Information Literacy and the Google Generation
Here's a recent report that argues "The Google Generation" -- kids born after 1993 -- have no idea of a life without the Internet, and while that gives them great access to information, that doesn't mean they are literate beyond logging onto their computers.
Information Literacy must be earned through hard work and by acute and disbelieving analyses of data that, at times, might conflict with established ideas and even contradict itself in situ.
The Google Generation knows how to find information fast, but they are unable to parse what they discover beyond merely cutting-and-pasting search return results into their research papers.
We must find a way to demystify the Google Generation's technical capacity to wow and then bring them back to the pen and the paper. We need to re-establish the idea of a library card catalog and the requirement to double-check sources and confirm facts from three different angles.
The Google Generation -- while smart and savvy -- are not cunning enough to realize most of what they read on the Internet is not true, or even factually accurate, in a scholarly circumstance.
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2 comments:
It super hard to get students to even quote in a paper where they get their information. They seem to think it's all in one big pool for taking.
I think they think all information is free and part of the pool of general knowledge from which Google sips its search returns. They like to stake a finder's claim on a search return but don't like to give credit to the original source. It is a problem.
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