as e-mail and chat opportunities, student choices
are now more than ever driven by forces other than a search
for excellence in information seeking. |
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