find a book
find a journal article
find a website
I got so tired of this "baby" way to present the information. I'd like to focus on CONTENT and have the students understand that the format is irrelevant. Professors who create assignments "Find 3 journal articles and one has to be in print or microfilm" always seem to me to just not get it. They make their students jump through unnecessary hoops. Who cares if the article is in print or online? What about journal articles that are reproduced as book chapters? Do those count under the "journal articles" header or the "book" category for those silly checklists? Why make the students focus on the format when content should really be what matters? Oh, yes, I have ranted about those professors and felt sorry for the students.
But now I'm struggling with how to get the students to understand that content can come in a variety of formats. If I don't tell them they have to find a book, a journal article, a newspaper article, a government document but let them choose the format, they won't explore the possible formats. I'm wondering if I need to go back to the "baby" method and then after they find a source in each artificial category, have them evaluate how each is different. I'm going to try this to see if the students can come up with the greater understanding through being obligated to touch different formats that content can come in a variety of formats and it is really the content that matters.
It frustrates me to revert back to an older way of teaching. It feels uninspired. I have this desire to break out of the box, be cutting edge and here I am going back to the basics.
1 comment:
Perhaps we need to focus on how we define content first before trying to teach it. How many librarians help students find sources and then leave them alone to evaluate? I've done it myself. "Here are 35 journal articles that are somewhat related to your topic. Read the abstracts to find the ones that will work for you."
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