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The internet is a great way to find small bits of information, but most of the time the information is really questionable. Search for a topic and wikipedia is

by vantran 17y ago

The internet is a great way to find small bits of information, but most of the time the information is really questionable. Search for a topic and wikipedia is usually among the first entry, which is great for a start but no way reliable enough to put in an academic paper. Of course there are information sources that are just as great on the internet, but getting there is a long process (there's just too much irrelevant information out there); it might be more efficient if you just go get the book instead. Turning books to ebooks might make it much more convenient to be accessed, but wading through ebooks for information is horrible. I regularly have to print about 20 pages that was originally in pdf form because I cannot stand reading so much on the computer on a regular basis. Not when you already do a ton of referencing and programming using the computer. I'm sure there are many people who feel the same.

Ixiaus 17y ago
I tried e-books and they just don't do it for me. Eye fatigue has a lot to do with it and there is something about the physical interaction with a paper book that makes the process feel different. Computers are great for quick reference but not great for long bouts of reading...
- cracki 17y ago
  i read ebooks on my phone (854x480 screen) and if i have the time, i read until i can't sit/lie anymore. the discomfort of ebooks isn't about ebooks, but about the device you read them with. laptops and desktops just aren't fit for the task. my mobile phone weighs maybe as much as a book and it handles easier. have you ever tried reading a book in bed, but lying on your side? it's straining to hold the book open, or in such a way that you can read the left/right page. not so with my phone. i scroll through pages of text effortlessly. true, the screen could be larger, but with a small font setting and me already being myopic, it's no discomfort at all.
jerf 17y ago
"Search for a topic and wikipedia is usually among the first entry, which is great for a start but no way reliable enough to put in an academic paper." Ah, you're looking at the wrong part. Go down to the "citations" part. Any decent article that might actually be the topic of an assignment will have five to ten times more "real" citations from primary sources than any teacher ever assigned me to have in school. Wikipedia is still a "cheat code" for school assignments, you just have to use it right. Copying and pasting Wikipedia text is wrong. Following it to primary sources is hard to call "wrong", harder to detect, and, honestly, at the point where you're yelling at the student for getting your primary sources from one place and not another you're crossing dangerously close to "You did the assignment too efficiently, do more busy work" rather than "I want you to learn something from real sources". Students are very sensitive to that sort of message (even if only subconsciously) and we send the "do more busywork" message pretty loudly as it is; we don't need to amplify it any further. (I'd say, if the assignment has become too easy, make the assignment harder by making it actually harder, rather than forcing inefficient techniques.) (BTW, my "write a paper that could be copied from Wikipedia" period ended well before Wikipedia existed, but unless they've radically changed the types of papers that are assigned, this is still essentially the optimal approach in terms of time.)
- vantran 17y ago
  Oh yes, I agree completely that wikipedia is not a horrible place to start. I do use the Notes / References whenever I go on wikipedia to double check the reliability of the information. But I do also notice that many times the references will point you to books. They don't always point you to this great primary source entirely online; at least my experience is that this is hardly ever the case, others' might differ of course. So yeah, I do use the internet a lot to search for information. But in the end, the internet still take me back to the library.

by vantran 17y ago

Ixiaus 17y ago

I tried e-books and they just don't do it for me. Eye fatigue has a lot to do with it and there is something about the physical interaction with a paper book that makes the process feel different. Computers are great for quick reference but not great for long bouts of reading...

cracki 17y ago
i read ebooks on my phone (854x480 screen) and if i have the time, i read until i can't sit/lie anymore. the discomfort of ebooks isn't about ebooks, but about the device you read them with. laptops and desktops just aren't fit for the task. my mobile phone weighs maybe as much as a book and it handles easier. have you ever tried reading a book in bed, but lying on your side? it's straining to hold the book open, or in such a way that you can read the left/right page. not so with my phone. i scroll through pages of text effortlessly. true, the screen could be larger, but with a small font setting and me already being myopic, it's no discomfort at all.

jerf 17y ago

"Search for a topic and wikipedia is usually among the first entry, which is great for a start but no way reliable enough to put in an academic paper." Ah, you're looking at the wrong part. Go down to the "citations" part. Any decent article that might actually be the topic of an assignment will have five to ten times more "real" citations from primary sources than any teacher ever assigned me to have in school. Wikipedia is still a "cheat code" for school assignments, you just have to use it right. Copying and pasting Wikipedia text is wrong. Following it to primary sources is hard to call "wrong", harder to detect, and, honestly, at the point where you're yelling at the student for getting your primary sources from one place and not another you're crossing dangerously close to "You did the assignment too efficiently, do more busy work" rather than "I want you to learn something from real sources". Students are very sensitive to that sort of message (even if only subconsciously) and we send the "do more busywork" message pretty loudly as it is; we don't need to amplify it any further. (I'd say, if the assignment has become too easy, make the assignment harder by making it actually harder, rather than forcing inefficient techniques.) (BTW, my "write a paper that could be copied from Wikipedia" period ended well before Wikipedia existed, but unless they've radically changed the types of papers that are assigned, this is still essentially the optimal approach in terms of time.)

vantran 17y ago
Oh yes, I agree completely that wikipedia is not a horrible place to start. I do use the Notes / References whenever I go on wikipedia to double check the reliability of the information. But I do also notice that many times the references will point you to books. They don't always point you to this great primary source entirely online; at least my experience is that this is hardly ever the case, others' might differ of course. So yeah, I do use the internet a lot to search for information. But in the end, the internet still take me back to the library.