Digital Contexts: Studies of Online Research and Citation |
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section one section two section three |
SECTION TWO The articles in Section Two focus on research behaviors as they are taught and practiced in post-secondary education. The The first three articles examine the methods through which students are taught to do research in scholarly settings.The work of Walker & Purdy discusses the ways that student research identities are shaped by textbooks in introductory composition; however, their work also connects to Beaulieu’s earlier discussion of the ways that professional scholars use various digital spaces to shape their research practices. Specifically, Walker & Purdy claim that introductory textbooks tend to focus on creating step-by-step models that do not reflect the richness and flexibility of professional research practices. Thomas Peele and Glenda Phipps provide readers with additional discussion of current practices for teaching research skills. Their work focuses specifically on a first-year writing course, designed in collaboration between a librarian and a composition instructor, that offers students a range of tools with which to consider the complex convergences of written text (including research), visual design, and presentation medium. The work of Peele and Phipps ties directly to the third article in this section, in which Moe Folk and Shawn Apostel provide a new and interesting framework for the analysis of web-based resources. Their work seeks to combat current models for evaluating web-sources, which are based on “book” models that do not provide for the variety and complexity of online publication. To adress this issue, Folk and Apostel provide theoretical foundations for a more flexible approach to source evaluation, and discuss the pedagogical applications of this approach. The final two texts in this section are research studies of student research & citation practices. Both articles are interesting and worthwhile examples of methods for researching the practices in which students and teachers engage, and both provide insights regarding how classroom teaching practices and learning outcomes for information literacy can affect specific research and citation practices. Kellian Clink and Randall McClure not only offer a study of how classroom practices can tie directly to information literacy goals, they also discuss the importance of collaboration between writing instructors and librarians in the development of appropriate training resources. In the final article in this section, a group of researchers from the University of Georgia, (Caroline Cason, Kristin Nielsen, Christy Desmet, and Ron Balthazor) examine how an Electronic Markup and Management software application <emma> can be used to investigate student citation practices. In particular they outline the ways that <emma> can provide a wealth of different kinds of qualitative and quantitative data regarding both actual citation practices and the classroom choices and discussions that can impact these behaviors. |
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CHAPTER FIVE ABSTRACT In this chapter the authors analyze the ways in which these instructional texts, including composition handbooks, library web sites, and other online resources, explain research processes, particularly in online spaces. This chapter argues that these texts construct particular research identities for students, identities that often are based on a linear, print- , and efficiency-based models of research. In other words, “good” student researchers are efficient researchers who follow only prescribed pathways. While this model can help educators provide streamlined and consistent models for research behavior, these models can severely limit the ability of student researchers to develop successful, flexible identities. After discussing their analysis of different texts’ treatment of research practices, and drawing on the strengths of particular texts, we offer a more descriptive, recursive approach as an option more suited to a multimodal, activist stance to research. Works cited Gillette, Mary Ann, and Videon, Carol. (1998). Seeking quality on the Internet: A case study of composition students' works cited. Teaching English in the Two-Year College, 26(2): 189-194. ________________________________________ CHAPTER SIX ABSTRACT We wondered how the current textual revolution would shape our online pedagogy, and developed the following questions to help us focus our research: • Instead of limiting the range of research sources in an effort to avoid plagiarism, how can we help students determine how to effectively choose and evaluate sources? During the semester, we provided instructional media and directions on the kinds of research we wanted students to perform. We also conducted surveys and introduced discussion boards to determine how students’ views about research changed over the semester. Based on our observations, we have drawn the following conclusions: • In the age of Amazoogle, students are used to easy access to information. To expose students to a variety of information sources (search engines, subject directories, subscription databases, specialized Web sites), we required them to pursue various modes of research; The article that we propose describes our development of this course, our analysis of students’ research practices, our implementation of resource evaluation as a rhetorical practice, and students’ use of multiple document types for their final projects. Placing our study in the context of similar studies, we argue that our approach to text allows students to consider in new and complex ways the convergences of written text (including research), visual design, and presentation medium. Works Cited Howard, Rebecca Moore. “Negotiating Plagiarism in a Literacy Revolution.” 