When today's students have to do research assignments, are they allowed or expected to use the Internet as a source? If so, what are they taught about validating the claims made by various websites? What kind of guidelines do they have to follow?

If my questions above don't make sense, consider the following example: A high school student has to write a paper on the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Most the references that this student uses are conspiracy websites and blogs. He turns in a paper that concludes that government agents placed thermite and explosives in the World Trade Center towers. This paper meticulously lists all of its sources. How will this paper be graded?

The grade school here just introduces computers. Kids do stuff, paint, make documents, learn some small amount about the workings of the computer and use the net for really basic things.

"Let's go on the Internet, checking out bugs."

Cool!

The middle school works on skill building. My school has a Linux lab and a fairly wide range of other computers, both Mac and win32. They teach more advanced skills, how to word process, slide show presentations, more elementary computer knowledge and do research on the net.

There is some teacher feed back on bogus references, but the subject matter is well chosen to largely avoid this. 6th grade teachers were handing out how to cite Internet information resources. Some elementary discussion of copyright was done as well.

The High School leverages the Internet more fully. For the most part, the same standards used to judge sources for papers are applied to books and online. The assignments are often crafted for those with and without computers. There is lab time, there is greater emphasis on form and structure in both the literal presentation of the paper and it's contents.

(computers, used right, can help take a student there earlier than would otherwise be the case.)

Some slop is permitted, but it's not bad. You read horror stories of papers written in 7337 speech, or IM (U r Gr8te), but it does not happen that much. If the paper is creative, and that fits, it's allowed.

(at least my daughter incorporated IM speech into a story and it flew by nicely!)

Having watched the kids come over to the house for study time, using the computers, etc... their general literacy level is high. The school offers a fairly inclusive web site for students to interact with teachers.

As a parent, this is damn cool. When it mattered, we just took it to e-mail and worked things out until we were all feeling good about it.

As a student, one can e-mail papers and that's nice for kids who roam around, don't have printer, etc...

Teachers are forgiving in these things, if the student is otherwise solid. A late paper, mangled file, incompatable file (hello RTF and Open Office) can all be worked through. Teachers will engage parents in this stuff.

Problems are:

Social Networking programs. (facebook, my space, xanga, hi5, etc...) If you thought the school rumor mill was bad, it's worse online. This is a growing issue as many parents do not either have the skills or the time to mentor good Internet ethics or at least communicate possible implications of online speech.

Teacher "hipness". We have a fair number of educators, who are struggling to adapt to newer tech. I've had a few problems in this area that took some time and energy to resolve. This will pass as ongoing educator training continues, IMHO.

Computer time and access. The kids have labs, but those are problematic for busy ones. There are still a high percentage of kids with poor home computers, lacking software, or running illegal software.

Understanding of what is and what is not solid: This problem, online, is no different than it is when using a library. Online is quicker, so it's a greater swing, IMHO.

In my district, Instructors will call BS, if pushed too far. IMHO, this is being handled fairly well, all things considered.