In the past few weeks, I've been guiding students through the writing of a research paper which culminates our unit on war and poetry. I began it with my honors students, since they're a little more flexible (and therefore excellent guinea pigs), and it hit me very quickly that research has undergone an enormous paradigm shift since my high school days.
I remember getting my dad to drive me to the local college library where I approached the intimidating college librarian with sweating palms and asked how to find books in this overwhelming college library. Then, I read through about a hundred books and about a thousand pages to try to find one tiny tidbit of information I could use in my paper. I painstakingly copied out the quote onto a notecard and paid ten cents to copy the page with the bibliographic information. As I arranged my notecards and drafted my paper, the time spent must have amounted to what it took Beethoven to write his Ninth Symphony.
Oh, how things have changed. Before starting the paper with my students, I did some initial exploration into the databases offered by my school district, and quickly realized that the information was not only there, but also easily accessible and only a copy-and-paste away from an outline.
I can't deny I was a little bitter.
My students would never even have to touch a printed text or write a printed word. Instead, the digital tools available made it as easy as pie to conduct research and compile the information into a coherent argument. One of the databases even contained a full citation in MLA style, so all my students had to do was copy and paste the entry into their Works Cited.
I'm so excited by the up-and-coming research tools offered by the digital age. Yet a small part of me wonders if they're missing anything by skipping so many steps. Will it take away from their ability to problem-solve? To truly dig and make decisions about where to find information? Or is it acceptable to rely on these digital tools and their ease of use, knowing that this is likely what students will face in life after high school?
I feel like a bitter Betty doing a bit of soul-searching. What do YOU think?
It's almost too easy for them, right? I think the reason that I've always enjoyed research so much is that it made me feel like I was on a quest . . . albeit in a safe environment without the chance of death. You're right that they're missing that aspect. While I absolutely use the available technological tools, and feel we need to teach our students how to use them effectively and safely (that ease of cut and paste adds an ease of plagiarism as well), I think there's something missing as well. I'm hoping to convince my principal to let me take my students to one of the local colleges to use the library. I'm not at the point where I think it's a relic yet.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to lie, I secretly liked writing the research paper for this class where I had to go to the Carnegie library and check out ten books and browse them while sitting on the lawn at Pitt listening to a free concert. It was seriously a wonderful day. And something is definitely lost for students who can just type in a search engine and have it churn out the info that they need!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I so agree with that feeling of bitterness!!!
But also I feel a tad bit sorry for them that they won't really have that experience of breezing through texts to find a useful chunk of information and place a post-it on a page every now and then. I mean, I say we make it a grad requirement to make a call on a pay phone and use an old, paper card catalog. Right?? :)