Comment Re:It's not technology they should focus on (Score 1) 331
Have you considered taking your class to the college library for bibliographic instruction? Librarians have years of experience evaluating resources and teaching others how to do so...it is part of every Master's degree program in the field (which is required for employment almost everywhere). At some schools, the librarians will even come to your class or help you develop a library component to your online course resources.
Most librarians are more than happy to share this knowledge with your students and better yet, show them the large number of on-line databases of periodical articles your institution is undoubtedly subscribing to, many of which are full text. They may have to break down and go look at a print or microfilm copy of an article from time to time, but the experience might be good for them. *laugh*
Every time I do a class instruction session, I always cover the basics of evaluating Internet resources, sites that provide pre-screened resources to search through (much quicker than scanning the dreck that comes up on google for abortion or the death penalty, for example), and I even point out the actual *gasp* print resources in the library that might be useful to them. This is in addition to the periodicals databases mentioned earlier, of course.
The librarians are there for a reason--it is a pity so many faculty and students underutilize the resources freely available to them and surf the web (very badly in many cases) instead.
Most librarians are more than happy to share this knowledge with your students and better yet, show them the large number of on-line databases of periodical articles your institution is undoubtedly subscribing to, many of which are full text. They may have to break down and go look at a print or microfilm copy of an article from time to time, but the experience might be good for them. *laugh*
Every time I do a class instruction session, I always cover the basics of evaluating Internet resources, sites that provide pre-screened resources to search through (much quicker than scanning the dreck that comes up on google for abortion or the death penalty, for example), and I even point out the actual *gasp* print resources in the library that might be useful to them. This is in addition to the periodicals databases mentioned earlier, of course.
The librarians are there for a reason--it is a pity so many faculty and students underutilize the resources freely available to them and surf the web (very badly in many cases) instead.
