Improving information literacy is the key factor. Not all students are computer savy and fully understand how to search for accurate information.

Shaun Clark, at 4:30 am EDT on June 26, 2007

There is a lack of critical thinking skills among the youth.

Pete, at 8:50 pm EDT on June 30, 2007

Revive Reading

I feel that the tech era dulled the analytical powers of many students. They skim information so quickly and often fail to get to the ‘deep structure’ underlying what they see. Credo? A moronic new generation that I doubt could achieve what the previous generation has done.

Let’s revive good ole reading in schools. This first step can jumpstart the thinking process. Perhaps banning laptops till 5th grade can help

Persuasion Techniques, Revive Reading! at Ateneo, at 4:00 pm EDT on July 14, 2007

Google’s Not All Bad

So much google bashing! I teach part time at a community college and I must say that my students have come up with some very nifty reports that have been spawned as a result of vast google research.

Come on guys... do you think it would be really that good to go back to the good ole days of researching info in musty libraries?

I completed my PhD using Google and Dogpile. They always led me to exemplary resources.

Marcus, Google’s Not All Bad at Berkeley, at 4:00 pm EDT on July 14, 2007

This explains why Apple is the #1 computer on college campuses. College students can use technology for socialization and downloading, but most don’t have a clue how to really use a computer. Apple computers are very popular with people too stupid to operate a PC. Simple-minded people need computers that are simple to use.

Richard, at 5:40 pm EDT on May 30, 2008

if we learn one learns

As already in the article written, the uppermost priority is with the learning the procurement of information. I think if the students work together with the searching engines, they are also received deeper and qualitatively better results. It always lasts a little, until one is on the right way. It is important first to learn how one properly learns.

Thomas Werner, at 5:30 am EST on December 8, 2008

Not Crazy About The Headline For This Story

I hate to think that because students are demonstrating poor research skills that we characterize them at any kind of idiot. If there’s a problem, their faculty and librarians need to work together to help them make better information resource choices and to then know what to do to get better results. Don’t the test results just confirm what we already knew anecdotally — and in the evidence of their papers. I see two major problems that can be corrected in the classroom. First, students need to be more aware of their information options. It’s Ok to use search engines, wikipedia, etc., but they need to know when they are appropriate to use and when they need to seek out more authoritative sources. Students and faculty have many more options than ever, and as Barry Schwartz has pointed out, when you have too many options you just satisfice. Second, students need some basic research education in articulating a research question and developing — and then executing — a search strategy. If we can help students to think just a bit more critically about the goal of their research project before they start typing away — it can lead to vast improvement. Who should be teaching these skills? The faculty — with back end support from librarians. The 1996 OCLC College Students Perceptions of Library and Information Resources report makes it all too clear that students look to faculty for learning about new information resources and understanding what are trusted information resources. If institutions think the answer to the problem is to just have librarians demonstrate databases and preach about information literacy in freshmen english seminars, we’re likely to continue seeing poor results on information fluency tests — and in the papers they write.

steven bell, philadelphia university, at 7:50 am EST on November 15, 2006

Google = gauche?

Why in the world is using Google gauche? What difference does it make what tool you use if you know how to evaluate the information with which you are presented? Students should be taught to look at *all* information skeptically and to evaluate its quality and authority. Excluding web resources seems to indicate a lack of understanding of the purpose those resources serve.

Michele R., Instructor, at 9:10 am EST on November 15, 2006

“I hate to think that because students are demonstrating poor research skills that we characterize them at any kind of idiot.”

In my experience training other teachers with technology, I haven’t found that students are less technologically inclined on average than teachers are. Different, maybe, in their range of technological literacy, but not overall. Yet I’m sure that no one would characterize teachers as “techno idiots” in a headline.

Charlie, at 9:15 am EST on November 15, 2006

info literacy training is what’s needed

“For instance, if one is seeking the atomic weight of Hafnium, one would search for “periodic table” and them upon finding a periodic table on the First page of Google results, click on Hafnium.”

Hmm. I would have approached the query with “hafnium” and “atomic weight". The first result gives me the information.

