Sorry about the length of this. Once I got started, I just couldn't stop.
Since use of a full-text online retreival system like Lexis or Westlaw is
such an inferior method of conducting research in the first place, I
firmly beleive that it should be put in its place: it should be given no
special treatment at all. Many looseleaf and treatise sources as well as
fiche sources such as the CIS set, are far more complicated to use and
more practical than Lexis or Westlaw ever will be. So, do we have special
training on the use of looseleafs? No, we teach the kids how to find the
information they need and we ignore the format. I think that its time to
start ignoring the computer format. Who cares if its online? Many
student intuitively know how to use computers and will figure it out
without our help, just the way they figure out how to use CCH, or BNA
services.
The corollary to this is that we need to double (triple? quadruple?) our
efforts to teach students the best way to use/find information and to not
always assume that just because its on computer it must be the best
format.
Here we waited until second semester to handout passwords and it worked
OK. That is, the kids didn't complain too much. I think that the
important thing to do is to put CALR firmly in perspective: its a lousy
way to do research and there are all sorts of objective evidences that
prove it. If you impress on the students that they can really screw up
using CALR even a little, it usually gets through to them.
Richard Leiter
richlei@beacon.regent.edu
804-523-7179
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