Abstract
In 2007 an explorative, quantitative survey among students from the AUT University, Manukau Business School (MIT) and the University of Canterbury was undertaken to determine their perceptions of knowledge, knowledge sources and knowledge ownership. A few of the initial key findings are presented in this paper. The results provide insight into students’ use of the Internet as a knowledge source and of other, more traditional information and knowledge sources. Although several trends appear to be emerging from this research such as an age bias towards the use of knowledge sources (including the Internet), general use seems to be highly personal and varied. Perceptions of reliability and citing sources for academic work were often shaped by tutors and tutors’ perceptions of source reliability, indicating a need for educational leadership from tutors in providing guidelines regarding the reliability of emerging sources such as podcasts, video podcasts (vodcasts), blogs and wikipages. Overall, this exploratory research raises several new and interesting questions, pointing the way for further in-depth research in the area and as such adding to the body of knowledge of Communication.
