Something that’s been on my mind this week is teens/tweens and their research abilities. As I’ve been working on my e-portfolio I decided to use a paper that I had written for a LIB244 about whether or not teens have online researching skills. One of the articles I used in this paper pointed out that most teens, when given an assignment requiring research, would immediately either Google or Wikipedia the topic rather than put any effort into looking elsewhere. Now most people in the world would simply shrug their shoulders and wonder what’s wrong with this scenario. On an adult level I would probably say nothing. I use Google nearly every day myself for one thing or another, but when it comes to research, I usually only use it as a jumping off point, if even then. The problem with tween/teens using this as a first and only resource is that the information retrieved is not always correct, useful or reliable. Most people believe that because tweens/teens are so exposed to technology, and their usage of it is so high that means they must know how to use it to retrieve anything. As I stated in my paper, “Constant exposure to technology does not necessarily denote advanced knowledge and understanding, simply maneuverability.” The problem stated and suggestions made in both the articles and paper is training. Teaching tweens/teens not only how to research, but how to determine the usefulness or efficacy of the information they are retrieving is paramount. Most, not all, teachers assign research projects, papers, etc and simply expect students to competently research and write an intelligent and useful reply. Now from what I’ve experienced and from what I’ve seen with my younger siblings and nieces and nephews, there isn’t a lot of instructing taking place on online researching. How do the teachers expect their students to automatically know the whys, where’s, and how’s of research without any instruction? I suppose what I’m getting at is that so many of the tweens and teens entering our library doors are horribly unprepared to do any but the most basic research, and it frequently falls upon us, as librarians, to teach them how to find and disseminate useful information. My next question is…how do we do that? (To be addressed in next posting…)
You touched on something important - we assign research we don't teach it. At best we teach source evaluation in schools lucky enough to have teacher librarians. But then 2 things happen - it is context specific to both subject and school and does not necessarily transfer to other contexts, and 2 we do not teach synthesis, or use very effectively (some do, I am generalizing). And there is a massive equity gap - too many schools do not have any one who teaches these skills, or others do but it isn't comprehensive. And then there are schools and districts who students have instruction, opportunity to access information, synthesize it, and use it in both academic and creative manner. HUGE equity gap. Sorry, starting to soap box. In the public library you may not necessarily know and I think teaching these skills can be fun, if you come at it from a creative, active position.
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