[Google's] White bread for young minds, says university professor

London Times ^ | January 14, 2008 | Alexandra Frean, Education Editor

[america4vr]

What a marxist. >

Brilliant! Absolutely Brilliant!

[beejaa]

My brother is a history professor. He says that many of his students don’t seem to understand that research only begins with the internet. His students are not in the habit of turning to books for information.

[Aristotelian]

Your comments reminded me of the battle over translating The Bible into English. Most of the clergy didn’t want people empowered by being able to read the Bible themselves. They wanted to keep people beholding to the clergy, who held the key to the text.

William Tyndale, c.1494–1536, was an English biblical translator and Protestant martyr. He was determined to translate the New Testament into English. Tyndale went to Hamburg in 1524, visited Martin Luther in Wittenberg, and at Cologne began (1525) the printing of the New Testament.

Cardinal Wolsey ordered Tyndale seized at Worms. Living in concealment, Tyndale pursued his translation, issuing the Pentateuch (1530) and the Book of Jonah (1536). His work was later the basis of the King James Version of the Bible. Tyndale was seized (1535) in Antwerp and confined in Vilvoorde Castle, near Brussels. His trial ended in condemnation for heresy, and he was strangled at the stake before his body was burned.

See The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07. at http://www.bartleby.com/65/ty/Tyndale.html

[KarlInOhio]

She claims that many undergraduates arrive at university unable to discriminate between anecdotal and unsubstantiated material posted on the internet.

That's a problem whether dealing with the internet or the New York Times.

[modican]

easy access to information has dulled students,

Yeah, we heard that before, about 500 years ago. When they insisted the Earth was flat, and you were hanged, stating otherwise.

[modican]

There is virtually no difference between a Book and a LCD Monitor, both is Language, Letters and Reading.

[Aristotelian]

Again, I say, the Internet is merely a tool, like a public library. How people use it depends on a combination of factors. One of them is how well they were taught to think.

Take math. Why is it taught beyond rudimentary arithmetic to balance a checkbook? The answer is, math teaches us abstract reasoning. That’s why it is so important.

Students don’t know how to use the information on the Net probably because their teachers failed them. The kids aren’t to blame. Their teachers are.

[Liberty Valance]

[WoofDog123]

“My ordering and purchase of books has increased considerably since having a PC”

Arrggg! I remember the years of trying to find every used book store in the yellow pages when I visited another city, with no idea of what they might have of interest to me, and of the local shop that had a functional semi-monopoly on the topics that interested me.

The internet (Abebooks.com specifically) changed that in a way that was unimaginable 20 years ago.

[Enchante]

Google may be “white bread” but then, by further analogy, the Democrats are “marshmallow fluff on white bread” or the intellectual equivalent of a “fluffernutter” sandwich. Hey, Hillary, can we have another fluffernutter?

http://www.marshmallowfluff.com/pages/fluffernutter.html

[Bruce 22-250]

Sounds like the liberal Colleges are being exposed. Hard to lie and only show one side to any issue when people can fact check what you are saying.

[Aristotelian]

Countdown to Daytona: 34 days, 5 hours, 28 minutes, 57 seconds

[aruanan]

“Google offers easy answers to difficult questions. But students do not know how to tell if they come from serious, refereed work or are merely composed of shallow ideas, superficial surfing and fleeting commitments.

Teaching students how to distinguish between the two is the purpose of education. The inability to do so is not the fault of Google. If, after a college education, they are still unable to do so, the fault is still not that of Google.

[50sDad]

Oh, please. There was a media Talking Head on a few months ago lamenting that “real artists” were being short-changed by all the people on the Internet posting their own videos on Youtube.com. (How in the world could the little people possibly stay entertained without a government grant paying for a REAL artist to do it? It should be illegal!)

[Aristotelian]

It’s akin to saying, “Public libraries are to blame for illiteracy.”

[dfwgator]

The most important thing a person needs to develop is a good “BS Meter”, and schools don’t do a good job of that.

[Peter Libra]

The internet (Abebooks.com specifically) changed that in a way that was unimaginable 20 years ago.

Your reply to my post noted. I immediately used Google (laughs). I bookmarked the site. Now for another chuckle. Years ago in England I read an 1812 edition of "Prize Fighters Past And Present". Author Pierce Egan. It belonged to a local library. The volumes cost $3.500, as in original form. Collectors items. I knew that about twenty years ago, copies were made and cost $50.

I had tried in vain to get a copy. (None in stock).Can you believe it? Abebooks.com has information that more reprints were made in 2002. The copy will cost $19.95. True, by the time the book will come to Canada, I may fork out about $35.

I have wanted to read that book again for years.

Thank you lots.

[LikeLight]

Sounds like the liberal Colleges are being exposed. Hard to lie and only show one side to any issue when people can fact check what you are saying.

Unsettling for them, I'm sure.

[WoofDog123]

“Thank you lots.”

You are very welcome. Abebooks has been around many years as a used book inventory list. Originally you had to send payment separately to each vendor (quite an extra step, given the communication required), but a few years ago they started centrally processsing credit cards.

Amazon offers the same service now (and usually the same books, as dealers put their stock on both lists) but Abe still seems to have more depth/participation, and also has foreign dealers as well.

For rare and ancient titles, Abebooks is the only way to go, as amazon doesn’t even put that stuff on their site.

[Mears]

“—— but we did develop the skill set to research and disseminate-——”

---

True.

I spent hours in the Boston Public Library’s research room. No copiers around then,just tons of hand-written notes.