Hi girls!
This time no technology but we’re here to talk about WEB information and the judgement on these on-line sources. I visited the three websites Sarah proposed us, they’re especially about online sources and not on “real” books, articles etc.
However in general, in judging the quality of a source, I think that it’s important to establish who the author of that text is: in this way we’re able to obtain more material of the same author and to see if there is material up to date, to know his bibliography, to know who he is, what he is specialized in, if he’s a professor, a journalist etc. It seems a silly thing but in reality this isn’t so easy. I remember that, when two years ago we had to prepare an essay with professor Whigham, we used online sources to wrote it but it was really hard to find an article or something interesting to our essay that had the name of its author.
Then, another thing to keep in mind, is that on the Internet there isn’t too much control so people often plagiarize texts. This is obviously not good because we can’t simply copy and paste ideas of other persons, it’s like to stole them… I think that if we find them interesting thoughts we have to re-elaborate them and to integrate with our opinions and with other materials, to deepen them and not simply to copy. Now websites that offers to buy and sell theses, or to give essays or works done for students etc. are really exploding. I think it’s important not to trust them, because we don’t know who the authors are and moreover, if one obtain a work done by someone else, there is surely no satisfaction and proud.
In judging online sources, one has to think which kind of information wants. Not to extend our discourse but only speaking about educational or institutional documents, I usually see if the website is reliable: for example, I think that if it’s the website of an University, or an institution it’s a reliable website, on the contrary I don’t trust it if it’s a chat or a personal page, or a blog. Even among blogs there are differences: blogs can work to connect a group of people who already know each member – like the one we’re using – or there are blogs in which the author doesn’t know who will read his writings, for example blogs written by politicians or by actors, like Beppe Grillo, or simply by people who is part of an online community. However, I think that blogs are not a reliable source because, even if we can know who the author is, in blogs facts or ideas thought by the author are presented and in some cases they could be not objective.
Then ,in judging an online source, Sarah in one of her lessons, told us about EDU documents: this is useful to see if the document is posted by an educational institution, so in this case the material is reliable.
Speaking about traditional sources, I think that things are really less complicated. In fact, when we read a book or a newspaper article we immediately know who the author is, who the publisher is, when what we’re reading is being printed etc. For this reason, I usually prefer this kind of source because it’s more reliable. However, online materials can be updated more easily and more rapidly, even everyday, and for this reason if we find a serious website we’re surely more up to date.
There are for and against in using online sources, in general I think we have to search what kind of information we want and then select and filter all the material the Internet give us, using appropriate criteria.
Bye!
This time no technology but we’re here to talk about WEB information and the judgement on these on-line sources. I visited the three websites Sarah proposed us, they’re especially about online sources and not on “real” books, articles etc.
However in general, in judging the quality of a source, I think that it’s important to establish who the author of that text is: in this way we’re able to obtain more material of the same author and to see if there is material up to date, to know his bibliography, to know who he is, what he is specialized in, if he’s a professor, a journalist etc. It seems a silly thing but in reality this isn’t so easy. I remember that, when two years ago we had to prepare an essay with professor Whigham, we used online sources to wrote it but it was really hard to find an article or something interesting to our essay that had the name of its author.
Then, another thing to keep in mind, is that on the Internet there isn’t too much control so people often plagiarize texts. This is obviously not good because we can’t simply copy and paste ideas of other persons, it’s like to stole them… I think that if we find them interesting thoughts we have to re-elaborate them and to integrate with our opinions and with other materials, to deepen them and not simply to copy. Now websites that offers to buy and sell theses, or to give essays or works done for students etc. are really exploding. I think it’s important not to trust them, because we don’t know who the authors are and moreover, if one obtain a work done by someone else, there is surely no satisfaction and proud.
In judging online sources, one has to think which kind of information wants. Not to extend our discourse but only speaking about educational or institutional documents, I usually see if the website is reliable: for example, I think that if it’s the website of an University, or an institution it’s a reliable website, on the contrary I don’t trust it if it’s a chat or a personal page, or a blog. Even among blogs there are differences: blogs can work to connect a group of people who already know each member – like the one we’re using – or there are blogs in which the author doesn’t know who will read his writings, for example blogs written by politicians or by actors, like Beppe Grillo, or simply by people who is part of an online community. However, I think that blogs are not a reliable source because, even if we can know who the author is, in blogs facts or ideas thought by the author are presented and in some cases they could be not objective.
Then ,in judging an online source, Sarah in one of her lessons, told us about EDU documents: this is useful to see if the document is posted by an educational institution, so in this case the material is reliable.
Speaking about traditional sources, I think that things are really less complicated. In fact, when we read a book or a newspaper article we immediately know who the author is, who the publisher is, when what we’re reading is being printed etc. For this reason, I usually prefer this kind of source because it’s more reliable. However, online materials can be updated more easily and more rapidly, even everyday, and for this reason if we find a serious website we’re surely more up to date.
There are for and against in using online sources, in general I think we have to search what kind of information we want and then select and filter all the material the Internet give us, using appropriate criteria.
Bye!
3 comments:
Hi Vale!
I completely agree with you, and almost with all of the members in our group. We all know and accept the importance of judging online materials. Like you, sometimes I prefer a book to the Web for my research; it gives me a feeling of safety whereas on the Web I usually get lost. However, we need firstly to clarify what we want to search for. For example, when I need an ONU report I will undoubtedly search it on the Web because I know that documents like this kind, when published online, must be credible.
So, in my opinion the Web, as many might believe, can not yet substitute a book or printed data, in general. They remain two sorces to be used in different ways and for different purposes.
Hi Vale!
I agree with what you wrote in your post and I think you did a good job! I realized that I used quite the same criteria as you, judging online sources.As I wrote in my post, I think that we should evaluating sources as if it was a detective work. I mean, firstly we should be aware of what kind of information are we looking for; secondly, we should evaluate the bibliographic citation and the content of the web site! Finally, I agree with you when you say that we should select and filter all the material the Internet gives to us! That's good!
Bye!!
Hallo!
I think that we can take for granted the importance of judging the sources available on the net, don’t u think so? I mean, we are all aware of the difficulty of orientate ourselves in the huge amount of information that Internet gives us…Now the point is how to manage this situation!
In your post you spoke about the problem of plagiarism and I do really agree with your considerations! As far as I’m concerned I can say that at school and University teachers do not spend time explaining us what plagiarism is, they usually tell us that we don’t have to copy, or that we have to cite punctually things said by others...Ok, that’s fine! But they usually don’t tell us that plagiarise is an offence!
During my Erasmus in BCN, I attended a course of “producción testual en lengua anglesa” and I perfectly remember that our teacher spent the first lesson speaking about plagiarism! She told us that in England and Spain students who plagiarize texts can be expelled and have serious trouble with the law…I don’t know exactly whether she exaggerated the importance of it in order to discourage us or not, anyway I thing that coping it isn’t good at all! And as you said it’s also quite frustrating!! We should all have our opinions, ideas and thoughts, and we have to express them!!
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