It’s all about teaching the skills to search effectively and toss out the chaff while keeping the wheat. Teach student (and faculty) to triangulate on a source, etc.

Rob, at 10:05 am EST on November 15, 2006

enough idiots to go around

Okay, maybe not the best subject line in the world. My students aren’t idiots, the vast bulk of them anyway. Nor are the people I work with, though they make lack certain skills. Techno-ignorati perhaps? Anyway, there’s a great book on this issue, Stuart Selber’s Multi-Literacies. I forget the sub-title, but he examines notions of literacy and technology from a humanist’s perspective. It’s good reading for anyone who wants to work with students on developing worthwhile technology literacy.

Yes, there are concerns. Just the other day a student told me he would have sent me his essay, but he didn’t know how to attach a file. No one has probably ever asked him to do it before. So, yeah, we have to teach some basic skills along with teaching people how to read websites, videos and the like, along with how to search for good information. If we are in the literacy business, which English faculty are, and I guess library faculty as well, it’s important that we understand how literacy has changed and how it has to be taught by humanists, not technologists with the “computer as neutral tool” perspective, because it ain’t.

bradley bleck, instructor at Spokane Falls CC, at 10:46 am EST on November 15, 2006

Reply to Michele

Michele, in my culture, using Google is considered gauche, because it is what the “lay people” use to find information. One is generally expected to be able to know where to find actual “source” materials or “operative” writings without looking on a search engine aimed at the general public.

For example, I am expected to know all Supreme Court decisions (as well as several areas of law) off the top of my head. If I do not know one, I can’t rely on “Googling” it, but rather I am expected to simply look just at a database of Supreme Court opinions myself. Besides, it would be embarrassing to make such an admission, because this is a matter of basic competence.

If I Googled something, I would be admitting that I knew as little as a “lay person” did, and it would reflect badly on me. But, I realize that not everyone thinks the way I do.

Larry, at 11:35 am EST on November 15, 2006

Getting the problem backwards

One would expect ETS to get this wrong end first: the idea that this is some sort of short-term processing problem (which willb e addressed by teaching them “how to evaluate information") ignores what the real problem is. Virtually none of my students have any notion of the ecology of texts — the fact that every text exists in a context out of which it comes and to which it speaks. They don’t know what a journal is, they don’t know what a scholarly article is, they don’t know what a magazine is — in the sense, in all those cases, that they don’t know how texts get where they are and why. For them, texts drop from Mars. And that’s because that’s the way they’ve been taught to see them by textbooks and isolated photocopies. My main job as a teacher of English — as I see it, anyway — is to introduce them into the world of texts and help them learn to survive in it. For ETS to tell us that they’re “Techno-Idiots” because they don’t know what nobody’s ever shown them is about what we should expect.

Russ Hunt, St. Thomas University, at 1:00 pm EST on November 15, 2006

Critical Evaluation of Information Sources

A historical tidbit relevant to one aspect of the modern student’s use of information sources: I was an undergraduate at a public university in the early fifties. Then there was one — and only one — course required of all undergraduates. It was titled “Propaganda Analysis,” probably in reflection of the then recent World War II. It was one of the most useful courses I’ve ever taken. I wonder if we might not be wise to develop a modern equivalent course and require it of all our undergraduates.

Don Langenberg, Chancellor Emeritus at University System of Maryland, at 1:15 pm EST on November 15, 2006

Google as “gauche”

For me the main point is that, while I use Google regularly in my personal life, my career as an English major has taught me that it’s much easier to use databases for academic research to look for peer reviewed journals because then I don’t have to evaluate the source. I know that every hit that comes up in the MLA database or in Academic Search Premier is going to be a trustworthy source. So when I teach, I teach my students that while it may be slightly more time-consuming to run a search on a database than on Google (mostly because you have to first FIND the database), in the long run it saves you a lot of time because you know right away you can trust the source. Google, on the other hand, pulls up anything and everything on the Internet, and anybody can post anything on the Internet whether they actually know something about the subject or not.

Sione Aeschliman, Assessment Specialist at Central Oregon Community College, at 12:35 pm EST on November 16, 2006

Where to place the blame...

