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This is part of a lesson for the Choose2Matter Course, an online professional development course, with student materials, that will be available June 1. It is based on the life's work of Angela Maiers and our collaboration of the past four years.
Many scholars of the past burrowed into library stacks, read the printed literature on a topic, consulted with a mentor, and emerged with their research.
Today, the Smartest Person in the Room, is the Room.
The scholar of today is more collaborative. While there are many instances of scholarly collaboration throughout history, none rise to the level of what’s possible today, where dozens or scores or hunreds of people from around the world can connect simultaneously and in real-time.
Professor Clay Shirky says that most people “over estimate the value of access to information and underestimate the value of access to each other.”
Students: Master Connecters
While this may be true of most adults, students already understand the power and value of connecting to others, and they are exceedingly comfortable doing it digitally.
I recently participated in a videoconference with a high school class. The acoustics made it difficult for students to ask questions, and the session began awkwardly. I glanced at my iPhone and saw that students were Tweeting to me a long skein of brilliant questions.
Students dominate popular Q&A sites such as Yahoo! Answers, Answers.com and Quizlet. However, these sites are not authoritative, rarely provide links to references, and should not be cited as a source for a student paper.
Fortunately, students can explore dozens of free avenues online to connect with experts in almost any field of study or area of interest. All they need is for adults to open the door and point them in the right direction.
What Could Go Wrong?
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When students interact with adults online, there is the possiblity of inappropriate interaction.
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On the other hand, the role of adults is to teach students to navigate online safely, and these sites provide excellent learning opportunities not found anywhere else.
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All of these resources are moderated to some degree, so when using them, students should be mindful, not afraid.
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Just as when a teens venture into the big city for the first time without adult supervision, they need to be aware of their surroundings and take precautions.
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Always have an open line of communication with your students concerning their online research.
Six Ways Students Can Learn Directly From Others
Ask a Librarian
Many local, county, state and college libraries offer a virtual "Ask a Librarian" that users can ask for reference help. By way of example, CBS News calls the New York Public Library’s service “the Human Google.” Here is a list of local Ask a Librarian services from around the world.
Quora
Quora is a Question and Answer site. Unlike other Q&A sites, most users register with their real name and provide their credentials, and most answers are useful. We created this Choose2Matter page on Quora. When a user asks a question about changing the world, we'll find experts to answer it.
Nepris
Nepris enables classrooms to connect with industry experts, predominantly in the STEM fields. Experts can speak to the entire class, or to groups or individual students to provide feedback on their work Videos of archived presentations are also available. Students can also present their work to a panel of industry experts, virtually. Nepris offers a free version and two levels of premium service.
Twitter
Twitter can be an excellent resource to find that handful of people who can provide insight. Students need to learn to use "hashtags" to target their tweets to people likely to have knowledge about the subject of their question. When Maggie Moran, a teacher-in-training, wanted to find an expert to discuss tutoring a student with interrupted formal education (SIFE), she turned to Twitter, using the #SIFE hashtag. She wrote, "Within minutes of my tweet, I received five replies with suggestions on books to read, methods to try, and educators to follow who were experts in the area."
Video Conferencing
Services such as Skype and Zoom make it easy for anyone with an Internet connection to video conference, free, with anyone else with an Internet connection. Skype in the Classroom offers premium tools free to educators, including a service to connect with authors, experts, and others.
Stack Exchange
Stack Exchange offers 100 million monthly users asking and answering questions about 161 topics. It is focused on technology but not exclusively, and many communities should be helpful to students.
Reddit
Reddit is an online community dividend into thousands of "subreddits," such as Reddit.com/r/history.
While some of these represent the seamy part of the Internet, many are well moderated and provide extraordinary learning opportunities for students. These range from opportunities to ask questions of scholars in various subject areas to assistance with proofreading and advice on developing good study habits.
A sampling of sub-Reddits that are very useful for students:
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