Blog on Blogs

When I need to search for something, I typically use Google. I teach research methods to students, and when I teach it, I am forbidden from telling them to use Google. I don't know why this is, but I suspect it is because most people don't know how to use Google properly. They don't know that when you search in Google, you are given a variety of different types of material related to that search, including academic articles. As an aside, I also use Google to fight plagiarism, as I can just type in the words I believe were plagiarized and they come right up. Of course, a student could plagiarize from a book, but the chances of them actually using a real book for research are low (why would they when they could use the internet?).

I usually use ERIC when I have to search for academic articles, or Google Scholar, an extension of the wondrous search engine mentioned above. I find that most databases are unwieldy and just not as easy to use as Google. Why do I always have to limit my search terms? Can't the database figure out that I want articles about baseball when I type that word in the search field? Google can.

If I am forced to use a database, it usually takes me many trys to find what I am looking for. I will start by just typing the most important part of what I am looking for in the search field, for instance, an unusual word in the title. Then, when that returns nothing, I try putting that in quotes. When that returns many un-useful, unrelated articles, I usually try the author and the unusual word. Sometimes that works, but for the most part, I just type the entire title into the search field on our old, good friend, Google.

I determine the validity of information on a website first by the appearance of the website and the last time it was updated. A good website should be updated almost every day, if not several times per day. Further, I look for the level/style of writing on the website; many grammatical errors or usage errors means I won't be using this information. Lastly, I cross-reference the information with other websites, usually found by using Google Scholar.

Thus far, I have taught students to use the clunky databases. They generally hate it because the databases are so hard to search compared to what they are used to. I also teach them to look for sites from newspapers or other news outlets, to check the date the site was last updated, and to look for neatness and grammatical mistakes. Also, I teach the students to look for funding information on the website, and then research the group that funds it. This becomes extremely important, especially when students are researching controversial issues.