What is the hardest thing about finding information and doing research on a topic for you personally? Did this library research course help? In what ways did this course help you?
Every single day, a student logs on to a computer, clicks the Internet Explorer link to search something for their class, and forgets the original reason why they came to the computer in the first place. The truth is that students would rather find the fastest, easiest way out of assignments. Thus, we often will settle for bad information on the web just to get finished with our assignment at the last possible minute. Our lives, as students, are focused on being fast, and being finished first. We sacrifice education and knowledge for the mountain of work we have to do in the most compressed amount of time. You can almost say this exact procedure occurs for a lot of tasks...text messaging, talking on the phone, typing a paper. Everything is fast.
The hardest thing about finding information or doing research on a topic is finding information which is truly valuable and valid. Although it may seem like such a trivial task, going on the internet has become such a challenge in the modern day. Often times, people do not take the time to find information that is appropriate for their given tasks. For instance, say a student is searching information about Brown v. Board of Education. The student believes that the most convenient and true information will be found on a search engine. So, he types “google.com” into the web address box, types “Brown v. Board” and receives a Wikipedia page as the second link. He clicks this link and believes that he is truly looking at valuable information on the internet, making his life easier and accomplishing the task faster. Nowadays, people just do not know how to distinguish true information from false facts.
In addition, the trouble with this fast-paced method of operation is that the purpose for finding information is lost. We get so caught up in accomplishing the task fast and forget about the quality of our response. I blame this disconnect partly on the teacher and partly on the student. First, teachers will give an assignment to students, assuming that they know how to find the information or that they have access to the resources which the assignment requires. And second, students take the easy route out of things instead of actually struggling through the research process (an arduous task for those willing to battle its incessant trials). The teacher makes the assumption, the student makes the mistake—it is a vicious cycle of a less than perfect academic relationship.
Personally, this situation is exactly what is troubling for me when I am finding information or doing research on a topic. I argue that finding information which is both “easy to find” and “true to the very end” is extremely hard to do. We, as students, have a limited amount of time to complete a project. Thus, our research demands a certain amount of punctuality. In terms of solving this problem, this eminent library research answered some imperative questions. The class avoided the vicious cycle between teacher and student since I was able to learn so much in such a short amount of time without any trouble. Specifically, I learned about finding valuable information and making sure to cite the works used in my paper. Also, I feel that I learned how to balance both punctuality and finding valid information...it is all about finding some sort of equilibrium. Now, when I have a research project, I know that I will have the skills to see past the “web of lies” and use true, cited information to prove my analysis.
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