Conducting Research for Papers or Projects

Students use technologies to do research for term papers, class projects, and personal exploration. The Internet has opened up new worlds of information for students about virtually every topic.

Select a question below to learn more about computers. Use the navigation to the left to learn about other technologies.

1. Do teachers require all students to use technologies to complete class assignments?
2. How do students use technologies for research?
3. What do students need to know to use technologies for research?
4. Are there especially good sources for student research?

Do teachers require all students to use technologies to complete class assignments?

Not all teachers require all students to use technologies for classroom assignments. However, more and more teachers do ask their students to do research using technologies (especially the Internet). While there are no really accurate estimates of how many teachers require that students do their research using technologies, some facts about technology in classrooms provide a hint of the likelihood that technology is being used for research purposes:

• The 2002 California School Technology Survey reports that 98% of schools in California now have access to the Internet. In addition 80% of elementary classrooms, and 94% of high school classrooms have Internet connections. The fact that a high proportion of classrooms are now connected to the Internet means that it is likely that more and more students are able (and perhaps required) to use technologies for their assignments.
  
  
• More public attention is being paid to how technologies in general, and the World Wide Web in particular, can be used to enhance the education of children and other students. For example, a Commission established by the President and the Congress of the United States, called the Web-based Education Commission, made a number of recommendations about using the Web for quality education, including the following:
  

  Develop high quality online educational content that meets the highest standards of educational excellence. Content available for learning on the Web is variable: some of it is excellent, much is mediocre. Both content developers and educators will have to address gaps in this market, find ways to build fragmented lesson plans into full courses and assure the quality of learning in this new environment. Dazzling technology has no value unless it supports content that meets the needs of learners.

  See http://www.ed.gov/offices/AC/WBEC/FinalReport/WBECReport.pdf for the full Report of the Commission.
  
  
• Various guides to student research using the Web are starting to appear, indicating that an increasing number of teachers want their students to use technologies for research. Here are several of those sites:
  
  
  The National Student's Research Center
  http://www.youth.net/nsrc/nsrc.html
  
  Kid's Tools for Searching the Internet
  http://www.rcls.org/ksearch.htm
  
  What you need to know About
  http://www.about.com/
  
  iTools
  http://www.itools.com/research/

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