26 Oct. 2005. <http://wrt-howard.syr.edu/Papers/ GeorgiaSouthern.htm>. ________________________________________ CHAPTER SEVEN ABSTRACT Drawing on the notions of capitals and habitus as framed by Bourdieu, and the ideas of Foucault regarding power and knowledge, we will examine how the informality that often accompanies the web, as well as its broad ranging publishing capabilities, give rise to many resources that are seen as credible to our students but not recognized within traditional academic circles (i.e. blogs, wikis, mpegs, forums, etc.). Students’ acceptance of these genres (and academic dismissal of most online resources) illustrates the shifting ethos that accompanies the communicative turn to multimodality in our post-modern society. Instead of replacing one rigid set of criteria with another, we propose a method of negotiated conflict based on the student/instructor divide and Barton and Barton’s synchronic/diachronic perspectives. ________________________________________ CHAPTER EIGHT ABSTRACT: Using grounded theory, the authors study these questions: “Are today’s university students, given the wealth of print and electronic texts at their disposal, learning how to find and, more importantly, evaluate information appropriate for their research writing projects?” and “How are today’s teachers instructing and their students conducting academic research in light of typical course goals for composition and in relation to information literacy standards for this digital age?” The answers to these questions interest not just librarians and composition teachers, but all faculty and staff working with students to develop their researching, writing, and critical thinking skills. Specifically, this empirical study investigates whether or not students in first-year composition courses succeed in accomplishing the literacy outcomes articulated by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) as they relate to both print and electronic texts (see http://www.ala.org/acrl/ilcomstan.html, especially “standards” #1 & 2). For example, one information literacy outcome in the standards set by the ACRL states, “The information literate student identifies a variety of types and formats of potential sources for information.” Another outcome adds, “The information literate student retrieves information online or in person using a variety of methods.” Further, the standards note that this student “[e]xamines and compares information from various sources in order to evaluate reliability, validity, accuracy, authority, timeliness, and point of view or bias.” These same standards are echoed in the typical goals of first-year composition courses that usually state how students need to be proficient in their research, becoming critical thinkers as they locate and evaluate source material in the library and on the internet (http://www.mnsu.edu/acadaf/pdfs/cat1Aassessresults.pdf). Students in five first-year composition courses at a regional state university in the upper Midwest have participated in this 2005 study. The project includes a one-hour introductory library information session conducted by an experienced research librarian and calls for the analysis of students’ research essays and transcripts from focus groups with participating students and teachers on their roles in the research writing process. For example, teachers describe how they introduce assessing source material in terms of relevancy, authority, and currency, especially with regard to online sources, and students describe how they incorporate these ideas into their research practices and present them in their written texts. In addition to their report on their findings of the study as they relate to both ACRL standards and common first-year composition goals, the authors comment on how the traditional university library supports the research projects that interest today’s composition students. For example, the authors suggest ways libraries could focus their shrinking budgets on certain online resources and print materials and ways library instruction sessions could be changed to improve students’ information literacy skills. The authors conclude by discussing how the information revolution, with increased access to both new and traditional sources, lends itself to increased cooperation between librarians and composition teachers. The authors suggest that librarians and teachers work closely together to reinforce students’ critical analysis of an overwhelmingly staggering amount of information now available to them. ________________________________________ CHAPTER NINE ABSTRACT: Through two phases, the pilot of the UGA Study of Citations in First-Year Composition confirmed generally the findings of an earlier Cornell study, which found that students have moved away from citing books and towards the use of online sources. The UGA researchers conducted a case study of two sections of English 1101 under the same instructor. The citations came from the final assignment, a research project in which students were asked to “identify a pool of good, credible research resources” using the course textbook website, “Lexis-Nexis, and other library resources.” The classes had no formal library instruction session. In this case study, 39% of students’ citations referred to web resources, 33% to the textbook for the course, and a modest 28% to all other resources. In the second pilot phase of the study, the researchers moved from a case study approach to the analysis of a statistically-significant sample of all students using <emma>. This larger sample allowed researchers to note increased variability in the type of assignments, the wording of the assignments, and the type and amount of library instruction received. <emma>’s ability to link assignment, essay with Works Cited, teacher comments, and grading rubric gives us not only statistical data (number of citations and grades), but a wealth of narrative data to corroborate the statistics with an analysis of the pedagogical context. We have also been able to ask questions of a more sophisticated nature, such as: • How did the teachers’ wording of her assignment affect students’ understanding of research? The answers to these questions will create a more effective partnership between First-Year Composition instructors and librarians in the design of research assignments and the delivery of information literacy instruction. ________________ |
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