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September 05, 2005

Scavenger Hunt Thoughts

So, like De La Soul asked, what does it all mean? On probably the most obvious level, the ability to find resources answering ten (or nine in my case) questions of a fairly specific nature in under thirty minutes is astonishing. It's certainly an advantage in many ways to be researching now, as opposed to even ten years ago. Not simply in just the amount and variety of information readily available online (and the corollaries, such as reducing or eliminating travel to archives), but the processes which allow us to manipulate this material, such as text search tools by which it becomes less necassary to actually read or scan entire documents, but instead zooms us directly to what we are seeking.
Of course this leads to another set of implications. For example, with research facilitated so much, how might expectation levels and scholarly standards change? Another potential problem is that in using text searches we liekly miss important or otherwise interesting information which might have been noticed using more traditional research methods. It seems it might be best to think of online resources as a powerful and excellent resource, but also as a supplement in addition to, not wholly as a replacement of, more conventional research.

Enjoy Labor Day everyone!
Ken

Posted by kalbers at September 5, 2005 11:30 AM

Comments

I agree with your introductory comments. With so much at our fingertips I think it is very easy to miss something and I often question the validity of sources. I think the key lies in using the ability to search the Internet as just one tool abieit a powerful one with the recognition that there are other tools- hord copy orignal sources, live oral history, scholarly communication, and objects among other types of sources for information.

Posted by: dschaef1 at September 7, 2005 08:28 AM

Ken and D:

I appreciated your comments that reminded me how incredible it is to find so much information so quickly ... even if I could only find five.

I also wondered what I might be missing while searching the Internet as I was constantly sidetracked during the Scavenger Hunt. Perhaps that is a good thing that would lead to other sites to browse during a serious research attempt; however, I assume that when my attention wandered (like to those flashing Sims cards) I was missing critical information as well.

I am off to Mason for a third attempt to locate my magic OSF1 password.

Maureen

Posted by: Maureen at September 7, 2005 06:41 PM

Thanks Ken for putting some of this into perspective. One issue I keep wondering about, and we'll talk about more in class, is the degree to which easy access to all this knowledge will lead to new knowledge that wouldn't be available otherwise. That is, if we can knit together so many diverse resources so easily, will we begin to arrive at conclusions that were not available to our predecessors because they simply couldn't do what we can?

Posted by: Mills at September 12, 2005 02:40 PM