I see a good bit where Ray is coming from. I do not think he was insinuating that writing in a way that "encourages students to think critically and engage intellectually with a given topic, art form, or set of ideas" should be dismissed from the curriculum. Rather, in bringing up wikipedia he may have been pointing to a fundamental shift in the nature of research with the use of the internet. While, as the librarian points out, it has always been possible to plagiarize in a similar manner as lifting from wikipedia using books, never has it been so easy to obtain facts, analysis, and research on topics from the most bane to the most fanciful, starting with wikipedia and continuing to JSTOR and such for further reading. So one key didactic element of the 'paper' has been made trivial: how to research.
While Ray didn't suggest it directly I think he was encouraging thought on how else to imbue the same qualities as the paper of old without giving students internet access, and come up with ways that make it impossible to plagiarize, which is going to be increasingly difficult to catch as the internet continues to expand as well as outsourcing resources. For example, in-class essays along with critical analysis questions. Students could even be provided with a number of professional critiques of literature with which to respond to and analyze, so there could be no doubt as to where information was coming from. This would teach the same skills as traditional papers, minus the research. It would take up too much class time to administer tests which allow students the same time to ponder and come up with original thought as is allowed by an out of class research paper. However, if given the option I think many students would not object to coming in either after school or on weekends to write monitored essays if they knew it was only going to be a solid two-three hour chunk and then they were done as opposed to writing long papers over periods of weeks. Students could also be told essay questions in advance to allow additional time for thought, so long as the writing is done in class.
I see a good bit where Ray
I see a good bit where Ray is coming from. I do not think he was insinuating that writing in a way that "encourages students to think critically and engage intellectually with a given topic, art form, or set of ideas" should be dismissed from the curriculum. Rather, in bringing up wikipedia he may have been pointing to a fundamental shift in the nature of research with the use of the internet. While, as the librarian points out, it has always been possible to plagiarize in a similar manner as lifting from wikipedia using books, never has it been so easy to obtain facts, analysis, and research on topics from the most bane to the most fanciful, starting with wikipedia and continuing to JSTOR and such for further reading. So one key didactic element of the 'paper' has been made trivial: how to research.
While Ray didn't suggest it directly I think he was encouraging thought on how else to imbue the same qualities as the paper of old without giving students internet access, and come up with ways that make it impossible to plagiarize, which is going to be increasingly difficult to catch as the internet continues to expand as well as outsourcing resources. For example, in-class essays along with critical analysis questions. Students could even be provided with a number of professional critiques of literature with which to respond to and analyze, so there could be no doubt as to where information was coming from. This would teach the same skills as traditional papers, minus the research. It would take up too much class time to administer tests which allow students the same time to ponder and come up with original thought as is allowed by an out of class research paper. However, if given the option I think many students would not object to coming in either after school or on weekends to write monitored essays if they knew it was only going to be a solid two-three hour chunk and then they were done as opposed to writing long papers over periods of weeks. Students could also be told essay questions in advance to allow additional time for thought, so long as the writing is done in class.