I think that it's fine for teachers to encourage kids to use the Internet to find resources for research projects. Part of that encouragement, however, should include perhaps a whole lesson - or even more time - on how to judge Internet resources, for one, but also directions to look when seeking reputable resources (eg. the online databases you mentioned, even Google scholar), but suitable for the age of the kids in question. I don't think it is rocket science - kids will learn quickly to distinguish reputable from disreputable resources, given some training.
The important issue to me is that kids when on the Internet (vs being in a library) have a much greater opportunity to make a wrong decision when choosing whether to get on with their work or to distract themselves. Of course this is not a new issue, but seems to be exacerbated when a class full of kids get on the net. Close supervision and small research groups seems to be the best tactic. Perhaps schools should have a person employed as a permanent student Internet research liaison officer who would fill the double role of being very good at supervising kids using the net and also able to offer hands-on help to assist them finding information on the net. On your point, Andy, I understand some primary school teachers here are assigning homework activity which requires students to "research" something on the Internet. The same problem as Michigan is of course here in South Australia, although not as high as 40%. The official answer is that Internet is available in public libraries and school libraries for free after hours. Not perhaps, the best answer, but an optimal one it seems. Andy Carvin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > According to the most recent NTIA A Nation Online report, at least 40 > percent of Michigan households don't have the Internet. I would imagine > that households with children a much more likely to have Internet > access, but I would be very curious to see how Michigan intends to deal > with these access inequities, even if it's just 10% of students.... -ac > _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
