In his Phys-L post of 20 Sep 2002 17:05:37-0500
titled "Re: Why Not Give References?" Rick Tarara wrote:
"List Serves ARE NOT scholarly journals--nor should they be. This is a free
and open discussion forum. If you want to provide 10 references for
everything you post--that's fine, but please don't expect, demand, or even
cajole the rest of us to do the same. Most of us are not retired, don't
have software to generate the references, and certainly don't have the time
to dig up formal references for every (or any) posts."
I was shocked to discover yesterday that I almost agreed with a
statement in one of Rick's Phys-L posts. I thought I was beginning to
lose it. But now confidence in my judgement has been validated by
Rick's opposition.
Paraphrasing Roschelle & Pea (1999), IMHO, the fact that Phys-L
posters such as Rick have little interest in referencing their posts
condemns Phys-L to a forum for exchanging tidbits and opinions,
rather than a structure that rapidly captures knowledge-value and
fosters rapid accumulation and growth of the community's capability.
How many Phys-L'ers benefit from referenceless statements such as
Texas John Clement's (2002):
"One thing that I would do in the elementary schools in problem areas would
be to give the students a dose of Feuerstein's 'Instrumental Enrichment' "?
Roschelle J. & R. Pea. 1999. "Trajectories from Today's WWW to a
Powerful Educational Infrastructure," Educational Researcher,
June-July 1999, 22-25, 43; see also Pea (1999).
Roy Pea. 1999. "New Media Communications Forums for Improving Education
Research and Practice," in E. Condliff Lagemann and L.S. Shulman (eds.)
"Issues In Education Research" (Jossey-Bass); online at
<http://www.sri.com/policy/ctl/html/contexthome.htm>.