Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Thinking About Google Scholar


Last term in an online writing class one of my students submitted an annotated bibliography for an upcoming research paper. In one of her entries, she cited Google Scholar as her source. Curious and skeptical, I looked up this Google Scholar, which I hadn't heard of before. Turns out, Google Scholar functions similarly to Google's regular search engine, only it returns only "scholarly literature," rather than just any old web page. I also turned to one of CGCC's trusty librarians, who told me that Google Scholar is pretty reliable, but like any information that is freely available on the web, "students will need to do some critical thinking to evaluate it." Another problem is that GS also "directs you to sites that require payment for the articles"-- a notion that is antithetical to what a student is usually trying to accomplish (ie, find freely available information).

My main concern, however, lies not with Google Scholar specifically. It's that GS signifies a growing number of information databases on the web-- information middlemen, essentially-- that obfuscate for students the true sources of information. When my student had cited Google Scholar, she should have actually been citing the journal that GS procured in her search. And GS may profess to value scholarly research, but can we say the same for WebMD, Wikipedia, and About.com? Some may say I'm comparing apples and oranges here, but I think the overall premise holds. A preponderance of online clearinghouses for information makes data easier to access, sure. But are these sources being responsible with their data? How can I make sure that my students are vetting their sources carefully without simply proscribing a long list of "database-type" web sites, or forcing them to only use the databases available in the college library?

As with innumerable technologies now available to students, I'm afraid a point gained for convenience means a point lost for learning. What is a teacher to do?

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6 Comments:

At 2:44 PM , Blogger gwindsheimer said...

Megan, I do agree that your student should NOT have used Google Scholar as a reference, just like they shouldn't use Wikipedia as a reference - but rather the article or book they found on any search engine.

I do like the aspect of Google Scholar that allows you to put in your college name and find research in your college library. Our daughter is getting her masters at George Fox University and Google Scholar allows her to know which books, articles and magazines the college library has. This has saved her hours of time finding the references she needs. She would not reference Google Scholar nor would her professors allow her to.

Teaching students how to site references and which ones are reliable is part of our job as instructors-an endless job. I do know it is taught in high school, but it seems like we have to cover it again in college also. This should definitely be course objective that is easily tested.

Thanks for bringing our attention to how some students are using references on the internet so we can address that ahead of time in our courses.

 
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