Romeo Wahed from the blog Download Squad has some great insight: "Call us old fashioned if you will, but banning things generally doesn't really solve problems...It's highly unlikely that students will be more motivated to work harder just because they are denied using Google and Wikipedia in their coursework."
We’ve been talking so much lately about banned books; it’s nice to see something else being banned for a change! But seriously, I think this is a great example of how a misguided person, even with good intentions, can do something monumentally stupid. Also, the same principles apply to this that apply to (almost) everything else that seems to get banned: whether it’s a controversial book, or the Internet, it’s here to stay, so banning it won’t make it go away, and it certainly won’t stop people from reading the book or using the Internet. The answer is…education! If this teacher would teach these kids how they can use Google and Wikipedia for legitimate research (just for example… Google Scholar, searching .edu sites, looking at citations in Wikipedia to confirm the information and do more research), it would prepare them much better for the future. Instead, they probably will say, “Remember that batty old prof who wouldn’t let use Google?”
4 comments:
Joel,
I agree with you that the professor instead should educate her students on how to conduct research and analysis using the Internet. I know where she is coming from...too many students will only look at information from Wikipedia and take it as absolute truth but it is really no different than when I was in middle school. The only difference is the medium has changed. In middle school, our teachers banned us from using encyclopedias for all of our research. They wanted us to use actual books instead. Perhaps if they had shown some of us how to research and organize information, those students would not feel they needed to rely on encyclopedias. The same with Wikipedia. Students need to know how to evaluate the information they are receiving. Banning the sites only increases the problem.
I'm surprised that this came from a university professor. I could maybe see middle or high school teachers doing something like this. Although, Dawn's example of not being able to use encyclopedia sources is quite ridiculous! I've heard several professors and students in SLIS describe Wikipedia as a very inappropriate source of information. I disagree. Like you mentioned, you can check citations, and if the entry is a little shady, Wikipedia is pretty good about saying so right at the top of the entry. Google? I use Google so much, I'd have to retrain myself completely if I weren't allowed to use it. The thing is, even when I do use it, it's not like it's Google I'm citing. I find out where the information came from before landing in the search engine. What a batty old prof!
Ultimately, I think so many intellectual freedom or information policy issues come down to education vs. regulation. Where do we put our resources most effectively for a particular situation? It all goes back to power and control. It often seems that regulation is preferred to education because it is seen as a quick fix - something to be used at election time even it hasn't really accomplished anything.
I agree with the teaching aspect of the issue. The teachers and professors may need to work with students and instruct them (preferably before they get to college!) on how to properly search for accurate information on the Internet. When I was in high school, for our senior project we were limited to how many sources could come from the Internet so that we would have to use both print and non-print sources, but we were never banned from it. A lot of the current information is only available on-line sometimes, and, like Mary, I never cite Google anyway!
Post a Comment