Suggestions and recommendations for optimal web information seeking and use within learning environments
The web has grown from a marginal to a pervasive presence in higher education. Since universities work continuously towards the efficient use of resources, the Internet has been a boon to higher education institutions. Information seeking in society is an increasingly critical skill which must be developed throughout the educational experience, with students and staff expected to use a wide range of electronic search tools as they perform their professional roles (Debowski, 2003: 1). The increasing reliance on web-based systems, electronic databases, and knowledge management systems, necessitates the growth of high level search competencies, particularly as more resources are electronically sourced. Seeing as the skills and strategies of using ICT for information seeking differ from using traditional tools (for example, navigation in a hypertext-environment is substantially different from searching a library's card index or browsing bookshelves), Lallimo, Lakkala, & Paavola (2004: 3) question whether ICTs bring totally new challenges to students' information seeking skills, or support basic information seeking skills regardless of the technology. For this reason, there is a need to review the mechanisms by which information seeking might be better inculcated in tertiary education curricula. In addition, given that the World Wide Web has greatly encroached onto the higher education landscape, web information seeking should be treated as a core competency that needs to be reflected and integrated more completely into university curricula.
There is a need for infrastructure and policies that would facilitate physical and intellectual access to web information seeking. Commenting on physical ability, Kebede (n.d : 160 ) cited the availability of computing facilities (computer hardware, software, and other electronic information related facilities and equipment, and the space needed to access electronic information sources and content); the availability of electronic information sources (CD-ROM, local and remote electronic databases, the Internet, and other networked information sources); the accessibility of the computing facilities (proximity, policy, and other issues that affect the physical accessibility of the existing computing infrastructure and space); and the accessibility of the electronic information sources (such as access to remote bibliographic databases, which can be said to be incomplete if the full text is unavailable or inaccessible during the actual extraction of potentially relevant information).
