Badke will be the Computer Savviness guest blogger on the following issue, "Students
as Researchers: The Faculty Role".
Here is some of his discussion:
Any time I discuss student research with faculty
members, professorial eyes start to roll.
Our students are hung up on websites, they seem to love Google and
Wikipedia more than libraries, and the level of writing and research in what
they do produce is abysmal. They don’t
seem to be motivated to do research well and probably do most of their work on
each project in the wee small hours the night before it is due. For some faculty, this is a sad reality but
not a terribly big deal. Research
projects, after all, are only one part of our assessment of learning. It’s not as if we can teach students to do
better research, let alone improve their motivation anyway. Students hate research projects, and that’s
just the way it is. If they improve, it
is only because they put their energy into practicing their skills. Thus a lot
of faculty members may be dismayed at poor student research skills but not see
much of a problem at all. They argue that today’s students are absolutely flush
with technology and can run rings around most adults when it comes to searching
Google and filtering through tons of data.
“If students have a problem,” they declare, “it’s that we’ve made our
academic databases too challenging, when they should be as simple as
Google. Yet, give our students a bit of
time and they can master any research task we throw at them. Have no fear.
Students still graduate and go on into vital careers and
ministries. They must have picked up on
their own the information abilities they needed.” I’d like to take a different tack and argue
that student ability to handle information well and to do research matters a
great deal. Let me share some harsh
realities of the information age….. http://www.computersavviness.com/2015/08/students-as-researchers-faculty-role-by.html
