Information-processing in the digital age

1. In the following typology, where are the authors, and where are you?

	Critical	Not Critical
Tech-savvy
Not Tech-savvy

2. Regarding disallowing students to use Google, why not ask them to use both (online and offline sources)?

3. Regarding whether Google is making us stupid, a recent article How Google is making us smarter provides the counter-argument:

The ominous warnings feed on a popular misconception of how the mind works. We tend to think of the mind as separated from the world; we imagine information trickling into our senses and reaching our isolated minds, which then turn that information into a detailed picture of reality. The Internet and iPhones seem to be crashing the gate of the mind, taking over its natural work and leaving it to wither away to a mental stump. As plausible as this picture may seem, it does a bad job of explaining a lot of recent scientific research. In fact, the mind appears to be adapted for reaching out from our heads and making the world, including our machines, an extension of itself.

But this author also made lots of assumptions about how our mind works. Let's move toward a more techie direction by asking the following questions about these tools:

1. I suppose you use Google, Wikipedia, or dictionary.com a lot. But what's the easiest way to access these search engines/services?

2. What are the most effective search strategies?



3. How much do you know about these sources of information when they literally shape your worldview?

The latest version of a Google bomb story in NYTimes.com

4. Are you in control?


Then comes the question about reading. The NYT article "R U Really Reading" raised some more questions. But which ones do you think are really important?

1. Kids don't read as much in print any more.

2. The Internet is not an effective learning tool.

“Learning is not to be found on a printout,” David McCullough, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, said in a commencement address at Boston College in May. “It’s not on call at the touch of the finger. Learning is acquired mainly from books, and most readily from great books.”

3. What is reading after all?

Some literacy experts say that reading itself should be redefined. Interpreting videos or pictures, they say, may be as important a skill as analyzing a novel or a poem.

4. How about this:

Some simply argue that reading on the Internet is not something that needs to be tested — or taught.

“Nobody has taught a single kid to text message,” said Carol Jago of the National Council of Teachers of English and a member of the testing guidelines committee. “Kids are smart. When they want to do something, schools don’t have to get involved.”

5. I like this one:

“I think they need it all.”