Internet and research

Learning through research and investigation is a very important part of the educative process. Because of this, “research” is one of the methods the Guatemalan teachers use in their courses.
However, with the Internet’s arrival to many of towns, this method has become questionable. You also can add to this problem the lack of libraries or recent books in those ones.

It became clear to me that Internet is being used in a wrong way. I worked for a while in a private school where I taught several groups. One group was a junior high school one and I assumed they already had the basic knowledge about researching and writing essays. But with one research assignment they showed me their lack of skills. They simply went to the internet café and requested the research to a worker. The worker did it and printed it. Anybody could see the plagiarism, and when I decided to run a short test about the researched theme, their writing wasn’t even close to the magnificence of the reports they delivered.

I worked in that place for a short time but I still see and hear about the same store. However, I got to the conclusion that many teachers encourage this attitude. Teachers don’t read thoroughly the reports and briefs they receive from the students. Our teenagers don’t take the time to read and interpret the information they get from the internet.

This isn’t a new issue because in the past, the students just copied from the books in the libraries. However, it is a wide issue with many shades and it is important to emphasize the need to encourage our children and teenagers to read, something that we’re hearing a lot these days.

To end this, a short anecdote. One of my students gave me his report… ¡in German! I was speechless because he didn’t even bother to read what the internet café person printed for him.