I am the generation that made the transition from doing research in the library to doing research in our bedroom or office. Now it is so easy to find out about anything we want through the net that some teachers put a limit on how many resources can be cited that are from the web.

Many teachers, I beleive, fear that the material found on the web can be faked and is not true. Although that might be true in some cases, most of the information on scholarly topics I have found to be true. This makes the information on the web less valid. Anyone can make a page on the web. But also, just about anyone can write a book or an article. Just the fact that it gets published in a formal publication does not make it more valid to me.

I think that research done on the web is great. If it were implemented more and more in an earlier age group then younger kids would become familiar with computers...which is "yay!" Plus, it is not gender specific. The web is a great way to have kids of all ages and sexes become familiar with computers and the ideas that surround them.

I understand the cognitive models behind this article. The human mind tends to group things so that it can process them. This is the cause of racism, recognition of the alphabet, remembering which animals are friendly and which are to be avoided. It is a good tool to learn things, and not only that, it is an inherent one. It would not be hard to teach upon this principle.

The internet is a good place to apply it. The structure of a search engine models this principle well. Therefore, searching for information using these tools would be a good way to understand the ideas and algorithms behind them.

Researching on the net has the added bonus of being fun too. The web was not really there my last year in high school, but my brother has been doing huge amounts of research using the web, and it means that he has access to more sources, and can give a better paper or presentation or whatever. While the resources found in the library may be more formal and more detailed, the web allows faster research and may be able to give more breadth to a particular topic. Plus, playing around on the web is much more fun than sitting in the library (though it is also more distracting :) Hopefully as the web is more widely used, the material will gain in its reliability and acceptance in the academic community as a valid resource.

Well, this is a little off the topic of education, but it's a response. I just wanted to comment on your statement that a web page is no less valid than a book. I believe that who publishes information says a lot about how much it can be trusted. For example, I will take an article I see on CNN online than in the National Enquirer. Similarly, when someone publishes a book, it generally means that someone put serious time and money into creating the book, multiple people edited it, etc. While anyone can come up with a web page on any topic. So while information on the web is no less valid, I can see why a teacher would be leary of encouraging all your research to be done via the Internet.

This comment is more directed at Jon's comment.. I agree that I would be weary of what I read online but I do not believe that is true of everyone. Quick publishing allows anyone to be an published author for the world to read. People's life stories are now online (for good and bad). Take it with a grain of salt but remember that not everyone does.