From Too Little to Too Much: Sorting Through the Online Resource Environment in Education

Abstract

The Internet is considered to be one of the most important mechanisms for sharing research (Chavkin & Chavkin, 2008), raising questions about the scope and variety of research-based education resources available online. Whereas years ago, the challenge for educators was to find relevant research information for practice, this challenge has shifted to one of sorting through the “infoglut” (Edmunds & Morris, 2000), or the abundance of information claiming to be grounded in research, and being able to judge which resources are most valuable and reliable. Drawing on scholarship that seeks to mobilize evidence between researchers, practitioners, and policymakers (Levin, 2011), this study reports the results of a systematic search of online research-based resources for educators across seven subject areas. Our descriptive typology categorizes 333 products along various dimensions (e.g., producer organization, target audience, country of origin) and demonstrates a surprising variety claiming to be research–informed.

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