Google Research

"Is Google Making Us Stupid?" That's the question author Nicholas Carr poses in a recent article in Atlantic Monthly. The question is really whether students who do their research on the Internet read at a more shallow level than those who use more traditional resources like books and libraries.

Digital Research is Fast
Carr cites a study by the British Library and the Joint Information Systems Committee that looked at how students' use of digital resources is evolving. It finds that Internet researchers skim, skipping quickly from page to page. Of those visiting an online journal, 60 percent view three pages or less and 65 percent visit the site only once.

Checking Understanding
Educators need to be aware that students can become overloaded with information and yet understand little of it. According to the report, "The information literacy of young people has not improved with the widening access to technology. ... Young people sometimes have a poor understanding of their information needs and thus find it difficult to develop effective search strategies. Faced with a long list of search hits, young people find it hard to assess the relevance of the materials presented and often print off pages with no more than a perfunctory glance."

Teachers still need to use assessments, questions and other strategies to confirm that their students grasp critical concepts.