A previous article on critical thinking and the Internet asked, as one of many questions, "Why are you here?". That question was posed to determine whether or not the Internet was a source of valid information. Another issue might well be, "Is the Internet a source of information at all?".
At the recent Alberta Teachers' Association Social Studies Conference (October 12-14, 2000), this point was driven home by Jamie Mackenzie in his keynote address. Mackenzie is not a neo-Luddite. In fact, he is one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking advocates of technology in learning and teaching. As the editor and publisher of From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal, <http://www.fno.org> Mackenzie has advocated for the intelligent use of computing technologies in schools. He has been a teacher (English and Social Studies), assistant principal, principal, university instructor, and superintendent. As the former Director of Libraries, Media and Technology in Bellingham, Washington, he oversaw the development of a large wide area network that brought the Internet to 10,000 students. He provided teachers with the support and professional development to use the Internet effectively. Ironically, he also increased the funding for school libraries.
At the conference, Mackenzie demonstrated how the Internet may not be a source of information at all. He had come across a list of influential Canadians. As an American, he was familiar with names such as kd lang. However, he had not heard of K. C. Irving, the Maritime magnate. As Mackenzie wished to learn more, Irving became the subject of a search of the Internet. Mackenzie adopted the role of a student and simply typing "K C Irving" into a search engine and came up with tens of thousands of hits as the search engine found every reference to "K", "C" and "Irving" on the World Wide Web. He then started to narrow down his search and began to use Boolean operators to define the strategy for finding information relevant to a biography. His search strategy was to search for "K. C. Irving" as a phrase with conjunction with the term "biography". He typed the phrase, "K. C. Irving" and biography, into the search engine. This resulted in 8 hits, a much more manageable set of links.
One of the links <http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~rsexty/biblio/biograp.htm> appeared to be exactly what he was seeking. The page began with the heading "Biographies of Canadian Businessmen." But, when he visited the page, Mackenzie found three references to Irving. All three were books. There are no biographies of K. C. Irving on the Internet. Had students used a library catalogue, they would have found much more information. I searched the library at the University of Calgary, finding all three of the books on the web page. Additionally I found three more books that had K. C. Irving as one their subjects. More importantly, not one of the six books was irrelevant. On the web pages, the search strategy led to such pages as Winter Continuing Education Credit Course Schedule at the University of Prince Edward Island, at which one of the buildings in which courses are offered is named after K. C. Irving. That was the only other page that made reference to K. C. Irving.
The point that Mackenzie, and many others, is making is that the Internet is but one of many places in which information can be located. It should not be the starting place to look for information. My old copy of The Canadian Encyclopedia (Marsh, 1985) provided a nice succinct biography of Irving. Perusing my own book shelves resulted in my finding more information on Irving in Peter C. Newman's The Canadian Establishment: Volume One (1975). Sometimes the best place to look is a book.
As a teacher and professional developer, I share Mackenzie's concern for the lure of the Internet. Students, with little or no training and education about Internet use, surf around without the aid of search strategies. Teachers, without sufficient forethought, encourage students to use the Internet as a resource of first course rather than last resort.
The next time you and your students are beginning a research project using the Internet, ask yourself, "Why are we here?"
References
Marsh, James H. (Editor in Chief). (1985) The Canadian Encyclopedia. Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers.
Newman, Peter C. (1975) The Canadian Establishment: Volume One. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited.