An academic at the University of Brighton laments the variable quality of information available on the internet. She claims websurfing students are often unable to distinguish between useful data and outright moonbattery:
“Google offers easy answers to difficult questions. But students do not know how to tell if they come from serious, refereed work or are merely composed of shallow ideas, superficial surfing and fleeting commitments.”
“Students live in an age of information, but what they lack is correct information. They turn to Wikipedia unquestioningly for information. Why wouldn’t they – it’s there,”
“We need to teach our students the interpretative skills first before we teach them the technological skills. Students must be trained to be dynamic and critical thinkers rather than drifting to the first site returned through Google,” she said.
Has she been reading the thoughts of certain of our comments box regulars?
