In the last several years that tradition has been challenged by information on the World Wide Web, with professors of various backgrounds taking policy stands on whether or not students should be allowed to use electronic sources in their research and writing. This research proposed an experiment to search the World Wide Web for materials about the Shakers, as if it were an assignment for a high school or undergraduate class. Three Web engines were searched, yielding mediocre, informative, and sometimes humorous results. The insights gained form a case study of issues and policy concerns for instructors, librarians, and students, and a technology skills continuum and exercises that could be implemented at the high school or undergraduate level. Among these issues were those of sequencing the teaching of complicated search strategies on the Web, as well as evaluating and authenticating electronic material that is found.
Historians rely upon evaluating the primary source documents they use for their research.
They need to acquire the same skills for electronically-based documents and teach those skills to their students. Until students and faculty have the skills to attack adequately the highly undifferentiated masses of information that surface on the World Wide Web, it seems certain that they will not find what they are looking for, only use what they find, or shy away from the whole process and use only traditional print sources. WWW materiali sugli Shakers come se fosse un compito di scuola. Arbeiten zu verwenden.