COACH BOARD. Pascal Lardellier, professor at the IMSG, gives tracks for mastering the art of doing research on internet.
The user is lazy. Today, “more than a third (34%) of Internet users does not exceed the first two references on Google and only 2% of them go up to the 10th reference *,” said Pascal Lardellier, professor at University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté, scientific Director of Propedia (laboratory IGS group, Paris) and author of Generation 3.0 – Children and teenagers in the age of digital cultures (EMS editions). If Internet offers abyssal resources in terms of information, it is also very easy to get lost. “Just as the Greeks rhetoric is the art of speaking well, a digital dialectic, or the art of thinking in the era of new technologies is now needed,” explains Pascal Lardellier.
“We went from crafts to industry”
And it’s really in an exercise such as the statement that the thing will make sense. Indeed, the presentation is a must, elementary school to university. “In 20 years, everything changed. There are twenty years to make a presentation, it was to go to the library. Today is mostly copy and paste the information found on the internet. So we’ve gone from craft to industry, “says Pascal Lardellier offering five tracks to be effective.
1. Brainstorming: Take a few minutes to think
Do not rush on the internet but take a moment, with a sheet of paper and a pencil and brainstorm to understand that the subject evokes. Because by going right away on the internet, the student will close to the issues and will copy paste information, without really thinking. First, it is essential to ask what the theme evokes how the deal and problematize, the question of what we want to show what we want to prove. This moment of reflection is not a detour but a shortcut.
2. Filters: Use keywords
The questions that the student will make the search engine must be as accurate as possible to avoid, especially trade ties. For example, if a study on dating sites, it must, in the search bar, associated with its main keyword specific corollaries, such as “sociology” or “analysis” filters that will determined upstream through brainstorming. The research will be much more efficient.
3. Search: prioritize the sites according to their value (and not their ranking in Google)
We must also take into account that the Internet makes available to the user statuses documents: of commercial, institutional or personal, which are indistinct, heterogeneous. He must be aware before starting his research and differentiate them. Keep a step back because the results are presented first by Google have no value in terms of relevance. This is an algorithm that ranks results based on their ability to generate click advertising. It is essential for students to check their sources. Who is the author of the document? To what it refers to? They need to step back and prioritize because they are not worth all.
4. Hunting Info: using pdf or ppt extensions
Students are reminded to consult the images or videos offered by Google on the subject. They can find relevant content, such as conferences. Do not hesitate to enrich the presentation when oral, video content, the key moment of a conference for example. We must also think about adding to his Google search “.pdf” or “.ppt”. During PDF content or PowerPoint may well rise. Especially, do not hesitate to go to page 5 of the results. It really designing the literature search on Google as a treasure hunt, a hunt for the nugget that one leads with a sieve, ie, with refined keywords.
5. Sources: do not forget the quotes
Even with the documents found on the internet, do not forget the legal dimension of the presentation. The student must integrate at the end of the project a bibliography and a “webographie” of links used. This seems obvious but it is essential to use the quotation marks when citing a source and integrate the document footnotes pages. These are the classic legal rules of academic documents.
The formal dimension is also important. This is to format the document in accordance with the rules of presentation: a title page; a presentation of the project stakeholders; top and bottom reminders page; orthographic proofreading. Personally, I also ask my students to put their personal contributions in color as well as today, it is natural to use online resources found, they must not however constitute 90% of the presentation. Set color personal contributions can attest to the honesty of the student, which will be appreciated.
* Pascal Lardellier is based on the results of a study Search engine watch dating from April 2011.
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