Reading Quest 3

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

     The author of this article, Nicholas Carr, believes that search engines on the internet are changing the way we study and ready. The people are not fully digesting the entire article, just “skimming” the surface for quick answers.  A recent study by scholars from University College suggested we may be changing the way we read and think. They found that no more then one or two articles would be read before the reader before they would “bounce” around to another site.  

     As human beings I have to agree that most of us will take the “easy” way out. A touch of laziness if you must. We live fast paced lives today probably more so than before the age of computers. We need to get our information, and get out, and do it quickly. As far as Google and search engines go, they save me massive amounts of time. I work 12-14 hours a day, and attend college classes which I drive too. A drive that takes 3 hours total. I see nothing wrong with having a wealth of information at your fingertips. But with the internet, you have to be careful to “weed” out the good information from the bad.

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

     Have our brains actually changed  the way we learn?  Are students from the “Digital Age” or “Digital Natives” we shall call them, think differently than the so called “Digital Immigrants”?  A digital native is a person who has grown up in the era of computers, video games, and the Internet. Dr. Bruce Perry of Baylor College of Medicine seems to think so. He thinks different kinds of experiences lead to different brain structures.  He doesn’t seem to cite any actual studies done to show that brains develop differently .

     I would think that we all develop differently from our own experiences. Internet or not, we are all shaped by our own experiences. In addition the way that our brain is already “hardwired”, that makes us what we are.  There is probably some degree of truth that Natives will have an easier time circumnavigating the Internet and other technologies then the Immigrants. Humans are highly adaptive though, and I have to argue that it within all of our capabilities to learn no matter which method is applied.

Learning Theory, Video Games, and Popular Culture

     The main thesis of this article is that our learning experience is more than just memorizing words from a text. It is that we must experience, to fully understand the meaning of what we are trying to understand. Video games immerse us in a world that gives us an idea what it is like, and is far more entertaining.  A study in 2000 in cognitive science (Bransford 2000). …..compreshensiopn is grounded in perceptual simulations that prepare agents for situated action (Barsalou, 1999a:77). …to a particular person, the meaning of an object, event, or sentence is what that person can do with the objects, event, or sentence. (Glenberg, 1997:3).  

     Video games gives us a platform to actually interact while we learn. If learning is more fun, we will get much more out of it. For example, reading dates and events of World War 2 would give you an understanding of what happened. But to actually storm the beaches of Normandy under machine gun fire, on a realistic battlefield with the sights and sounds,  would be much more intense. With that kind of intensity the brain would be much more involved. Hence, learning would take on much more meaning.

User Skills Improving, But Only Slightly

     Enemies of usability have two counterarguments against design guildelines that are based on user research:

1.       “You are testing idiots-most users are smarter and don’t mind complexity”

2.       “You were right in the past, but users have now learned how to use advanced websites, so simplicity isn’t a requirement anymore”.

     A wide range of users from rich to poor, old and young were tested. And the findings showed that most people are getting better at using the Web. Many people are simply overwhelmed at the wealth of information on websites.

     It would seem from early research that the internet is speeding up our ability to learn, but not as quickly as we once thought.  Indeed the web may be giving us more information and easier access to it.  Most people are not sure how to handle that amount of information. Which goes back to how we learn to begin with. We all learn on different levels, and we all have different  capabilities. So it seems that our means of learning may change, but our process of digesting that information has changed very little.