Digital citizens are constantly sharing other people’s content. We are all cultivators of stuff. Images, quotes, GIFs, artwork, you name it – we share it. It is very important that we teach kids to give credit where credit’s due.
Unfortunately, students are very resistant to citing their sources when they do schoolwork. Why? I believe it’s because it’s a pain to do so. Who would want to cite their source if you have to do tons of sleuth work to figure out who the original source really was? Who would want to cite their source if you have to enter a boatload of information into a separate site to prepare the citation to put in your document?
In my book, the goal for students, especially those in middle school, should simply be to get them to cite their sources. I’m not going to stress out about if it really is the accurate original source. I also wouldn’t stress about them correctly placing their periods and commas in their MLA citation. I just want them to recognize that the content is not their own and that the originator deserves credit. Google Docs makes that easy with two tools. Let’s check them out . . .
Using the Explore Tool in Google Docs
This will only work for resources on the web (not books), but it’s super easy to use. It creates footnotes, which I’ve heard aren’t commonly used in K-12 writing. However, as you’ll see in this animation, you can easily copy those footnotes and turn them into a Works Cited. Check out this GIF to see how:
Using the EasyBib Add-On
This tool is great for citing books, but not as good at citing websites. It keeps track of your entire bibliography until you’re ready to add it to your doc. If you are using the Explore tool for your websites, you can just combine them when you’re done, just like I do in the animation below.
Disclaimer: I’ve heard from a few sources that these two tools do not always produce 100% accurate citations. In my opinion, as stated above, this is a risk that I’m willing to take, at least until students are in college prep high school courses.
