Google is not an Educational tool

[midcan5]

"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking." Haruki Murakami


Google is a tool and like all tools it can be used well or not so well.

http://www.usmessageboard.com/general-discussion/93856-and-you-know-that-how.html


"The interesting thing that most lay people and even scientists don't understand is how unbiased knowledge as a whole emerges from individual scientists who are biased. It is still one of the greatest mysteries of science." Ian Mitroff

 

[editec]

Google is an electonic card catalogue.

It is NOT an information source.

It is undoubtably the most useful tool I have ever had for doing research.

So if my research is bad, it is because I am a bad researcher, not because Google is at fault.

And welll yes, there is a lot of misiformation to be found through Google, so too is there plenty of misinformation to be found in your local library (just not nearly so much information, good or bad)

 

[eots]

People constantly use Google as a source, as an educational tool. I like to say Google is not a source.

I am just curious if the teachers in school tell the kids to go home and use Google or the internet to do homework.

If so I think that is wrong, the teacher unions, the government, the people in government can pay Google so that their idseas are found.

So a teacher states the USA is Satan, the teacher tells children to look it up. The child goes home, does a Google search and finds the answer the teacher paid to found.

So does the schools tell children to use the internet for homework.

thats like saying libraries and newspaper are not sources or educational tools ,you are completely wrong

 

[eots]

Google is a very useful research tool. But the quality of information one acqires via Google depends entirely on one's ability to discern, evaluate and make critical judgments.

Thanks,

So it seems nobody is stating that teachers specifically tell students to go home and do a search.

of course they do..

 

[editec]

This is such a silly complaint.

Google is a tool to access the enormous amount of information on the net.

Would you complain if a child used the library's card catalog to find the books he needed in the library?

Of course not.

But some of us think that using Google to find websites on line is a bad thing?

Why?

The internet is the best thing that has happened to education since writing was invented.

Seriously, it's more even important than moveable type was for helping mankind to share its knowledge.

Those of us who are scholars and whose history of scholarship goes back before the net fully understand what a marvelous tool this is.

I can find data now in a few seconds that might have taken me MONTHS to find and compile.

The up side is that we now have near instant access to others scholarship.

The downside is that this actually downgrades the value of scholarship since now everybody with internet access can find what they need without having to resort of hiring scholars to ferret it out.

The value of information has gone down so substantially that formerly wealthy corproartions who either created or distributed information (books music and so forth) are tearing their hair out trying to find a business model that still works for them.

I was lucky enough to be just tiny bit ahead of the curve in realizing how the net might play out, and so realized that the existing intellectual property industries were challenged by this, and so I created my own very modest cottage industry to take advantage of that change.

 

[RespectForVets]

Google good for some things, but it is scary to think how many kids use it instead of doing traditional research tools.

 

[mdn2000]

This is such a silly complaint.

Google is a tool to access the enormous amount of information on the net.

Would you complain if a child used the library's card catalog to find the books he needed in the library?

Of course not.

But some of us think that using Google to find websites on line is a bad thing?

Why?

The internet is the best thing that has happened to education since writing was invented.

Seriously, it's more even important than moveable type was for helping mankind to share its knowledge.

Those of us who are scholars and whose history of scholarship goes back before the net fully understand what a marvelous tool this is.

I can find data now in a few seconds that might have taken me MONTHS to find and compile.

The up side is that we now have near instant access to others scholarship.

The downside is that this actually downgrades the value of scholarship since now everybody with internet access can find what they need without having to resort of hiring scholars to ferret it out.

The value of information has gone down so substantially that formerly wealthy corproartions who either created or distributed information (books music and so forth) are tearing their hair out trying to find a business model that still works for them.

I was lucky enough to be just tiny bit ahead of the curve in realizing how the net might play out, and so realized that the existing intellectual property industries were challenged by this, and so I created my own very modest cottage industry to take advantage of that change.

If I had to lets say look up pictures of the Amazon, yes. I actually had to help my daughter years back find photos of the Amazon, she was not told by a teacher to use the internet, I took that on my own.

I googled Amazon and the results were for photos of Amazon women, I quickly left the page.

So if my kid went to the library and instead of finding a historical book they found propaganda, so much that it took hours to sort through, or if my kid came back with irrelevant material, yes I have a problem with that.

As a scholarly tool I think google is piss poor.

 

[tankman56]

Google is not a source in itself but it sure is a convenient way to link us to sources (both legitimate and not).

