Last week, I decided to check some web referencing sites that the school diary at my current school currently lists. Apart from one link being dead, the other did not impress me. Even playing around with a few other sites, not impressed either.
What has disappointed me at this stage, but also Microsoft Word is their inability to automatically create proper bibliographical listings for an item or a proper in text citation. They claim to know the rules of each referencing system yet they just get it wrong.
At the end of the day its going to create confusion for students as they are taught to properly list items in a bibliography or provide an in text citation.
What does that mean for me? I still feel that you will have to teach them how to do it manually i.e. teach the conventions associated with creating a bibliography under the Harvard Citation system. At the moment that is what I have been doing with a group of Year 7 Religion classes - showing them what a bibliography is, why they are created, structures and conventions and doing some exercises.
I did a similar approach when at Hurstville Boys' High School with Year's 7 and 8, guiding them manually through the process, though they were being taught the APA system.
I intend to comment and reflect further in the not too distant future.
