Students and web use

This week I am reminded of the need to teach information skills across curriculum and certainly not in isolation or just in the library, particularly as it appears that these skills are not necessarily as transferable as we might like (Herring 2010). It also reinforced that students rely on the capabilities of search engines more than they should (Chung and Neuman, 2007 and Kuiper et. al. 2008). Herring's question formulation paper also made me think that perhaps I haven't paid enough attention to the different tools and processes we can employ in defining our information needs.

The Kuiper et.al (2008) research also raised some interesting points about reading skills when seeking information on websites. For example, that less appropriate reading skills were employed when students were unsure if a site was relevant. I contemplating this, I wonder how much of an impact the perception of "speed' and "ease" of search engines and the pursuit "the right answer" affects this. Its interesting that our online patience appears to be shorter while our expectations, particularly in a search engine's ability to find what we want may be higher.

I am conscious of my own patterns of behaviour when searching for information of the distraction of following threads in pursuit of 'unique' information and the ahhh factor of those serendipitous finds. I am reminded of the value of planning searches and understanding your information needs.... I just need to remember this when it comes time for my next assignment.

Chung, J. and Neuman, D. (2007) High school students' information seeking and use for class projects. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(10), 1503-1517.

Herring, J. (2010) School students, question formulation and issues of transfer: a constructivist grounded analysis. Libri, 60(3) 218-229.

Kuiper, E., Volman, M. and Terwel, J. (2008) Students' use of Web literacy skills and strategies: searching, reading and evaluating Web information. Information Research, 13(3).