Information Overload

If you have a burning desire to feel old, help a kid with a research paper. The first thing you may pick up on is they can successfully complete it without ever stepping foot in a library. No stacks, no card catalogue, no micro-fiche, and no little book with examples of the APA and MLA styles for citations are necessary.

Now there’s Noodlebib.com, which is the best website of all time besides Google. These websites can get a student through a whole research paper. All research can be done by searching on Google, and Noodlebib does everything else. Noodlebib is a citation generator. Just put in your information and it spits it out in the proper citation style. You can also do an outline, note cards, table of contents and research on Noodlebib. Actually, when a class works on a paper, they usually spend the Even with all this technology at their fingertips, writing a research paper for the first time is still an overwhelming and daunting task. Why? Because of information overload. Whereas we once had to physically seek out information, students now have so much information thrown at them they are drowning in it. They sometimes have to slog through hundreds of articles just to pinpoint the piece of evidence that proves their thesis. Students usually need to have one book among their citations.

The same is true here. There are a gazillion books on every subject. So, it’s not about locating information, it’s processing and synthesizing all the information into a 10-page paper that is the challenge. It’s also weeding out information that is not credible because, as we know, anyone can put whatever they want out there. That’s why students are not permitted to use Wikipedia for research. Don’t get me wrong. If I had to write a paper the old school way or the new way with all the technology, I would take the new way every time. Sometimes I tell students about writing research papers with an electric typewriter and having to use white-out tape to make corrections. They give me that same look I gave my father when he told me about walking five miles to school uphill through a blizzard. It makes me wonder what advancements will be made when their kids need to do research papers. Maybe the research paper itself will be obsolete by then, much like me.

Sue Schaefer is a certified teacher and Academic Coach. Submit your education questions to Sue at susan.schaefer@academiccoachingct.com and visit her website, Academic Coaching Associates . Sue Schaefer, a former Buffalo Grove resident, is an Illinois state certified teacher who received her Master of Arts in Teaching at National-Louis University. She taught in District 21 for six years before leaving the windy city suburbs and beginning her career as an Academic Coach in Connecticut. She spends her time exactly the same way she did in Buffalo Grove, watching her teenage sons play ice hockey. [["validates_presence_of",{"message":"Please enter your email address."}],["validates_length_of",{"too_long":"Your email address must contain between 5 and 100 characters.","maximum":100,"allow_nil":true}],["validates_email_format_of",{"message":"Your email address is not properly formatted. Mind giving it another shot?"}],["validates_uniqueness_of",{"message":"The email address you entered is being used by another member. Please try a different address.","client_can_validate":true,"exists_url":"/users/exists?email="}]] [["validates_presence_of",{"message":"Please enter your password."}],["validates_length_of",{"too_short":"Your password must contain between 4 and 40 characters.","too_long":"Your password must contain between 4 and 40 characters.","allow_nil":true,"minimum":4,"maximum":40}],["validates_format_of",{"message":"Your password may contain only letters, numbers, underscores, and hyphens. No emoticons, please. :p","with":["^[a-zA-Z0-9\\_\\-]*?