Research exercises: immersion experiences to promote information literacy

  • Authors:
  • Henry M. Walker;Kevin Engel

  • Affiliations:
  • Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa;Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

Traditionally, librarians visit courses for incoming students in many disciplines to discuss strategies to locate resource materials for projects and research and also to explore mechanisms to evaluate sources. Unfortunately, librarians and other faculty regularly report that these lectures do not connect well with students. For example, with the advent of the Internet, today's incoming students often believe that a quick search of the Internet will locate any needed material. Graham and Metaxas, however, have shown that students are remarkably naive in obtaining and analyzing such information. [2] This paper presents a different approach, in which the combination of short research exercises and feedback from faculty (including librarians) forces students to recognize superficial and inefficient search strategies. Implementations of this approach in several computer-science classes in both the United States and New Zealand indicate research exercises regularly change student understandings and practices.