[Air-L] acceptable sources for undergraduate research in new media fields

[Christopher Richter]

Tery,

I like the fact that the research aspect of your final project itself becomes an exercise in digital media literacy!  Do you approach it that way in terms of grading criteria?

On similar projects, I sometimes pre-approve (or disapprove) topics based in part on my estimation of what lit they might find.

Also, I have allowed students to use, in more or less ranked order: Journal articles; conference papers, which are at least minimally refereed, but with less delay than for journal articles (a lot of International Communication Association conference papers, e.g., are on a data base our library subscribes to--EBSCO, I think); works by journalists generally--not just NYT, but also L.A. Times, Washington Post, Wall St. Journal, Chronicle of Higher Ed., even Wired Magazine; finally, blogs and other web sources that may/may not be as reliable, but that I ask students to consider critically, and in the context of the other, potentially more balanced sources they (I hope) have found.  This approach isn't 100% effective--but I am convinced that often the students with weak sources weren't as persistent or careful as others, and I grade them accordingly.

Christopher J. Richter

Associate Professor, Communication Studies
Hollins University
8015 Quadrangle Lane
PO Box 9652
Roanoke, VA 24020-1652

Tel: 5403626358
Fax: 5403626286
crichter at hollins.edu 
www.hollins.edu 


-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Tery G
Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 10:57 AM
To: Air-L at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: [Air-L] acceptable sources for undergraduate research in new media fields

Hi all,

I teach a freshman level class called Digital Media Literacy. It's an
introduction to concepts and tools related to digital media. Each student
does a final project, which, of course, requires them to do research. I
spend a lot of time with them -- read articles, give examples, do some
hands-on work, etc. -- covering why Google in particular and websites in
general are not the sources they should be using (or trusting). They know
how to use the library databases, but the topics they're examining are so
new that anything in peer-reviewed journals about those topics is dated.

Does anyone have suggestions about what might be acceptable resources in
this situation? I let them use articles from *The New York Times* and
the *Journal
of Computer-Mediated Communication*, but I have difficulty justifying their
not using some other sources I really would prefer they not use when they
can't find new enough information in the peer-reviewed journals.

TIA,
Tery Griffin

Associate Professor of Media Arts
Wesley College
Dover DE 19901
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