Chapter 5

Chapter 5- Researching and Evaluating Internet Information

Focus Question: How can teachers respond to problems of plagiarism when students use online sources?

I believe this question helps us deal with one of the most important topics in the use of technology and learning. James McKenzie helps identify seven ways teachers can help students avoid plagiarism by providing them with skills that helps them create individual ideas through their research. This is based on the idea that teachers can construct projects that make it less likely for students to plagiarize based on the questions that are asked and the information that is required from them.

These skills are as follows:

·         Distinguish levels or types of research

·         Discourage “trivial pursuits”

·         Emphasize essential questions

·         Require and enable students to construct answers

·         Focus on information storage systems

·         Stress citation ethics

·         Assess progress throughout the entire research process

By asking students to research a topic and generate opinions or ideas on said topics allows students to express their understanding rather than merely copying facts off of the internet. The assignment presented in this chapter was a great example of a real life project created to avoid plagiarism.

Tech Tool Link: Flickr

I have often visited this site in the past both for personal use and for research and it has always provided great results for photo based searches. Flickr is a great tool that can be used for students that are looking for photographs of any category, and because they are uploaded by the public, it gives people access to a multitude of original images and ideas. Users that upload their images to flickr can choose to make them public or private, and their images are protected by copyright. This does not, however, completely protect their images from being stolen or used by other people. This is the main downfall to this site; people can take images off of the site and claim them as their own which is also considered a form of plagiarism. Other than this, I believe this site can be very useful to teachers and students when trying to find original content. In the past, my wife has used flickr to share pictures that she was using for her photography class. Her profile can be found here. This is another great way that this website can be used in schools. Students can create online photo portfolios that they can share with teachers and classmates through this website rather than making slideshows or presentations.

Chapter 5 included plenty of information that I feel should be shared with teachers, students and parents. Evaluating internet information is not only important in our education system, but also to protect the safety of our children at home. With how quickly technology is advancing, it is difficult to keep up with the dangers that can come with children that are unaware of potential threats, especially those brought upon by social networks. There is an unfortunate amount of predators that use false information and websites to lure children into bad situations. There is also a lot of inappropriate website that can be easily accessed by unattended children. Thankfully, there are many different way that are now available for parents to protect their home computers by blocking and controlling the websites that are visited by their children. Unfortunately, there are still many adults that are not fully aware of the dangers that can be brought upon by the internet. Another important reason that student need to be mindful of misinformation is because unlike textbooks, there is no clear way of reading something on the internet and knowing whether or not it is true. If a student is at home researching information from a website that is not trustworthy or outdated, they may learn facts that are untrue or inaccurate. This will cause a negative effect on the students understanding and knowledge of the topic, and may cause them confusion when trying to combine their research with what they are being taught in school. It is important that teachers aid their students in finding trustworthy websites along with exposing students to websites that are age appropriate. Although I have often struggled with including a work cited page in many of my past projects and assignments, I do believe that it is an effective way for students and teachers to explore the validity of what is on the internet. If a student provides a teacher with a link they have used in their research that the teacher finds to be providing misinformation, the teacher can ensure that other students are not using this site for their research and they can help the student determine why this website should not be trusted. Just by having access to the internet, students have an incredibly amount of knowledge at their fingertips, but through computer literacy we can ensure that students are accessing truthful and reliable links that will positively enhance their learning experience rather than causing confusion and misinformation.