To cut-and-paste or not?

My review of the following article:

McKenzie, J. (2008). Beyond Cut-and-Paste: Engaging Students in Wrestling with Questions of Import.  From Now On.  Retrieved March 24, 2010 from http://www.fno.org/sept08/cut.html

This article addresses the ‘cut-and-paste’ culture that is prevalent amongst many students.  Rather than promoting lazy thinking and corner-cutting research, it states the importance that, as educators, we replace these practices with activities that are “more challenging and more worthwhile.”  (McKenzie, 2008).

The following quote clearly defines the issue we are facing:

“We are suffering here and there from a cut-and-paste culture bred by the ease with which any of us can locate and save information. Sadly, Google and its relatives give us all a false sense of security and wisdom as we can search for something as elusive as "the truth" and Google delivers an answer in less than ten seconds.”  (McKenzie, 2008).

How do we overcome this issue when students are so assured that simply ‘googling’ with a keyword or two will give the most desired answers? 

Firstly, McKenzie recognizes the need to do away with traditional topical research projects.  The focus must shift from answering questions based solely on findings as this permits students to simply regurgitate information.

“The mere gathering of information is pretty much guaranteed by going topical. The implied value of such gathering is the mistaken notion that one gains in understanding as one's piles of information grow in size. Sadly, it is possible to lose ground and find oneself fogged in by such collections - the "poverty of abundance."” (McKenzie, 2008).

Many of my students have proudly come to me with dozen of pages of unread research, pleased by the vast pile they’ve accumulated.  As McKenzie (2008) stated, having large amounts of un-targeted information does not automatically create a knowledgeable learner.  We need to steer students away from this form of research, to a deeper understanding.

In addition to changing the topical nature of projects, McKenzie states that we need to support students to build their own answers based on both research and their informed opinions.

Questions should require “the collection and weighing of evidence to substantiate a well-considered judgment. Such comparison challenges the student at the top of Bloom's Taxonomy - the skill of evaluation.”  (McKenzie, 2008).  One such example of this – rather than studying James Cook, students would look at four famous navigators and be required to select (and give evidence) explaining who was the best navigator.

This type of research demands more from the students than the common copy-and-paste method.  Regardless of the additional work involved, students are much more likely to actually absorb the information efficiently and ultimately take the skills learned and use them in their everyday lives (McKenzie, 2008).

An interesting article that brings attention to the importance of extending questioning and research skills in our students to avoid the pitfalls of researching online.