The Web and Research Papers

[John_Goldsmith]

Hello All,
I've heard it said that Socrates objected to writing and written language
because students no longer needed the discipline of memorization which,
Socrates lamented, would lead to a decline in scholarship.

Time marches on. Guttenburg invents the printing press.  "Scholars" react
predictably.  How could a mass producted, machine made book be as good as a
hand copied one?  Besides, now ANYONE could write a book and have it
printed.  Obviously this will lead to a decline in scholarship.

Time marches on and so does technology - in the form of nibbed pens and
pencils.  Now students no longer had to sharpen their own quill pens.
Scholars lamented the passing of this tradition and forcasted a decline in
scholarship as a result.

And so it goes,  Perhaps there should be an ammendment to Newton's third
law of motion to read:  "To every advance in academic technology there is
an equal and opposite 'scholastic' reaction.

In a way, David Rothenberg, Neil Postman, Todd Oppenheimer and others are
carrying on a noble Quixotesque tradition in their objections to the
Internet - not that it really matters.  These folks can no more stop or
diminish the influence of the Internet on academic endeavors than the
English King Canute could stop the tide.  So, while Mr/Dr Rothenberg
laments the decline of book usage, the rest of use are doing what we have
always done - using the best tools available (be that a book, a CD-Rom, a
journal, The Dead Sea Scrolls, cave paintings or the Internet) to
accomplish our goals.

Cheers,

>>
>>There's an interesting op-ed piece in the new issue
>>of the Chronicle of Higher Education. The article is
>>titled "How the Web Destroys the Quality of Students'
>>Research Papers", and is written by David
>>Rothenberg, an associate professor of philosophy at
>>the New Jersey Institute of Technology.  It's in the
>>"Point of View" section (p. A44) of the 8/15/97 issue.
>>
>>Rothenberg bemoans students' use of Web resources
>>as an easy and less-than-desirable way to gather
>>information for research papers. While part of his position
>>is based on the usual arguments about the quality of
>>resources found on the Web, he also notes that
>>students seem to be using books less and less, in
>>favor of readily available articles and other sources.
>>
>>While Rothenberg, as a professor, takes "much of the
>>blame for the decline in the quality of student research"
>>in his classes, he also assigns a portion of the blame
>>to libraries. At one point he notes "Of course, you can't
>>blame the students for ignoring books. When college
>>libraries are diverting funds from books to computer
>>technology that will be obsolete in two years at most,
>>they send a clear message to students: Don't read,
>>just connect. Surf. Download. Cut and paste."
>>
>>He also states: "Libraries used to be repositories of
>>words and ideas. Now they are seen as centers for
>>the retrieval of information. Some of this information
>>comes from other, bigger libraries, in the form of
>>books that can take time to obtain through interlibrary
>>loan. What happens to the many students...who
>>scramble to write a paper the night before it's due?
>>The computer screen, the gateway to the world
>>sitting right on their desks, promises instant access--
>>but actually offers only a pale, two-dimensional
>>version of a real library."
>>
>>Bernie Sloan
>>
>>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>Bernie Sloan
>>Senior Library Information Systems Consultant
>>University of Illinois Office for Planning & Budgeting
>>338 Henry Administration Building
>>506 S. Wright Street
>>Urbana, IL  61801
>>Phone:  217-333-4895
>>Fax:       217-333-6355
>>e-mail:    bernies at uillinois.edu
>>
>>



John Goldsmith,   Fraser Valley Distance Education School
http://www.fvrcs.gov.bc.ca   e-mail: jgoldsmi at rainbow.fvrcs.gov.bc.ca