Let's keep the interesting comments from our Web2.0 postings going on. The ongoing discussions about how our digital immigrations are going is fascinating to me.
As a part-time faculty at two libraries and an indexer for Gale Publications as well as a web search evaluator for a to-remain-unnamed company in the Northwest, the whole concept of how we get to where we want to go successfully is quite an interesting topic. Searching behavior is what I work with on a daily basis in all these jobs. Of course, my searches may or may not be successful. It's as much an art as a science.
That brings up the idea of a successful search. What is successful? Obviously getting the information we need is the point of the search but defining success takes many forms. Useless information is only such much data/trivia. Evaluating our sources is a much more interesting issue.
If you've read this far, please post your comments!
PS Here's a link that I found interesting - another social media program to manage the social media programs we are already too overloaded to use correctly. This man is a self-described Searchologist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_8ugV3blP4
I'm glad to find your blog...I too am keenly interested in search behavior [both my own and that of my students]...I've been teaching a basic principles course and have been trying to get students to think about what informs their notions of 'valuable' in terms of sources of information...they surprise themselves [and me] with the reasons why they think a particular source is a 'valuable' one and exploration of this topic in class helps both them and me evaluate sources more effectively ...
ReplyDeleteInternet, and Web 2.0, has certainly changed searching for data. I can recall writing papers and only being able to cite books or online sources that were .gov or .mil; however, with interactive internet there is more information available and it is increasingly difficult to evaluate and verify data. It must make your job simplier in some aspects but much more difficult in others.
ReplyDeleteIt's easier in that more information is available but because it comes faster and faster, it's harder to teach evaluation and direct students to "pre-vetted" sources like paid databases.
ReplyDelete“Digital natives” vs. “Digital Immigrants”, I believe we need a lot of studies to understand and compare between these two generations. The second one is trying to survive by learning and keeping up with technologies, the first one is capable to keep up without any efforts. But do they have other type of problems?
ReplyDeleteThe Digital native does have some very serious problems. But the one that really comes to mind is that although they keep up without any visible effort, they have never learned to evaluate what they get. If I can get a Youtube video, 3 adequate Google hits, a yahoo hit and 5 texts, why should I evaluate the information...I have all the data I need. Of course, rarely is it said in so many words.
ReplyDeleteBrings to mind an old real estate joke: "Of course it's worth more than the house next door, it belongs to me."
In other words, it's all need because it's what I have in hand at this moment.