CONTENT FARMS AND STUDENT WEB RESEARCH

Nurturing good student research skills have become a personal quest for  me the last few years. My students are smart, and arrive with some web skills, but when it comes to research, we seem to start from scratch every year (as do the others teachers in my department). Lisa Gold, the research maven, recently wrote up results from yet another study about our digital natives' non-skills here.  I am even reminded of Eli Pariser's filter bubble concept, which suggests that personalization of web search results on Google and social media are preventing us from seeing our world as it is.  Certainly a filter bubble of personalization would significantly impact my research and what results I achieve. I have used webquests and internet scavenger hunts, among other things, to reveal the gap between quality research and "just googling" a topic. We have even researched Wikipedia pages to uncover the work inherent in a GOOD wikipedia page (they always seem to recognize the good pages, but can't list the hints they used to identify the good pages).
There are a couple of reasons for this:

• a disconnect: they do not see the connection between personal surfing skills and school research skills.
• motivation: the internet changes constantly, 24/7. No one can keep up without spending serious time. 
• conflicting goals: students strive to be efficient, while teachers want students to be thorough.

Until I read this NYT article about Google's crusade to rid its search results of garbage sites, I did not know that it was often CONTENT FARMS that I had been battling with my students for a couple of years. I plan to attack this problem with a few strategies

• direct hit: Identify content farms with them--ask.com is a good example--and set up a wiki webquest which will require that they track the source of every piece of information they discover. A colleague of mine once commented that she was frustrated with the attitude that kids thought "looking something up was the same as researching it." This project may reveal the difference. 
• Project design: Increase the number of primary sources I require on research projects. I started this last year, and though there was much whining, the end results were clearly superior--we could all see the truth of  it.
• Supplementary reinforcement: Suggest a concrete approach to this problem in our freshman library orientation projects (jointly planned by the library and English departments).

Below are some links to further information I found while "researching" this problem:
http://www.jongales.com/blog/2011/02/14/list-of-content-farms/
http://www.seo-theory.com/2011/01/21/what-is-a-content-farm/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/12/13/the-end-of-hand-crafted-content/
And a link from earlier post re: the filter bubble:
http://lhealey7604.blogspot.com/2011/06/10-minutes-on-internet-lesson-gold.html

HOW TO GET AN "A" FROM ME

We are hitting the home stretch on our research essays in my World Lit classes. It is a long haul for my seniors, writing that 4th research masterpiece in as many years. They drag their feet, hoping against hope that I will tell them what to do: and I do, really. We discuss the process, plan deadlines together and then even research for a couple of days in the Tech Lab. But it always seems that it comes down to at least half of the class attempting to write a significant essay overnight. So this is my first attempt at voicing what leads up to an A paper.

So how do you get an "A" from me?


THE BASICS:
Pass it in on time.
Do the easy stuff right--MLA, cite your sources appropriately, include the pieces I request    in your final submission, follow directions on the original assignment sheet.
Don't distract me with typos, mechanical errors, format inconsistencies.

THE REAL DEAL:
Write me a real essay: so what did you really think about everything you have learned about your topic? Think before you write. Please.
You have a job to do: Use that thesis to guide your writing.
Aim for full paragraphs with authentic topic sentences, illustrate through example, use your resources in a logical fashion. Mostly I want to hear what YOU think, not what your sources told you.
Strategize your writing. Give me some variety in your paragraphing and sentence structure, try to interest me. Will I want to read what's next?
Don't worry about how many paragraphs it is. Worry about telling me the story of your topic.

ICING ON THE CAKE:
Consider me, the reader. In a better world,  I would not be the only reader, but for now, regard your essay as communication. The words are not flying aimlessly into the ozone, they are flying to me. Will I want to read it?
Catch my interest. Set me up in the intro. Vie for my attention.

I'm sorry that this is not a concrete list of  the steps to writing nirvana. It is not even close to my own best writing when I am inspired. But remember, you have never written a more informed, sophisticated piece of prose. You have been doing the school thing for 12 years: you are in charge.