EDUC 6816 Weekly Reading: How College Students Seek Information in the Digital Age

What surprises you about the strategies digital age students use as they conduct research for course assignments?  I’m not really surprised by the research findings.  From personal observations and participation, throughout a student’s k-12 school years, how often do we see librarians collaborating with instructors, and working with students beyond the typical research process, and rote strategies for collecting information?. Also, because of the saturation and overload of information from using the internet, it’s easy to understand why students come to rely on a specific strategy, one that will quickly assist in assignment completion. I’m not defending the strategies as the “best” way to complete assignments, but it is reality. Digital natives have come to rely on efficiency and instant retrieval of information. It’s not surprising that access to free information from the comfort of your own home, is more widely used than physically going to a library to seek help. Even though numerous libraries offer “Ask a Librarian” (which I find very useful), students seem to feel if an email needs to be sent, why not send it to the instructor?  I agree with the article, librarians and instructors need to collaborate, reach a consensus on the research process and inform students.

How accurately do the findings from this study reflect your own research strategies? These findings are very similar to my own research strategies.  First, I do try to meet the instructor’s requirements, use the course readings, and then public internet sites for more information.  However, once I’ve learned about databases such as Ebscohost, and features such as askalibrarian,(FSU library) then I will rely on these new strategies to access and synthesize information.  The articles suggests that students complete assignments in an efficient manner, whereas librarians teach a thorough process beginning with scholarly resources. This seems to be the great divide, and maybe the reason why busy, overloaded students do not seek out assistance from the library.  Maybe this means educators should be teaching all students how to efficiently access, critique, analyze and synthesize information in an efficient and thorough manner that will focus on obtaining lifelong literacy skills. As an instructor in a middle school, we collaborate and discuss assignments and due dates with same grade level instructors to ensure students are not overloaded with assignments. The article mentions the possible need for college instructors to collaborate and become aware of student overload, and I feel this should be required as part of showing students support and understanding. This suggestion may possibly keep students from dropping classes.

This study provides a detailed description of the parameters of research assignments typical required for academia. How does it differ from the kinds of research people do in the workplace? According to the list of assignments it seems very limited in terms of authentic, real-world studies.  In the workplace we are immersed in our positions, and what is relevant “at the time”.  We seek information to improve our work and work productivity based on the problems and ideas that emerge. I believe case studies, which is listed at the bottom of list in the article, would be more closely related to what occurs in the workplace.

 Do you think the recommendations to improve research process for college students will better prepare students for the world outside of school? I believe the following quote from the article is profound:  “Administrators, faculty, and librarians should examine whether research-based assignments result in opening studentsʼ minds to expand their information-gathering competencies. Instead, we recommend that students be given course-related research assignments that encourage the collection, analysis, and synthesis of multiple viewpoints from a variety of sources, so the transfer of information literacy and critical thinking competencies may be more actively called up, practiced, and learned by students.” So yes, the article recommendations are focused on closing the gap between instructors, librarians, and students.  A common focus could lead to students feeling a relevancy to the assignments, therefore emerging and engaging students in the informational literacy process of the 21^st century, and provide a set of lifelong learning skills.