The first thing I do when I have to write a term paper or to give a presentation is to ask the Internet for help, as it offers the opportunity to collecting information quickly and easily. Of course, I always have to consult books as well, but for a first overview I prefer Internet research. Unfortunately, Internet research has a lot of disadvantages: Sometimes the information found on the Internet is questionable or even outdated; in some cases we are overflowed with information and irrelevant results; in other cases we do not find any useful information at all. Furthermore, the risk of plagiarism arises through the Internet as some people copy whole presentations and essays found there. Most of the time it is very time consuming to evaluate online sources. Looking at these disadvantages it becomes obvious that it is necessary to do book research as well. And maybe they also explain why a lot of professors at university are sceptical towards online sources. But in my opinion, the information found on the Internet can sometimes be helpful as a starting point for term papers and presentations.

Interesting for me was the part in the virtual session about Search Engines, Meta Search Engines, and catalogues. I think now I made up the differences and that might be helpful for my future researches on the Internet.

Moreover, it is always important to know how to quote online sources, because a lot of students have problems with that. I think this information about how to quote correctly should be taught at school. I did not learn that and my teachers never told me when I did it wrongly.

Another aspect I liked in the virtual session was the presentation of the three different search levels, the guided, half-guided, and the free search. They tell us when a teacher should use which kind of search. As far as I am concerned, it is significant to help pupils with their first Internet researches until they can do it alone and correctly.

The information about WebQuests was not new for me. I had to do one last semester and I liked it. In my opinion, it is a nice alternation to writing essays at home and I think pupils would like to do it as homework, as they like working with the Internet and get to know which online sources are reliable through a linklist given by the teacher.

Although some information was repetition for me, I liked the presentation on Internet researches, because it is important that we know the different possibilities in order to guide our students and to show them how to use information on the Internet the right way. Hopefully, we will learn more about that on Wednesday…