1999-Upper Level
Second Place
The Internet and Education: Viability and Reliability
By Elaine Hakala
According to Dr. Gerald C. Van Dusen of George Washington University's Graduate School of Education and Human Development, and the author of The Virtual Campus: Technology and Reform in Higher Education, "[w]ork and learning have become synonymous in today's information economy. To remain marketable, workers must continually upgrade their knowledge base and technical skills" (71). This fact is not only applicable to college students who are striving to gain the education required to secure and maintain a thriving career in the modern, high-tech workplace--but also to the professors who teach them, and to the methods used in the process. As the turn of the century approaches, some of the most highly-sought-after technical skills in the world are those needed to navigate the vast knowledge base presented by the Internet and the World Wide Web. At the same time, the Web is growing at a rate that alarms most educators. Thousands of new websites are added every day that are not regulated, policed, or verified. But despite the seemingly out-of-control growth of this electronic medium, it still sits on the horizon of education as having the potential to be the most modern, viable, reliable resource for students and educators ever to be created.
Not all educators are alarmed at the growing importance of the Internet. Many have embraced it readily, because they see that; [t]he relative ease with which scholars today can obtain information and communicate with colleagues is paving the way for proposed new forms of scholarship, such as those promoted by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. (Van Dusen 60). The Internet offers a vast, new resource which is rapidly restructuring the pursuit of knowledge on many campuses. To enlightened educators, today's scholarship of teaching--courtesy of the WWW--is characterized by unprecedented access to expertise in content and curriculum design, evaluation methodology, graphics and visual communications, cognitive and behavioral psychology, computer programming, and marketing. (Van Dusen 61)
Distance learning through the WWW is springing up on campuses across the country as universities realize that it is a valid tool for bringing instruction to non-traditional and traditional college students. Traditional classroom lectures and texts are also being augmented by web-based information, such as the website created and maintained by Dr. Richard Nordquist for his Rhetoric class here at Armstrong Atlantic State University. On AASU's rhetoric site, one finds not only class instructions for tests and assignments, but also links to further rhetorical resources which students can explore to expand on their knowledge of the subject. The Web is also being used at AASU for many classes across campus by professors who post student's grades on their websites by social security number, along with syllabi, assignments and extra credit opportunities.
Using the Web effectively does require a commitment from individual educators to continually renew their own knowledge and abilities, because educators and trainers must be willing to learn how to use new tools, combine tools in different ways, and adapt their educational strategies and materials to incorporate these tools. Educators do not need to understand all the ins and outs, whys and wherefores of computers, broadcasting, engineering, and electronics. They don't need to be technicians. But they do need a basic understanding of how they're sending and receiving information. (Porter 92) The powerful electronic tools at an educator's disposal include not only websites they can create themselves or sites built by other educators they can find to share with their students, but also listserve discussion groups where they can engage in scholarly discussions with their peers over topics of mutual interest, and have opportunities for colleagues to critique each other's work. In addition, there are also vast database research resources available for their use, as well as ones they can point their students to. On the Web, "[r]eveloutionary breakthroughs in scholarly communication are paving the way for improvements in curriculum development, prepublication peer review, and technology transfer" (Van Dusen 69) both between educators, and between educators and their students.
According to experienced Web enthusiasts, "the availability of library catalogues and other library resources over the Internet (and other wide-area networks) may be as much, if not more of, a boon for the linguist as for the physicist" (Van Dusen 63). Organizations such as the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian have long-standing websites that provide a wealth of literature and information accessible through a few clicks of a mouse. More and more, universities and scholarly organizations are adding relevant information to the Web, with "[r]esources such as abstracts and periodical indexes, as well as a full range of electronic journals, monographs, and BITnet discussion group archives [which] can be expected to come on line in the coming months and years" (Van Dusen 124). But even now, vast amounts of literature are available on the Web for free access. For example, the University of Maryland operates its "Reading Room" online (http://www.inform.umd.edu:8080/EdRes/ReadingRoom/), where students and educators can find Sophocles, Oscar Wilde and William Shakespeare in the drama section; hundreds of full-text versions of classics such as Pride And Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Middlemarch, and The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn in the fiction section; over thirty full-text versions of treatises and documents including The Book of Mormon, Thomas Paine's Common Sense, and articles by Frederick Douglass in the non-fiction section, plus a wealth of poetry, periodicals, journals, and so on. (Barron 100)
Despite the fact that it is "presently naive to assume that 'virtual libraries,' operated by a skeleton crew of database managers, will soon wholly replace existing facilities and services" (Van Dusen 123), the WWW is literally packed with access to databases from respected sources, and "[t]he transforming potential of powerful data retrieval mechanisms have not only begun to alter the methods of research but to redefine, in the process, the very meaning of research" (Van Dusen 63). But the WWW is also literally packed with erroneous information put out by individuals and by marginal organizations that is just as easily accessible. The question then for educators becomes how to teach their students, and themselves, how to differentiate between what is valid--and what is not.
