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Looking for a needle in a haystack
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In this category students see information searching as similar
to looking for a needle in a haystack. If you consider the image
described, a haystack has no structure and no form. It is not designed
in anyway to make it easy to search. In fact, its sheer bulk and mass
make it very difficult to search when looking for a small needle (that indeed may not be recognizable when found).
In this category a significant amount of attention is directed towards the topic, their needle!
They appear to see it as imperative to understand the topic or they will "never find it out there."
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Structure of Awareness:
The structure of awareness associated with this experience
suggests that the student’s focus is on the topic. Although they are
aware of the information environment they have no appreciation of the
importance of neither the structure of that environment, nor the
structure of the tools that they use to find information. As the
environment is a haystack without structure, it is difficult to
appreciate that the environment may actually be designed to help them
find their topic. In this category there is often confusion between
different tools evident and confusion over tool options.
(Please Note: Int 1:5(p.6) = Interview 1:
Participant 5 (p. 6 of transcript))
Int 1:5(p.6)truncation is more like,
let’s say you have the ‘or’ ‘not’ ‘and’ and you try to use these words.
Lets say you want both (topic 1) and (topic 2), you put the ‘and’ in it
so you come up with both of them. That means it has to have both of
these terms in it. And ‘or’ will be either this or either this, so any
of them will do.
Approach to Learning:
In this category, and the other categories, the approach to
learning is characterised by three dimensions. Firstly, their IT
confidence is at a medium level in this stage. They are comfortable
with IT, but not confident. They are comfortable enough to start
searching for online resources, but their lack of confidence also
probably interferes with their appreciation of the structure of the
information environment. They have little understanding of the
structure, and not enough confidence to push further into the
environment to understand it better.
Int 1:5(p.9) …I’m not familiar with the topic.
Alright. I’m just over the head with (the topic). Secondly, I
think it is also because I can’t really do my search that well, with
all these.
Secondly their planning is poor, or possibly non-existent, in
this stage. There is no apparent understanding of any necessity to
plan, and therefore there is little reflection occurring either. This
reflection is the third dimension in their approach to learning. The
likelihood is that the searcher will switch tools, and switch terms at
the same time, showing little evidence of approaching the search
process in a reasoned manner.
Finally there appears to be a correlation
between quality and character of search outcomes, and the way of
experiencing searching. This correlation may link back to the
reflection process, in that as there is little or no planning or
reflection taking place, it is likely that the search process will be
abandoned. There is usually an assumption that the information required
is not available at this source, or the tool in use is of poor quality
and does not index the required information.
Please Note: This material is Copyright to the author and the publishers. Extract Source: Edwards,
Sylvia L. (2006) Panning for gold: understanding students information searching experiences. In Transforming IT Education: Promoting a Culture of
Excellence. Brisbane: Faculty of Information, QUT.
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