Our devices are smaller, but the gobs of information have gotten bigger. Is bigger better?
我們的裝置變小了，但資訊卻爆增。數大便是好？
by Angela Hill / © 2013, San Jose Mercury News. Distributed by MCT Information Services.
“Use your brain, not your technology,” cautions “quiz princess” Hailley Field, after repeating the tiebreaking question at a Brainstormer Pub Quiz in California.
Teams huddle. Tension builds, and a group of admittedly nerdy friends with the cumbersome, yet apt, team name of “There’s No iPhone in Integrity” comes through for the win.
It doesn’t take a trivia buff to answer this one: Are there any “unGoogle-able” questions left in the world? Fueled by pocket-size power, we harness the current sum of human knowledge at our fingertips, plus a whole bunch of junk. Turning to technology for data, for knowledge—maybe even for truth—has become an impulse, a physical reflex. And it’s changing everything, from the way we consume and retain information to the sources we trust, sometimes fervently or blindly, to provide it.
Sweating the organic chemistry midterm the midnight before the test? Go to the educational website KhanAcademy.org and get an instant tutorial. Need to crack open one of those confounding Thai coconuts? Watch a YouTube video some guy made in his kitchen. Worried about how to bathe your newborn? Go to sites like BabyCenter.com and seek the collective wisdom of thousands of moms.
Technology has redefined knowledge in terms of who can access it [and] who can possess it. Everyone’s an expert, or can be in a matter of seconds.
And there’s nothing trivial about that.
Education online
[According to the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project,] 65 percent of teachers who instruct advanced high-schoolers and middle-schoolers agree [that the Internet makes students more self-sufficient researchers]. But 83 percent feel the amount of information available online is overwhelming to most students, and 60 percent believe today’s technologies make it harder for students to find credible sources of information.
...
Discussion Questions
-Do you believe the Internet makes you an expert on many subjects? Explain.
-How can you be sure that what you read on the Internet is accurate?
-Do you use and trust the website Wikipedia? Why or why not?
Visit San Jose Mercury News online.
