Student "research" has taken on a whole new dimension with the advent of on-line resources. This has brought advantages and disadvantages over traditional, non-electronic forms of research. Extensive electronic databases and access to sources on the Internet (especially the Web) has expanded the quantity of materials available on any given research topic. The challenge for ESL students is less about finding resources than it is about limiting and evaluating the resources that are found. There are several approaches which teachers are using to help ESL students in this regard. There are many resources available to help students now how to proceed with library research projects. Most are designed for native speakers, but contain information which is useful for ESL students as well. Have a look at "So you have to do a Research Project?" at http://www.ri.net/schools/East_Greenwich/research.html#organizing and "A Guide for Writing Research Papers." at http://cctc.commnet.edu/mla.htm
Leslie Opp-Beckman and Jeff Magoto's 1987 TESOL presentation, "Keeping the LL in CALL" includes "Guided Research on the World Wide Web". Leslie outlines steps for student-based research projects and the development of theme-based pages used with intermediate and advanced students. She explains how a teacher may cull resources so as to present students with a more manageable research task. See samples at http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/LLinCALL.htmlMichael Feldman's Student Web Units presents another approach to assisting students with research on the Internet. These self-contained units incorporate Web resources collected by the teacher which are used by the students to perform very specific tasks. According to Feldman, "Each one explains and practices skills and knowledge related to mastering the World Wide Web." They are designed for intermediate to advanced students and are at http://web.bu.edu/mfeldman/Students/
- Feldman's 1987 TESOL presentation, "Helping Students to Do Research on the World Wide Web" deals with topics such as what student research offers, what constitutes student internet research, 10 commandments of student internet research and 10 things to watch out for. Also included are links to sources students can use to do internet research. http://acs1.bu.edu:8001/~mfeldman/TesolPaper/
Searching Tips - How to Find Something on the Internet -Linda Thalman' site devoted to articles, reviews, and other resources on effective Internet searching. And a related page with many of the best Internet search engines and subject guides.
Jan Alexander and MarshaTate - Widener University hosts an excellent and comprehensive site: Demonstration of how traditional print evaluation techniques can be adapted to the evaluation of Web pages; gives hands on experience evaluating actual Web pages with different checklists depending on the type of page (e.g. advocacy, business, informational, news, etc.) http://www.science.widener.edu/~withers/webeval.htmDeborah Healey's Technology Tips for July and August 1996 - Evaluating Internet and Other Sources contains common sense suggestions such as examining the components of the URL and quality of links on the page in question. Also gives links to search engines which rate their "hits". More on Evaluating Sources consists of exercises to help students rate sites for credibility. http://osu.orst.edu/Dept/eli/aug1996.html and http://osu.orst.edu/Dept/eli/aug1996.html
DeVry's On-line Writing Support Center has extensive links on evaluating Internet sources http://www.devry-phx.edu/lrnresrc/dowsc/integrty.htm#document
Michael Krauss' online course, "Integrating the Internet into the Classroom" contains a number of web-based readings, exercises, and additional evaluation resources, useful for both students and teachers at http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/usia/syllabus2.html#day5
For a very interesting description of a high school lesson plan designed to teach students to be critical of what they read on the Internet, see Marcovitz, D. (1997). I read it on the computer, it must be true-evaluating information from the web. Learning and Leading With Technology 25(3), 18-21. Students learn to be critical consumers of Inernet information when they read information on the Holocaust which contains irreconcilable differences.
APA - For the most up-to-date electronic citation and reference forms, check the APA Electronic Reference Formats page
MLA - As of this date, the best guide for MLA citation of electronic resources is by Beford/St. Martins.
Classroom Connect provides citation guides for a wide variety of online sources, including Email, images, audio, and video. This page is somewhat dated, but it is concise and easy to follow. It basically tracks the MLA, not the APA style. http://www.connectedteacher.com/newsletter/citeintres.asp
"Documenting Electronic and Traditional Sources: A Lesson in Research" (http://www.nyit.edu/0695/slessons/doc.html ) is a four week teaching unit in which middle/junior high students learn how to conduct internet searches and to cite their findings properly.
"Writing: Plagiarism Advice for Lessons" (http://henson.austin.apple.com/edres/ellesson/elem-writplagerism.shtml) offers teachers 18 suggestions they could adopt to teach students not to plagiarize.
"Cut-and-Paste Plagiarism: Preventing, Detecting and Tracking Online Plagiarism" (http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/~janicke/plagiary.htm) is an online article for educators that defines plagiarism, offers prevention suggestions, gives detective tips, and describes ways to track it down. Included within the article is a list of some of the sources of plagiarized papers so that you can become familiar with them. The author suggests that one way of detecting a plagiarized paper is to identify unusual keywords or unique phrases in the paper and then conduct a web search for those words through a large search engine.
The online article "Educators Fighting a Web of Deceit" (http://computernewsdaily.com/147_052797_130001_8138.html) describes the increase in using the web to acquire plagiarized papers. It includes a link to a college librarian offering a free list of such sites to other educators so that they can become familiar with the quality of papers offered. There are also tips on how to create papers that can't be easily completed through plagiarism.
Another source of help is "The Instructor's Guide to Internet Plagiarism" (http://www.carleton.ca/~gsenecha/guide/ ) which can help instructors determine if a paper has been acquired from one of the essay paper mills. Be sure to see the section "Dead Giveaways" for clues on detecting such papers.
Legal Issues Concerning Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights - Added complexity due to students (and teachers) making extensive use of the Internet for research.
Copyright and Fair Use - Comprehensive page from Stanford University Libraries.University of Texas Crash Course in Copyright "The Copyright Crash Course Online Tutorial will help you learn about how ownership of copyrighted materials works, what is fair use and when and how to get permission to use someone else's materials." You can complete this tutorial and take a test at the end to measure your knowledge at http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/cprtindx.htm
DeVry's On-line Writing Support Center an up to date source of information at http://www.devry-phx.edu/lrnresrc/ dowsc/integrty.htm#property
Copyright Issues on the Web by Kristina Pfaff-Harris is a 1996 article looking at issues that affect us directly as CALL practitioners at http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/Articles/Harris-Copyright.html
Keeping it Legal: Questions Arising out of Web Site Management by Jamie McKenzie (a non-lawyer, school superintendent). 1996 publication covers concepts of "Fair Use", "Intellectual Property", Use of Clip Art , Use of Web Art, Photos, Text, etc., Publication of student art, writing, etc., Publication of district documents, Intranets: WebWhacker Files, Who is responsible? at http://fromnowon.org/jun96/legal. html#Other
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Created by: krauss@lclark.edu
Updated: 12/23/99