`Young Mr. Renihan' is a perfect example of the phenomenon I described
at the Med_Rel session at Kalamazoo, a casual user trying to find
serious information. He also represents an interesting problem for
academics (and by that I mean most if not all the regular denizens of
this list, whether they are part of a recognised institution or not).
Non-academics now have easy access to academic forums. Traditional
academic forums were selective by their location, by their entry
criteria, and by their cost. Now anyone can jump in, with queries, with
opinions, and with all sorts of other interventions. This can have
potentially damaging consequences, as the `refugees' from the Old Norse
Net flame war can testify. More insidiously, the `tone' of a list can
drift away from an `academic' level towards a `general' level, and
discussion can become dominated by `fringe' groups. The fate of any list
with the word `Celtic' or the phrase `Dark Age' in the title is
instructive. AnSaxNet, for example, now has elaborate security
procedures to discourage non-academic participation.

The phenomenon of junior and high school students (and even primary
school students) quizzing academic forums is on the increase, and
accelerating. Teachers are being told over and over that the `net' will
solve all their information gathering problems, often by self-serving
individuals such as systems salespeople and computer magazine
journalists, but also by politicians. The `net' is being presented to
them as a replacement for traditional research. As the vast majority of
teachers have little knowledge of the `net' (as indeed do the
politicians), they are buying this argument.

It is the teachers we must educate. They need to understand that the Net
is not a repository of all information, and more importantly they must
be taught that information of the net must be treated with the same
scepticism as printed media. They need to have the importance of
traditional library resources emphasised to them, and they have to be
persuaded to teach both source criticism (in its most basic sense) and
nettiquette. It is not in their interest to teach students to just `go
ask an expert', because the student learns very little. Nor is it in
their interest to have the discussion lists cluttered up with high
school students, because it will result in the slamming of the door in
their face. In other words, they themselves will not be able to learn
from this forum if it is necessary to prove a research interest or
academic affiliation to get on, nor will they be able to refer
particularly bright and promising senior students who could benefit from
the forum.

Ron

PS. George: I promise I'll post my paper to you very soon! I'm
desperately trying to beat the marking deadline, and shouldn't even be
doing this, but I couldn't resist :-)


-- 
Dr. Ronald A. Ross
School of History and Welsh History
University of Wales (Bangor)
Siliwen Road
Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales. LL57 2DG
Telephone 01248-382154
E-mail [log in to unmask]


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