Internet helps educate, but not perfect

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Ian Garman is a Junior Criminal Justice major working on a six-page paper for class.
     
No surprise, one of the first places he looked for information was online.
    
Ian isn't alone, many students find much of their research on sites like Google and Wikipedia.
     
But this convenience isn't without its flaws.

"I see a lot of problems," said Garman, "I know with myself there's the procrastination, because once you're online there's just so much stuff to do, you can just forget about what you're doing and do something else."

One of the biggest downsides to everything being available online is that fewer students are doing their research at their local library. This means they might be turning to sources of information that do have good credibility.

"A lot of things online also aren't true," said Garman, "and I've had people in my class that have researched some stuff and it had been false."

"That's a parents and a teacher's job to teach the students, you know, this is what good research is, this is what you need to look for," said Bobbie Jo Monahan, an education instructor at Indiana State University.
     
Monahan used to teach seventh grade English before she came to Indiana State.
     
She says with all the technology available, instructing students on how to dig for information properly and not fall into the temptation of plagiarism needs to be taught at a young age.
     
However, these issues should prevent people of all ages from using technology to learn.

"As an educator we see everything as a positive, so if there is a negative, we need to figure out how to turn it around and educate students on how to find the positive," said Monahan.