Collaborative Learning for the Digital Age and Is Google Making Us Stupid - Essay Example

Name: Tutor: Course: Date: Соllаbоrаtivе Lеаrning fоr thе Digitаl Аgе" аnd "Is Gооglе Маking us Stuрid" The internet has developed and grown into a great tool for pursuing knowledge all over the world. Search engines such as Google, enable people to search and find information instantly, thus gaining knowledge immediately on any topic. Presently, people live in the age of answers. It was believed that the Alexandria, which is an ancient library, has vast knowledge than any other source in the world. However, with technological advancement, there is a lot of information more than entire collection of Alexandria. The information is readily available to anyone with internet connection. There is library everywhere; Google has proven to be the modern day chief library. Scholars do their research by simply searching for information from the internet. In a remarkable short period, people have become habitually become so independent on Google because of its endless supply for answers. In other words people have changed and become dependent on Google. Google is referred to as search engine; however, human beings have become so lazy that no real searching is involved. There gap between people crystallizing questions in their minds and the answer that pops at the screen is shrinking rapidly. As a consequence, the ability of people to ask question is diminishing. It is evident that the more accurate the Google answers are, the lazier the questions from the internet users are. Therefore, this essay will be based on three major claims. First, the internet leads to distraction. Secondly, it changes the way human beings think and hence make less contemplative. Lastly, the values linked to online reading are more associated with information gathering and efficiency rather than obtaining knowledge and understanding. Nonetheless, there have been scholars who believe that search engines, for example Google is not making human beings smarter, rather making them stupid and lazy. The scholars believe that the internet is not only replacing knowledge with information but also replaces contemplation with efficiency. One of such scholars is Nicholas Carr who is the primary contributor of Atlantic. The scholar wrote an article for Atlantic titled Google is making us stupid. In the article, the author critically argues that online reading has proven less provoking compared to reading books. The first claim that Carr points out is that the internet has led to easy distraction. He supports the claim using personal examples as well as those of his acquaintances. He states that with few clicks of various hyperlinks, one can easily get the information he/she was after. However, one easily get distracted with e-mails, blog posts, listening to podcasts, watching to videos or just moving from one link to the other. This is unlike footnotes that relate to the book being read. Using and drawing examples from his friends, Carr points out that people who use the web mostly fight to remain focused particularly on long pieces of writing. For examples, Scott Karp who is a blogger admitted that he has stopped reading books. Even though reading online is convenient, it changes the way people think. Reading is considered an unnatural act, people no longer reads but use computers more. This is because the internet not only encourages but also reinforces cursory reading, superficial learning and disparate thinking. To reinforce his pointing on distraction, Carr cites recent neuroscience findings, his own diminishing attention span and scholarly studies that prove that researches are opting for easy ways when it comes to citing sources (Carr 1). It is evident that the mode of learning has changed dramatically from the sources of information, interaction with information, how people exchange information and how information informs and shapes people. For example Carthy Davidson uses an example to illustrate how easy accessibility to information has transformed how teachers teach, the places that they teach, and who administers the learning. For example using the Wikipedia entries, students could easily contribute or amend the entries. The students were further challenged to have new input into the entries and not rely on the internet. This accessibility contributed to creativity because of accessibility and collaboration of information. Additionally, accessibility of information is proven by the fact that normal learning takes place constantly and in various ways, because of the emerging collaborative opportunities that blogs, wikis, societal working sites and other interactive digital sources provide. It is argued that human beings attention can be easily distracted. Therefore, it is important to ensure accessibility of information through proper structuring. Davidson’s uses the example of neuroscientists to prove accessibility of information. In most cases, neuroscientists view the shortcomings of an individual, and sense an effective opportunity for collaboration. It is evident that because of the interactive nature of the digital technology, there are tools that easily harness the different forms of human attention as well as take advantage of them thus contributing to information accessibility. It is not easy to acknowledge that everything that people learn about how to pay attention does not mean that they have missed key things. Davidson argues that it is not easy for people to be competent, rational and confident types that can easily admit that the way to success is the capability not only to pinpoint a problem but also solve it. People have been trained to perceive individuals in a certain manner. Therefore, people have been effectively trained to access any type of information without limitation. It is also important to note that accessibility to information contributes to multitasking, which is ideal strategy in the 21st century. This is because of the fact that the digital age enables easy accessibility of information. For example, on the internet, it is possible to easily link everything at the same time. For instance, Davidson uses the example of iPad to illustrate the aspect of accessibility. Ipad is mainly for music but when it is brought into the class it can be used to transmit information. Additionally, over the years, students have really improved on their innovations. Moreover, they have worked collaboratively with their professors, an aspect that has improved accessibility to information. For instance, they have installed additional learning apps in their iPods to improve information accessibility. Therefore, all the relevant information is centralized. The iPods have been not only been turned into social media but has also been used as a learning tool (Davidson 1). Carr on accessibility highlights that the internet is developing, and becoming a universal medium. It functions as the primary conduit where information easily flows through individual’s eyes as well as ears into the mind. This contributes to immediate access to valuable information. The advantage of easy accessibility is that it contributes to rich storage of information. Carr argues that it remains clear that most users are not reading online using traditional sense, which is a good sign that new kinds of reading are growing as users. They have the power to browse horizontally through the content pages, titles and abstracts making them to access information easily. It is evident that people go online in order to easily access information, thus avoid reading in a conventional manner. However, when people only access information online, they simple become decoders of information, they stop thinking and become slaves of the internet. The ability of human beings to interpret text and establish mental connections without any form of distraction makes us to question accessibility of information in the digital world. The communication systems have played great roles in the lives of human beings, and have greatly influenced people’s thoughts. Therefore, with increased accessibility, there is likelihood of the mind of human beings becoming stopping to thing, and be lazy because of overreliance on the internet (Carr 1). Works cited Carr, Nicholas. Is Google Making Us Stupid?. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us- stupid/306868/stupid/306868/stupid/306868/ on April 29, 2015. Davidson, Cathy. Collaborative Learning for the Digital Age. The Chronicle Review. August 26, 2011. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Collaborative-Learning-for- the/128789/ on April 29, 2015. Read More