The first step in accurate data retrieval on the Web is learning how to operate a search engine. This problem can seem daunting to the non-computer-literate professor or student, because there are currently hundreds of search engines available for public use on the Web, and, "[s]ince search engines make use of previously constructed databases, none includes all of the documents or sites on the web" (Maddux 295). Also, since the computer design companies that create and maintain search engines always feel that they have to stay on the cutting-edge of technology, [s]earch engines change frequently. . . . This is a major problem. Those who maintain search engines must understand that to many users, stability may be as important or more important than are specific features and strategies. This is particularly important for teachers, who do not have vast amounts of time to devote to periodic study of search engines, and to students, whose academic problems and learning styles demand the security of consistency. (Maddux 295)
Therefore, choosing the proper search engine for the job, and keeping abreast of the programming changes which periodically take place in that search engine, are just as important as deciding what topic to research on. Picking a good search engine and keeping abreast of it can be very beneficial to a researcher in any field, but sometimes searches are best handled by using one of the "all-in-one" search engines (such as the one found at http://www.allonesearch.com/). This grouping of search engines allows the web-surfer to access many different search engines, allowing for much broader coverage of the Web (Benson 305). At this particular site, one has access to engines such as "Cyber411," which queries sixteen different search engines at once; Education World Search Engine, which boasts of over 110,000 URLs (universal resource locators--as in "addresses" of websites) on education topics; Veronica, which searches "gopher" sites--"[a] widely used menu system to make materials available over the internet" (Barron 150) used by many educational facilities to house their larger documents online; SavvySearch, a simultaneous search engine that accesses over thirty other search engines with the click of one button; as well as specialized search engines for topics such as searching for an au-pair (nanny), finding all the international embassies in the world, or accessing U.S. street maps and phone directories. There is even a "Search Engines Worldwide" site with access to search engines in over 110 countries.
While this wealth of information can be mind-numbing, simplicity is also available on the WWW. A good, all purpose search engine is AltaVista (http://altavista.com). It has a huge database and uses advanced technology, plus it also indexes every word on every webpage in the database, unlike other engines which generally only index the title and the first paragraph or so (Maddux 297). When a search engine indexes every word on every webpage, the chance of finding what is searched for goes up dramatically. Another highly recommended search engine is Lycos (http://lycos.com), because according to one source, "it indexes about 91% of the web (about 10.75 million home page addresses) and each match it finds includes a short abstract describing the contents of the Web documents" (Benson 311). The search engine "Excite" can prove useful for well-defined searches because it gives a percentage listing on each site of how accurately the site matched the search criteria. A site that matches a search criteria by 90+% is probably a much more beneficial site to use for research on the topic than one that only has a 50% rating. Those ratings can prove very useful in determining relevancy at a glance, because "[i]t is easy to collect information on the Internet, but it is also easy to get side-tracked by irrelevant data" (Barron 54). This is very valuable, because a sample search for the words "Dante+criticism" on Excite reveals scholarly writing about the author Dante Alighieri in the critical paper entitled "Dante, Michaelangelo, and Milton" (68%), and links to scholarly criticism on a site called "PhD Literary Theory and Criticism Reading List" (62%), but the search engine also lists a site devoted to Dante Bichette of the Colorado Rockies (51%), and a site of helpful psychological information about "Giving Constructive Criticism" (41%). Needless to say, with well-chosen search words, the higher precentage pages provide more valid information about the topic requested.
