Every Digital Research Skill That Every Student Should Develop
The access to various articles, academic papers, reports, video content, databases, and expert opinions has become a part of most stages of education nowadays. However, just because people have an easy access to information does not mean that they know how to conduct research. Having certain digital research skills will assist students to choose the sources they need, distinguish between them and understand how information fits into a bigger picture. One of the first things to develop is the ability to differentiate between two types of research information gathering and information evaluation. While the information source may be visible on the very top of the search engine results, it may not contain valuable information needed for an assignment or a research project. Therefore, students should pay attention to whether the source explains the chosen topic, who the author is, why this particular document was published, and whether the purpose of the source is informative or promotional. Knowing how to find useful sources may be even more important than finding a lot of results. Explore the criteria that make useful sources valuable for reference. Look Further Than Top Search Results While the work with search engines makes research easy, the first results are rarely enough for research. Different searches will lead to different results. Altering the phrase, using a more specific terminology, searching for the name of the organization or an author, and tracing the sources from another page will reveal the information that was not easily found before. It is especially useful in case the topic requires deeper research. Instead of continuously searching for the same phrase, the student can find key terms, names, events, or terms related to the topic under investigation and then proceed with the next step. Find Out Who Created Information Understanding the origin of information is one of the key digital research skills. Before using the information from some page, the student needs to evaluate its author, the publisher, the organization and its purpose. While the information from the academic institution, government agency, news organization, company, personal blog, and unknown webpage can be valuable, the sources cannot be regarded in the same way. The question is whether the source is appropriate for the claim. The official website of a company can be a reliable source for an announcement, while the independent source can be more useful for the reaction on it. Track the Claim to Its Source The information found online can often be repeated. A statistic can come from a study to the news article and further to the blog post from where it gets to social media and loses its origin. In order to track the information, the students should trace the citations and links leading to the source ofthe claim. The report about the study is not the study itself and the article about the results of the survey may not include the information on the research method used.…
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