Google is a tool just like anything else. It's how you use it that makes it it good or bad. Are there teachers out there doing what you said . . .the whole "America as SATAN" thing, sure. Are they misusing the internet . . .absolutely. The internet (and google) are full of credible sources for information and learning for children. It's our job as parents/relatives to help children know the difference and to be discerning. Not just with the internet, but with everything they encounter in life. There is a lot of bad out there as we all know, so lets do ourselves a favor and take an active role in raising the next generation.

 

[mdn2000]

"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking." Haruki Murakami


Google is a tool and like all tools it can be used well or not so well.

http://www.usmessageboard.com/general-discussion/93856-and-you-know-that-how.html


"The interesting thing that most lay people and even scientists don't understand is how unbiased knowledge as a whole emerges from individual scientists who are biased. It is still one of the greatest mysteries of science." Ian Mitroff

If you only use google you only know what the paid advertisements tell you.

 

[mdn2000]

Google is not a source in itself but it sure is a convenient way to link us to sources (both legitimate and not).

Google is a tool just like anything else. It's how you use it that makes it it good or bad. Are there teachers out there doing what you said . . .the whole "America as SATAN" thing, sure. Are they misusing the internet . . .absolutely. The internet (and google) are full of credible sources for information and learning for children. It's our job as parents/relatives to help children know the difference and to be discerning. Not just with the internet, but with everything they encounter in life. There is a lot of bad out there as we all know, so lets do ourselves a favor and take an active role in raising the next generation.

Great post, I have found it can be very difficult on the controversial topics to find fact and history versus propaganda.

 

[Pax Romana]

But Wikipedia is

 

[Pax Romana]

People constantly use Google as a source, as an educational tool. I like to say Google is not a source.

I am just curious if the teachers in school tell the kids to go home and use Google or the internet to do homework.

If so I think that is wrong, the teacher unions, the government, the people in government can pay Google so that their ideas are found.

So a teacher states the USA is Satan, the teacher tells children to look it up. The child goes home, does a Google search and finds the answer the teacher paid to found.

So does the schools tell children to use the internet for homework.

Back when I was a kid in elementary school they used to tell us to use the internet for research. Now I'm a teen in high school and of course we all still tell us to use the internet for research.

 

[editec]

This is such a silly complaint.

Google is a tool to access the enormous amount of information on the net.

Would you complain if a child used the library's card catalog to find the books he needed in the library?

Of course not.

But some of us think that using Google to find websites on line is a bad thing?

Why?

The internet is the best thing that has happened to education since writing was invented.

Seriously, it's more even important than moveable type was for helping mankind to share its knowledge.

Those of us who are scholars and whose history of scholarship goes back before the net fully understand what a marvelous tool this is.

I can find data now in a few seconds that might have taken me MONTHS to find and compile.

The up side is that we now have near instant access to others scholarship.

The downside is that this actually downgrades the value of scholarship since now everybody with internet access can find what they need without having to resort of hiring scholars to ferret it out.

The value of information has gone down so substantially that formerly wealthy corproartions who either created or distributed information (books music and so forth) are tearing their hair out trying to find a business model that still works for them.

I was lucky enough to be just tiny bit ahead of the curve in realizing how the net might play out, and so realized that the existing intellectual property industries were challenged by this, and so I created my own very modest cottage industry to take advantage of that change.

If I had to lets say look up pictures of the Amazon, yes. I actually had to help my daughter years back find photos of the Amazon, she was not told by a teacher to use the internet, I took that on my own.

I googled Amazon and the results were for photos of Amazon women, I quickly left the page.

So if my kid went to the library and instead of finding a historical book they found propaganda, so much that it took hours to sort through, or if my kid came back with irrelevant material, yes I have a problem with that.

As a scholarly tool I think google is piss poor.

If you could FIND a library to match the content of the NET, and if you had used that library's card catalog system, guess what?

You'd have found results for book leading to photos of Amazon women, there, too.

Your complaint is that Google doesn't select and vet the content it catalogs like libraries USED to do before they centralized their ELECTRONIC (usually state wide) systems.

My point is that that is Googles greatest benefit....it draws on a much greater library than any we have.

Basically, Google just gives us a much greater library to research from.

Blaming Google for being a superior conduit to information than the card catalog system of most libraries really doesn't make all that much sense.

 

[mdn2000]

This is such a silly complaint.

Google is a tool to access the enormous amount of information on the net.

Would you complain if a child used the library's card catalog to find the books he needed in the library?

Of course not.

But some of us think that using Google to find websites on line is a bad thing?

Why?

The internet is the best thing that has happened to education since writing was invented.