As with any research tool, "[s]tudents should be cautioned to quickly assess the relevance of the information to avoid acquiring mountains of extraneous data" (Barron 55). The Web is a vast resource which is cross-referenced in vast ways. The danger of this is that unskilled web-surfers can make invalid assumptions about the validity of the information they find. Unfortunately, some students erroneously believe that if they see something in print or on the computer, then it must be true. Instead of blindly accepting and reporting information, students must learn to investigate its source and validate the information . . . If the information is not edited, refereed, and available in print, students should be encouraged to validate the data by checking with experts or crosschecking the information with other valid sources. Inaccurate, incomplete, or questionable data should be rejected." (Barron 54)
The proper tools to determine the accuracy, completeness, and validity of information found on the Web are the same tools in every student and scholar's toolbox when it comes to doing research in more standard ways. Just because there is a book in the library does not necessarily make it a valid source for information. For example, Adolph Hitler's Mein Kampf is still in print, but should not be used as a sociological reference for a paper on categorizing people. Common sense should rule first and foremost on using online sources for scholarly writings just like any form of research. Ask the question "Who wrote this?" and remember that at the very least, the person or organization who put the information on the Web should be identified by name. (Would you trust an anonymous letter?) Also, look to see if the site gives information such as the author's education, employment, and previous accomplishments; this helps you decide whether the person is qualified to disseminate information on the subject. Does the Web page offer a means of contacting the author to give your feedback (for instance, an e-mail address)? Are there ways to check the person's qualifications (for instance, an address and phone number for his/her place of employment)?" (The Web 1)
Another tool to use to establish the validity of a source can be found in the physical address of the webpage. Web addresses, URLs, are structured as follows: protocol://server.subdomain.top-level domain/directory/filename (Dominick 331). The protocol is the type of function being performed by the browser, usually either http (accessing a straight website), gopher (accessing a database through a website), or telnet (accessing another computer directly via the Web). The server is the group that the subdomain is licensed through, which was originally the WWW, but now there are other groups such as WWW2. The subdomain, also known as the domain name, is the unique name licensed to the physical computer on the Web where the files comprising the website are housed. The top-level domain is the type of organization. Organization types can include .edu for educational facilities, .gov for government facilities, .org for independent organizations, and .net or .com for commercial organizations which provide webspace to individuals, businesses, and other groups for a fee. The directory and file names are structured based on the needs of the creator of the site, like directories and files on a PC.
So how does one navigate this tangled web of information and possibility? By looking at the domain name of a URL, and the top-level domain, one can generally determine where the information is coming from. For example, computers housed at universities, the .edu sites, are excellent sources for valid information. Organizational as well as individual faculty use of the Web by universities to promote interests, research and studies is increasing by leaps and bounds. But bear in mind that students at most universities also have personal websites on the university's server. Most universities require that a disclaimer be placed on all student pages which states that the content is not regulated by nor under the jurisdiction of the school. Look for that disclaimer on all university pages as a way of verifying that the data contained therein is coming from a respected source at the institution, as well as from a respected institution.
Similarly, when accessing validity, remember that government websites, the .gov sites, disseminate information based on standing government policy. Use them with the same care you would any government publication. Independent organizations, the .org sites, have to be assessed on an individual basis. Information from the American Civil Liberties Union should be considered valid--whereas information from the American Mothers Against the Seditious Writings of Shakespeare should be taken with a grain of salt, even if they do have an .org top-domain on their URL. Commercial sites, those with the .com or .net top-domain, are probably the least readily verifiable on the Web, but don't overlook them completely, because they, too, can lend a wealth of information. News organizations like CNN, The Boston Globe and The New York Times all have .com top-domains, but are considered very reliable sources.
What viability boils down to on the Web is reputation. Can the source be trusted? Common sense should tell that CNN's news sources can be trusted more readily than a similar news story on an individual's homepage, and that a poem from the University of Toronto's massive poetry database is more than likely more accurate than the same poem on someone's personal homepage who just happens to really love the poem. Plus there are the aspects of advocacy, advertising and humor to consider when taking sources and information from the Web. Is there "a special purpose or a particular bias which may affect what information is selected to appear on the page and how it is presented?" (The Web 1). Is the information intentionally one-sided? Is the information being used on a site that is trying to sell something? Or is the information actually parody or humor--and not straightforward fact.
The Scout Report, a weekly e-zine and newsletter publication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison which reviews websites, uses the following criteria to decide upon what sites have valid content on the Web: "What is the scope of the content? Who is the intended audience? What is its purpose? Is it up to date? Is it accurate (as far as we can determine)?" (Scout Report Selection Criteria 1) They also question the "authority" of the person presenting the information, verify that the information is updated as frequently as need be, as well as rate the accessibility of the information. Organizations like The Scout Report are excellent tools for educators to use to explore verified electronic information on the Web.