It seems evident to me that more responsibility should rest on the instructors, professors, etc. requiring research at (especially) the undergraduate level. I know plenty of “passing” and/or “good enough” scores are given to the very students using poor research sources. This just encourages continued “google” level information gathering. I have firsthand experience with this being accepted at even the GRADUATE level. Sad, in my eyes. I’d argue that the majority of undergraduate students don’t have a desire to practice high brow research practices when a few google hits will earn them a degree. To suggest otherwise demonstrates misjudgment, in my opinion.

Dave, at 3:10 pm EST on November 16, 2006

“Because the institutions did not make random selections, caution should be taken when evaluating the results.”

Is this entire article for the sake of irony? I hardly thing non-random statistics are a basis for any postulation whatsoever. If you select people with GPAs below a 2.0, your results probably won’t be in the high scoring range. Any statistic coming from this data should be considered invalid.

Oh, and for all the people who object to the title: No One Cares.

Mr. Anderson, at 5:25 pm EST on November 16, 2006

Why should the librarians show them what to look for? They are in college! They should be able to do that on their own. By the time one is in college one should be able to teach themselves. This is why college is set up more as a lecture structure than a teaching structure. They assume you can gather the information yourself and turn it into grades.

SuperByelich, at 11:10 am EST on November 17, 2006

I believe this article demonstrates the need for information literacy/library instruction at all levels. Librarians and faculty should work together in the context of courses to enhance student’s skills in this area. I too find the term idiot a little strong. This term implies the problem is not fixable and it is very fixable. As I result this area I hope to be able to assist more and more students and faculty in the deluge of information. All of us have difficulty in this area due to the overwhelming amount of information.

Janice Poston, at 4:55 pm EST on November 17, 2006

It takes a village... to clean up this issue!

This is my perspective based on 18 years as a Library Media Specialist and an Instructional Technologist — the problems we are seeing articulated in this article belong to all who have the responsibility to educate — K-12 and higher ed, library media specialists, classroom educators, parents, students, and last but not least — our federal government education program NCLB. Information literacy skills are not a foreign concept in Wisconsin nor across this country. We have very specific Information Literacy and Technology Standards, ISTE Technology Standards, model IT and L integrated curricula, and plenty of tools and resources to assure literate students. The vast majority of Library Media directors work hard to integrate and support the IT and Literacy Standards and assist classroom teachers in doing so.

What MIGHT help is recognition of the critical importance of Information Literacy skills by all the stakeholders. Cutting to the chase — if you want to see literate, skilled information consumers and users lobby the federal government to elevate the importance of these skills and expect that students have a minimum level of proficiency before graduation. Do the same in your state... find out if your students are required to demonstrate their Information and Technology Literacy Skills. You can also consider lobbying your representatives and inform them that cutting educational technology funding for education (both PreK-12 and higher ed) is one of the more foolish mistakes ever made. Read Friedman’s The World is Flat. How can our students compete in a global economy without technology and information literacy skills?

Testing information litearcy skills is not mandated in my state. Optional basically equates to *forget it* in the education world. How about your state... do you know if students are tested on their information and technology literacy skills? NCLB has created an education world where if it is not on the test then the focus on these skills end up on the back burner and rate far less than top priority.

We spend a great deal of energy and time testing core subject areas yet the very pivotal information tool — the Internet — our students tap in support of learning is filled with potholes that derail their understanding because they lack discriminatory web evaluation skills and ability to sift the good from the bad and the ugly.

It takes more than librarians to clean up this mess. Most of the Pre K-12 School Library Media Professionals I know have positions which are in jeopardy of being cut, have lost paraprofessional aide support, are supervising lunch and bus duty, have lost funding for resources, are often used as study hall babysitters than the information professionals they can and should be. That doesn’t infer that they do not have a responsibility to educate our students... it just gives a bigger picture of how little support they have in a very critical 21st Century education position!

Thanks for listening,Jan Wee, Former K-12 Library Media Specialist 13.5 years, 5 years Instructional Tech (K-12)/ Adjunct Instructor — Viterbo University

Jan Wee, at 9:20 pm EST on November 19, 2006

BEWARE OF GENERALIZATIONS

Google is a powerful tool, but just like any powerful tool, it can be used and misused, and is a good choice in certain research situations but not in others.