Seriously, it's more even important than moveable type was for helping mankind to share its knowledge.

Those of us who are scholars and whose history of scholarship goes back before the net fully understand what a marvelous tool this is.

I can find data now in a few seconds that might have taken me MONTHS to find and compile.

The up side is that we now have near instant access to others scholarship.

The downside is that this actually downgrades the value of scholarship since now everybody with internet access can find what they need without having to resort of hiring scholars to ferret it out.

The value of information has gone down so substantially that formerly wealthy corproartions who either created or distributed information (books music and so forth) are tearing their hair out trying to find a business model that still works for them.

I was lucky enough to be just tiny bit ahead of the curve in realizing how the net might play out, and so realized that the existing intellectual property industries were challenged by this, and so I created my own very modest cottage industry to take advantage of that change.

If I had to lets say look up pictures of the Amazon, yes. I actually had to help my daughter years back find photos of the Amazon, she was not told by a teacher to use the internet, I took that on my own.

I googled Amazon and the results were for photos of Amazon women, I quickly left the page.

So if my kid went to the library and instead of finding a historical book they found propaganda, so much that it took hours to sort through, or if my kid came back with irrelevant material, yes I have a problem with that.

As a scholarly tool I think google is piss poor.

If you could FIND a library to match the content of the NET, and if you had used that library's card catalog system, guess what?

You'd have found results for book leading to photos of Amazon women, there, too.

Your complaint is that Google doesn't select and vet the content it catalogs like libraries USED to do before they centralized their ELECTRONIC (usually state wide) systems.

My point is that that is Googles greatest benefit....it draws on a much greater library than any we have.

Basically, Google just gives us a much greater library to research from.

Blaming Google for being a superior conduit to information than the card catalog system of most libraries really doesn't make all that much sense.

I understand your point and I cannot argue with that, its not my intention to. I am not here to flame google user's or prove that what you learn from google is bad.

Today I tried to search for information on suicide bombing in Israel, I wanted to find some photos I found in the past. No matter how I entered my query the results always showed atrocities committed by Israel, it was very difficult to find the images of the Palestinian suicide bombers.

It is like its a tool for left-handed people only.

I guess it all comes down to how I teach my kids to use google at home, being observant.

Hopefully something new will come out.

I used google when it first came out, it seemed better than. I will have to a google experiment or two with my own website, once its up.

 

[ConHog]

This thread is stupid. Of course schools encourage their students to use every tool available to them to learn.

 

[mdn2000]

This thread is stupid. Of course schools encourage their students to use every tool available to them to learn.

Sorry if you see my question as stupid, it was only a simple question, that is all.

I wanted to know, I thought some people much younger than I would tell me their experiences, maybe a horror story, maybe no horror story, I find this a little more interesting than the endless "us against them" threads.

Just a nice little side thought.

 

[mdn2000]

Of course I am also aware that google is an advertisements, I think its more important that children learn that google is an advertising tool for corporations and special interest groups first and foremost.

Children should know that the results are paid advertisement.

Get a Grasp on Google's Content Network - Google Advertising Network - Entrepreneur.com

Google is now the largest advertising network in the world. Want to sell Frisbees in South Africa or upholstering in Kokomo Indiana? Every time someone searches the term Frisbee in Johannesburg, Google will show your ad. And you only pay when they click. Your ads can be showing in 15 minutes

 

[NYcarbineer]

People constantly use Google as a source, as an educational tool. I like to say Google is not a source.

I am just curious if the teachers in school tell the kids to go home and use Google or the internet to do homework.

If so I think that is wrong, the teacher unions, the government, the people in government can pay Google so that their ideas are found.

So a teacher states the USA is Satan, the teacher tells children to look it up. The child goes home, does a Google search and finds the answer the teacher paid to found.

So does the schools tell children to use the internet for homework.

Just because I can go to the library and find a book that says the Earth is 6000 years old does not mean that a library is not an educational tool.

 

[mdn2000]

People constantly use Google as a source, as an educational tool. I like to say Google is not a source.

I am just curious if the teachers in school tell the kids to go home and use Google or the internet to do homework.

If so I think that is wrong, the teacher unions, the government, the people in government can pay Google so that their ideas are found.

So a teacher states the USA is Satan, the teacher tells children to look it up. The child goes home, does a Google search and finds the answer the teacher paid to found.

So does the schools tell children to use the internet for homework.

Just because I can go to the library and find a book that says the Earth is 6000 years old does not mean that a library is not an educational tool.

You should step into the non-fiction section.

 

[Douger]

You're exactly right.
They should use YouTube.