I've been using the internet actively for the last 12 years. I've properly utilized online resources for the last 10 years. I used to be a cut and paste type of student. I knew about primary and secondary resources and how to utilize books the correct way. However, once I found out that you could find the information that you needed online, why not use it? That's why I'm glad I was a history major because my professors drilled us over and over again about plagiarism. They showed us how to test the accuracy and relevance of websites. I even wrote a paper with a classmate for one of those professors. Why did he "loan" our paper to classmates who were in the library. Of course the paper that we wrote ended up getting turned in and we were all in hot water. Luckily I had the resources to back up, how I/we wrote the paper. As far as web bast materials you have to be very careful and do lots of cross referencing in order to see if what you are reading is true. Anyone can make a web page and post something, or edit a wikipedia page. Utilizing web 2.0 tools, ID, and addressing credibility issues are other ways that students, teachers, and others utilizing web based materials can reliably use those materials.
Several teachers and institutions provide access to Web-based teaching materials through links on Web pages. An example is how Columbia Education Center provides access to supplemental Web-based Teaching Materials[1]. University professors and departments often provide similar resource pages to augment learning opportunities for their students. These resources are especially helpful when they provide an extension beyond what is covered in the classroom (i.e. materials on specific disciplines for Education majors who may be have deep knowledge in a specific discipline).
According to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web-based_teaching_materials
Several companies and cooperative efforts have emerged to provide online access to Web-based teaching materials. These entities range from companies producing their own edutainment media to sites provided to aggregate links to other existing content. While the missions of these organizations may differ, they all focus on furthering the World Wide Web as the delivery medium for teaching materials.
The more and more we talk about this subject of websites I feel I need to take a week and teach students about websites and how to determine if they are creditable. The sooner we get students to realize all websites are not creditable and automatically evaluate websites they are looking at the better off they are learning.
ReplyDeleteI also think that with these students we need to discuss plagiarism. It is so easy to cut and paste.