A question for teachers re internet homework help.?

Question

This is a funny place to ask, but a propos! When I was in school we students had to document our sources, such as books, magazine articles, and so on. Now it seems that many students go to the internet to find information. How do teachers handle this? Is it allowed? Do students cite the web as a reference, and how do they prove the information they find is accurate?

I want to know how teachers handle this. I am not a student and don't want advice about how to do my homework. Thanks.

I asked this question at least 9 years ago! In those days I felt pretty rusty re use of technology in the classroom. Since then I've gone back to school, gotten my master's....
I chose my favorite answer, but I also like the guy who said, "How do you know a book is accurate?"

Answer 1

Well, here's the way I run things in my classroom (sophomores and juniors):

A formal essay/research paper needs to contain sources. For a 4 page paper, I say either 2 or 3 sources--and one of them MUST be a print source (this could be their text book or any other book). All papers must be done in MLA format at the school (containing parenthetical citations and a Works Cited page), so they must follow the rules for that. There is a special way to cite internet URLs. An informal essay (about 250 words or so) on a question I pay present to them in class does not need formal citations.

I told my students that if they wish to seek information from the Internet, it must be a "reliable" source. It's hard to explain what a reliable source is, so I give them examples. A reliable online source would be information that comes from:

an educational (preferably collegiate) website (.EDU, though one needs to be careful);
a government website (.GOV);
a specialized non-profit organization (.ORG. For example, if a student is doing a paper on domestic violence, and they are using information from a domestic violence NPO)

This is not to say that commercial, .COM websites do not contain factual information. For example, if you were doing a paper on Microsoft and cited information from microsoft.com, you're probably going to be OK. You need to just be careful WHERE the information on the website is coming from.

Unreliable sources would be sources like personal websites (unless the author is specialized/skilled in that area) and wikipedia. Let's say Joe Schmoe has a da Vinci site that he hosts on geocities, and he says that the artist painted the Mona Lisa to look like his girlfriend. Well, how does Joe know this? Did he ask Leonardo this question? Was he there when it was being painted? If he can back up his statement with scholarly info (a journal, a book, etc.), then he's OK. If not, this is an unreliable source.

Now, I love Wikipedia, but one also realize that anybody can change the information on the site. However, if you ever look at the bottom of a Wiki article, it usually cites where the information came from. You can go to these websites that often verify the information given on the wikipedia page.

Now, of course, if the essay is informal and asks something like "What do you think of ______________?", I do not require sources.

The way I see it, I could pull any paper from the stack I'm grading and check the sources to see if the information is accurate.

Often times, students will copy word for word from the Internet. You can tell because the language is often very polished and the vocabulary is more advanced than what they normally use. Just plop in the sentence you think may be plagurized into Google, and Voila! You find the paper is copied word for word from a Internet website. Likewise, you can tell if something was copied from a book, but it's a little more difficult to check that out.

I usually warn the students the first time (though they should know by now), then I handle it as plagiarism and cheating. This includes major points off their assignment and possible phone calls to their parents.

I think schools need to address correct citation style and what plagiarism really means. The Internet is an amazing invention, but you also need to be careful with it in formal settings. I graduated from college last year, and in most of my classes I was NOT permitted to use Internet sources. My students are perplexed at this, because they see no other sources available other than the Internet and automatically assume that all the knowledge and information available in the world is located online.

Answer 2

As a teacher, when giving students writing assignments, I would allow students to use internet sources such as CNN, NY Times, Brittanica, or other news/research related sites. I would require the students to also have 2 book resources and the students must accurately cite the sources they use. I would pass out a list of acceptable online research sites, and ask that before students stray from the list, they come to me with a new site and have me research it first. If acceptable, it was added to the list. My students generally complied with my rules.

Answer 3

Well, I dont know how you will find if the information is accurate, but I can tell you how to be assured that information found from internet is accurate.
A person generally has a tendency to say the truth to best of his/her knowledge. If at all a person has to lie/be inaccurate, it is usually when he/she has some objective behind it or if he has ability to shape and structure the environment to accomodate his/her lie.
If you are talking about accuracy regarding contribution made to the websites, then think, why would a person spend his/her precious time to fill inaccurate information? Besides, anyone can visit the site and correct the information previously written. It could be a teacher, a scientist, a professional. Anybody can visit the site. So if anyone corrects the information previously written, he/she will be doubly sure of authenticity of the information.
To improve quality of homework assignments that students get done through Yahoo! answers, you could
1)Ask answerers (a)to explain each and every step before they provide answers, (b)ask them to provide the source they refer to(c)ask them to provide ways in which accuracy of the answer could be checked(which answerers will do to get best answer)
People would be saying something like,"Ask your teacher", "refer to your textbook", "refer to wikipedia", "try out yourself", etc(d)structure your question to elicit favourable response
2)Except for philosophy, politics, religion, relationships, jokes, films etc, every answerer will select his/her section of interest and strengths. So its unlikely that person not having subject knowledge would answer the question( He/she would be doing that at the cost of his/her areas of interest)
3)Finally, if it were that easy to check for accuracy, where is the need to have teachers?

Answer 4

Well, you need to have them give you the internet source and they need to be able to prove that the information is accurate. I suggest double checking your information from various different sources. Most reputable sources will site their sources. So, good luck and use good judgement.

Answer 5

1

Answer 6

"how do they prove the information they find is accurate?"

how can you prove that a book is accurate?

there's no difference, except that its easier, its cheaper and its updated so information can be more accurate than an old book

Answer 7

mla online source

can only be taken from a site that lists the publisher etc for real doc
date printed
site
document title

do it ala or mla