Reflections on Readings

I read the article:

Vesey, K. (2002) The Internet-only Research Approach: Does the Web Really Have All There Is to Say? From Now On The Educational Technology Journal. Retrieved May 31, 2005 from http://www.fno.org/sept02/internetonly.html

The main focus of this article is webquests and the validity of the sites in which students are linked to in order to research.The article is written by a media specialist who questions whether or not the internet alone is enough when searching for valid information. He takes the time to investigate the individual sites that students are linked to in a variety of webquest activities. I found the results of his investigation quite disturbing. Many of the linked sites were created and posted by people who were not credible experts. He also makes the point that our school libraries are full of valuable and accurate resources that students may not access because they are only focused on web based resources.
Mr. Vessey created his own version of an inquiry related lesson and calls them libraryquests. These are designed to model a comprehensive research process which will include other resources as well as the web. Unfortunately, I was unable to view his site because the URL could not be found. (http://www.lovett.org/libraryweb/projects.htm),
I think the article really gave me some food for thought as I begin to implement webquests in my classroom. I will continue to require different types of resources for student research, and I will definitely take the time to investigate links provided in webquests created by others and in my own creations.