- establish the role of wikipedia (ie. anything there should be considered common knowledge, so it doesn't make an effective quote in a real research paper - but can make useful footnotes for electronic discussions).
- likewise: queries to ask.com or about.com can be a useful place to start a personal journey of discovery - but are ineffective citations in a respectable essay. These sources function more as an appeal to an authority than legitimate research - and the authority is a search engine.
- dedicate more class time earlier to the iSearch, and discuss cognitive biases and credibility earlier - making ourselves accountable. We still see too much cherry picking and insubstantial research.
- restrict ourselves to documents and data available through the Billington Library or through the internet without fee or registration - so anyone can track down other people's data.
- increase the penalty for papers that fall short of minimum length requirements.
- consider increasing the amount of points given/ received by peers. Classmates are amazingly accurate in peer assessments.
I also need to share more learning styles/ life skills content early on. NEED TO COVER IN CLASS "How college is different from High School."
Also, here's an interesting and counter-intuitive video from Stephen Fry on "what I wish I'd known when I was 18." Not sure I agree with all of it - but he makes some good points.
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