“GOOGLE” THE FOUNTAIN OF KNOWLEDGE ?

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Hello ECI830!

Are school and teachers the fountain of knowledge?  My response to this statement is that the school or teacher are no longer the fountains of all knowledge but they were once. I agree with the fact that Google has affected the way students learn but having said that I do not agree with the statement that schools should not focus on things that can be googled. Now, with the arrival of many virtual assistants and search engines information can be accessed very easily, just say the words and you’ll have your answer. But with so much information easily available, does it make kids smarter? The notion of schooling is to make our students educated and not just literate. Technology and digital media are altering the meaning of literacy and creating new challenges for teaching and learning and in this media-saturated culture our kids spend a great amount of time on the internet and they access an enormous amount of data from many sources. It is very important that they are equipped with right knowledge of analyzing information and be a critical thinker and that is where schools and teachers come in.

The great debate this week was interesting and was focused on one of the questions that we educators will always think of but hardly discuss “Should teachers teach anything that can be Googled?” Both teams of the debate presented a well organized and strategized approach and were very informative. The recommended readings and articles further supported their stand and even mine. The Ted talk video by Pavan stunningly explains that knowledge is obsolete and 65% of our students will have jobs in the future that we have never heard of. His further explanations were quite convincing and to an extent real and I believe that technology by itself will not make anyone smarter. In his thought-provoking speech! I especially like the notion that we should teach our students to be creative instead of teaching them tasks which will be obsolete by the time they’re old enough to use them.

The word which highlighted my thoughts in the whole videos was TEACH, yes, we as educators must teach our students. Just because the information is available on google doesn’t mean that our students can analyze it in an appropriate way. we must teach our students to understand themselves as learners and understand how to access material, we must make them critical thinkers to analyze the information, our learners need

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guidance and I believe that the internet is too vast, disordered and dangerous for learners to find their way alone. My thoughts reflect on Shelby’s blog post and I completely agree when she states” Things like facts, should be checked and students need to figure out how to weave the web to find the good stuff, the right stuff and make educated decisions based on the information found” I believe that we as teacher must actively engage our students in the process analysing information, what is right and what is not. In short, we must aid them in the process of weaving the web and if we do not focus or do not teach things that can be Googled are we being fair with them and doing justice for our profession?

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Further focusing on the arguments about memorization, I think it is very important that we teach these skills to our students. I may sound like an old school but I often hear this statement from parents that their kids don’t remember. The reason they don’t remember is that they are not taught how to memorize. In his article “In the Age of Google, Should Schools Teach Memorization Skills?”  Dr. Bill Klemm states that the reason students don’t remember is that they are not taught how to memorize. Why is that? First, there is a cultural disdain for memorization skills. Who needs memory skills today? Not only do we have books where we can look something up, but now we can always just “Google it.” But Google can’t learn a foreign language for you. What about students trying to pass high-stakes exams? Google isn’t made available. And can Google make businesspeople more knowledgeable and competent? “So, to conclude, I think that the more one remembers, the more intellectual competencies one has to draw upon for thinking, problem-solving, and even creativity.

Finally, to wrap this post I want to state that I am not against Google or any technology and I believe in integration of technology in classroom and teaching practices but I also believe that technologies could never replace great teaching and with the hype of Technology in education let us not forget the importance of teaching and learning. What do you think?

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