WikiInfoLit EOI Unit 2
Events of Instruction
Unit 2: Citing Sources
1 - Gain Attention
When Lewis and Clark's expedition crossed the North American continent, they didn't just wander about randomly. They got directions from the Native American tribes they encountered. When Einstein developed the theory of special relativity, he was building upon the theories of Michelson, Poincaré, and Lorentz. When Shakespeare wrote his plays, he borrowed plots from Classical writers.
Whenever we acquire and pass on information, it always has sources that we can trace back.
Can you think of a reason why knowing the original source of information is important?
Can you think of two? More?
2 - Describe Goal
In Unit 2, you will explore the ways that knowledge is passed on and traced back to its source, and understand citations in that context. You will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses in the way that Wikipedia handles citations, and analyze the role that citations play in Wikipedia as a research source.
3 - Stimulate Recall of Prior Knowledge
Many students resist giving their time and attention to the task of citing their sources. They seem to consider it finicky busy work. And this is despite all the effort we put in to explaining its importance.
When students do pay attention to citing sources, they seem to fill up their bibliography in order to show their instructor that they used "enough" information sources and "good enough" information sources. They see citations as an academic ritual of passing muster.
Look at this BrainPop! tutorial on why you should cite your sources, which is intended for elementary students. In your own words, summarize the two main reasons it says you need to cite your sources.
If you assign research projects that involve citing sources to your high school or college students, you may have told them similar things.
Look back to your own college and grad school experience. When was the first time it occurred to you to go through a bibliography for more articles to read? When was the first time you looked at a footnote and it occurred to you that practically all your articles were citing a particular older article, so maybe you should read it? Now explain this third reason why you have to cite your sources, as if you were explaining it to the BrainPop! audience of elementary students.
4 - Present the Material to be Learned
So we have concluded that there are three main reasons why citing sources is important:
- To give credit where credit is due and avoid plagiarism.
- To give weight to what we are saying by backing it up with the facts and ideas from others who are experts in the subject we're talking about.
- To give our audience a way to find out where we got our facts ideas, and examine the sources of those facts and ideas for themselves.
First, I want to examine reason number two in a little more depth. Wikipedia's rules for WikiEditors about when they have to cite and what kinds of sources they can and can't cite are very illuminating. Read Wikipedia's Content Guidelines for Citing Sources: When and Why to Cite Sources and Identifying Reliable Sources.
Take a moment to think about these questions:
- Would you consider that appropriate advice to give your students when they write research papers? Why or why not?
- What would you emphasize, de-emphasize, or change?
Next I want to explore in more depth reason number three that citing sources is important - giving our audience a way to track back to the sources of the facts and information we used.
One way to start using Wikipedia with your students is to introduce the concept mining a Bibliography (a.k.a., Works Cited, References List) for more information sources. To learn about this concept, watch this video, How Do I Mine Bibliographies For Research Resources?
Once your students understand the concept of bibiliography mining, give them a topic (or let them choose a topic) and encourage them to start their research by looking up their topic in Wikipedia to get a general idea of it. Instead of using the Wikipedia article as their research source, they should explore the the Works Cited section. Some of the items will be links to full-text on the web. Others will be available in the library.
5 - Provide Guidance for Learning
In the next activity, maintain a double-awareness. Be aware of yourself as a learner, and also of how you would teach someone else what you are learning. Your use of Wikipedia also has two aspects. On the one hand, Wikipedia is an information source for research. On the other hand, it is the way you are teaching particular research skills.
When you are teaching, make sure that your students are conscious that they are using Wikipedia on the one hand, to learn about protein structures, and on the other hand, to find out what information sources about protein structures are cited in the Wikipedia article's References.
6 - Elicit Performance Practice
Choose a topic that interests you and look it up in Wikipedia. If the Wikipedia article is not very substantial, choose another topic. You want one with a lot of content.
Read the article.
Go through the References and categorize what you find there.
- How many information sources are available on the web, and how many are not?
- How many appear to be primary sources (first-hand accounts, data, evidence)? How many are secondary sources (interpretation, synthesis, analysis)?
- How many appear to be scholarly sources (by and for academic experts, peer reviewed)? How many are popular sources (for a general audience)?
- What is the oldest source? What is the newest?
Choose one of the sources that is available on the web and follow the link to it. What advice would you give a student about using this particular information source for research?
Share your answers to these questions in Unit 2, Question 1 of the WikiInfoLit Google Group.
7 - Provide Informative Feedback
Provided by me, via the Google Group.
8 - Assess Performance; Test if Lesson Has Been Learned
Come up with an outline for a lesson in which you Wikipedia to help your students understand how knowledge builds upon knowledge that is acquired from others - in other words, the genealogy of knowledge. Share your answer under Unit 2, Question 2 in the WikiInfoLit Google Group.
9 - Enhance Retention and Transfer
You may find it useful to supplement your lesson on citation chaining (which explores the articles cited IN an article) with a bit on Google Scholar's Cited By feature (which explores the articles that cite an article.)