It is foolish and dangerous to paint Google in broad brush strokes without making qualifying distinctions. Whether you find the answer in the first website (“I’m feeling lucky”) or on the second page all depends on the variability of the keywords used, or even on the topic itself.

Certainly it goes without saying using periodical databases—subscription as well as free ones on the Web—is obviously a better first choice over Google for peer-reviewed literature. There are those occasional quirks when a particular topic cannot be adequately found in the usual databases, but can be located by “Googling.” Scholarly reports on certain subjects are sometimes best found by doing a Google a site:.gov OR.edu search. Google shines in finding statistics using the same kinds of searches. And Google is a veritable storehouse of many primary materials.

Students should be taught to develop a critical eye by comparing and corroborating information sources and not just blindly accepting as gospel even the most so-called reliable authorities. Nature did a study that found three errors per article in Encyclopedia Britannica (and, incidentally, only four in Wikipedia). Textbooks have an infamous track record of errors.

In short, let’s be careful when making broad statements and generalizations.

Ed Sadowski, Librarian at Arapahoe Community College, at 2:50 pm EST on November 22, 2006

information literacy

1. ETS defines information literacy differently than ACRL.

2. There is no single program, course, or session, that is going to teach students once and for all how to search online resources (whether Google or subscription databases) and to evaluate what they find. As Steve Bell points out, the active collaboration between librarians and course instructors is crucial. Course instructors must be prepared to require preliminary bibliographies, to critique the students’ sources, and to recommend that they go and ask guidance of the librarians to find better quality resources.

Especially when specialized databases are so non-intuitive and change so often and with new ones being added all the time, instruction for students in retrieval and evaluation of online information must be ongoing.

Barbara Quintiliano, Instructional Design Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library, Villanova University, at 11:20 am EST on December 5, 2006

appropriate knowledge comes from appropriate research

This article hits on the point that undergraduate students only do the bare minimum when researching. This activity may be fulled by the volume of material a professor has to go through when studnts in a class hand in an assignemnt. At that time, that professor dosn’t usually have enough time to go through all of the students works cited to see if the general information given by the students comes from acredited web sites or journals. This allows for students to continuously skate by using the same “rinky dink” sites that they probobly just get from the first 5 sites that pop up from googles search page.

Ally, SCSU, at 10:30 am EDT on April 23, 2007

I believe that there should be a class for all freshmen on learning how to research on the web. In high school I was required to take Freshmen Research and Study Skills course. The class mostly focussed on print sources but it helped equip me for the future. I admittedly disliked the course but looking back am happy I had to take it.

Much of the problem that we are facing today is that teachers don’t know how to research on the web. How are we to want students to be skilled on the internet if they don’t have teachers to guide them.

So what is to be done? Should all teachers be required to take a course as well. I am not so sure about that. Maybe an optional class for teachers who are interested. I am just not sure if it is fair to force a professor to learn how to use the internet.

The reason for students showing poor Internet skills may also relate to the internet helping them be lazy. If a student is asked ot do research they no longer have to go to the library and look at a lot of books. Now they just type in a search in google and use the first few sites they hit. Many of them don’t even seem to read the sources carefully. I have noticed this with students when it comes to required readings as well. Sometimes I wonder if some students read the same book that I read. So is the problem really that they don’t know how to research on the web, or is it that many students don’t like to take the time to read carefully? I don’t know what you can do about that. Maybe what really needs to be done in colleges is find a way to make school interesting for students. Many students seem to just go to class because they feel that they have to, not because they want to. That is likely our biggest problem. If someone does not want to be somewhere than it is doubtful that they will try their hardest.

Beth, SCSU, at 11:35 am EDT on April 23, 2007

In the workplace that people don’t have the necessary critical skills to access information.I agree specially when there are many links to go to , but yet you need t be wise on choosing the right one. Wether or not college students are techno idiots. It depends on what excatly is the task that is being done. In writing papers or even doing research is a matter of practice and linking diferent sources on computers..

caroline, SCSU, at 2:20 pm EDT on April 23, 2007