The vast amount of data and resources available on the Web grows every day, but despite criticism, the backbone of the Internet still remains in the hands of the scholarly, governmental and organizational contingents who were at the heart of its initial creation. While it is true that open access to the Web by multitudes of individuals is helping to clog the Web with vast amounts of worthless information--valid information still abounds on the Internet, and grows in volume every day as more and more universities expand their presence on the World Wide Web. Educators and students learning effective research, recovery, and verification techniques on the Internet will continue to prove valuable to academic and business organizations far into the next century, and find useful places for themselves in careers with exciting, limitless potential as the Web continues to grow to epic proportions. Information already exists on the Web on the Olympics, the Holocaust, the pirates of the Caribbean, the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Antarctica, Egypt, bird watching, NASA, ballet, theater, African art, Claude Monet, curves, mathematics, The Dead Sea Scrolls, archaeology, the human body, William Blake, Sports Illustrated, schools, George Bush, Ernest Hemmingway, Nikola Tesla, and Winnie the Pooh, just to name a few topics (Cooper vii-xiii). To ignore such potential could prove to be a fatal mistake on an individual basis, as well as on an academic basis.
Annotated Bibliography
Barron, Ann E. and Karen S. Ivers. The Internet and Instruction: Activities and Ideas. Englewood, CO. Libraries Unlimited, Inc. 1996.
A text geared toward the uses of the Internet in the classroom. It includes a section on navigation, and the uses of e-mail, newsgroups, listservs, telnet, and other Internet tools for research as well as teaching.
Benson, Allen C. and Linda M. Fodemski. Connecting Kids and the Internet. New York. Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. 1996.
An outline of resources to operate a teaching environment for kids. Includes a chapter on proper resource discovery.
Cooper, Gail and Garry Cooper. Virtual Field Trips. Englewood, CO. Libraries Unlimited, Inc. 1997.
A massive listing of interesting and educational websites. Topics include the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, parks and sanctuaries, National Air and Space Museum (Smithsonian Institution), Peabody Essex Museum of Art, Library of Congress, Emory University Museum's Ancient Egypt Gallery, and much more.
Dominick, Joseph R. The Dynamics of Mass Communications. New York. McGraw-Hill College. 1996.
University textbook with an overview of the history and uses of the Internet.
Maddux, Cleborne D. "Web-Based Search Engines." in Badrul H. Khan's Web-based Instruction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Educational Technology Publications. 1997.
A comprehensive set of scholarly essays looking at the World Wide Web as an instructional tool. This essay discusses getting the most out of search engines.
Porter, Lynette. Creating the Virtual Classroom. New York. John Wiley & Sons. 1997.
A look at the practical application of computers as a university tool for managing distance education, including using the World Wide Web.
"Scout Report Selection Criteria." The Scout Report: Surf Smarter 30 Jul. 1993: The Internet Scout Project, Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison. <http://wwwscout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/criteria.html 28 Mar. 1999>.
A service by the University of Wisconsin, published weekly on the Web and by e-mail, that provides a fast and easy way to stay informed about valuable resources on the Internet.
"The Web: Can It be Trusted? Evaluating Sites on the World Wide Web" General Library "How To" Guides 22 Sept. 1998: Zach Henderson Library, Georgia Southern University. <http://www2.gasou.edu/library/broch_ref/webeval.html 28 Mar. 1999>.
Georgia Southern's library reference page on how to judge Web sources for their validity.
Van Dusen, Gerald C. The Virtual Campus: Technology and Reform in Higher Education. Washington, D.C. The George Washington University. 1997.
A handbook for universities on how to incorporate virtual technology into their school, with recommendations for classes. This book also discusses research on the Web.
(Elaine A. Hakala came to AASU as a Sophomore during Winter quarter of 1997. After a twenty year break in her college education, she is currently an English major with emphasis in Communications, and on the Professional Writing track. She is a Savannah native who has been published in Night and Clean Sheets, as well as six times in AASU's Calliope. She received the Lillian Spencer Award for Best Prose in 1998, the Frank W. and Lillian Spencer Creative Writing Scholarship in 1999. Upon graduation, Elaine plans to attend the University of Texas at Austin to pursue a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing--with the goal of being a full-time professional fiction writer as well as a professional educator.)