Emerging Technologies Consulting

For years, we’ve been hearing about the Net Generation and how they are different, how they’re plugged in and we’d better be ready.  While I agree that the world is changing around us at a rather rapid pace when it comes to technology, I think assuming that the 18-25 set somehow gets it intuitively is very wrong.  Yes, some of them get it.  They use social media very effectively, building up an online presence that would be enviable of any social media guru.  They’re careful about what they put online and have a critical eye for media.  But for everyone one of those, there are many more who are not savvy about the online world.  They Facebook.  They use Google.  Just because someone can conduct a search doesn’t mean they’re doing it well.  Mark Bullen at Net Gen Skeptic gives us two posts on, Grown Up Digital, one of the many books out there that touts the wonders of the Net Generation.  In the first post, he points out the contrast between Tapscott’s research and research conducted in Britain to analyze the technology and search skills of generations of students.  From Tapscott:

On the Net, children have to search for, rather than simply look at, information. This forces them to develop thinking and investigative skills – and much more. They must become critics. Which Web sites are good? How can I tell what is real and what is fictitious – whether in a data source or in the teenage movie star in a chat session.

True enough, but just because they have to search doesn’t mean they do it well. In fact, Bullen points out that the study shows that students’ search skills have not improved: “internet research shows that the speed of young people’s web searching means that little time is spent in evaluating information, either for relevance, accuracy or authority.”  I have seen students in my office really struggle to find sources for papers.  When I ask them where they’ve looked, whether they’ve searched the library databases, I often get, The library has databases? I’ve looked for books, but haven’t found anything. I searched Amazon. Amazon.  That’s where they’re looking for research information.  Maybe better than Google, but still.  And these are smart, capable students.  All the librarians out there are in a rage, I’m sure.  Whenever I’m confronted with this personally, I actually show them how to do research.  Honestly, I start with Google Scholar.  It’s simple and easy to use, which the students recognize immediately.  I do tell them that only a small fraction of what’s available via the library is available via Google Scholar, but that often one reason to do the search is to figure out better keywords to use in the library databases, which is always where I go next.  Students are sometimes overwhelmed by the amount of information that comes up in both of these searches.  They’re also amazed at how I’ll sort the search, depending on what’s important: relevance, date, etc.  And I often scroll through pages of results, scanning for things that look useful.  Whether they take this information and use it or not, I don’t know, but it seems clear to me that many students cannot find and evaluate material.  They’re looking for a quick fix.  The ones that come to discuss it with me are actually the exceptions; they at least recognize that the quick search has not turned up anything useful.  The other 80% have probably settled for the quick search results.

Bullen’s other post points out the cloudy research methodology of Tapscott’s book.  First, he used as his sample people who were already online.  Almost everything was conducted online, often via Facebook.  As far as we know, and we don’t know much because the research is funded privately and therefore proprietary, he did not include in his sample students who aren’t on Facebook or who aren’t comfortable working online.  Like I said above, some students are good at navigating the online world, but I’ve seen many who are shy about it, confused by it, or playing with fire in it.  Even the ones who are in Facebook every day and who may keep a blog don’t necessarily know how to leverage their online presence to get a job or promote themselves.  And they may rely only on friends for evaluating information.

We need to continue to be skeptical about the information coming out of studies about the Net Generation.  And we need to continue to study the skills of students.  And we need to continue to teach those skills rather than simply shelter them by simply forcing them to use only hand-selected sources or worse, assuming they are good at finding and evaluating information.  Bullen, and other skeptics, are not suggesting that we avoid technology, but that we need to be critical of even the most fabulous-sounding technology.  Too often educators only reluctantly pay attention because they  feel they have to use technology to reach this generation.  It’s okay to be skeptical and critical.  We should think carefully about how we use technology in our teaching.  Technology only makes the world better if we use it effectively and ethically.  We need to help our students learn how to use the tools in ways that help them and hopefully will help the world.

Bionic Teaching points to a poster that sets up an opposition between the library and the Internet.  According to the poster, the library wins hands down.  Tom presents a point by point rebuttal that is spot on.  The thing is, this is a false dichotomy.  Yes, libraries have things that the Internet doesn’t, but the Internet has things (YouTube video anyone?) that the library doesn’t. They can exist together, and in fact, most of the librarians I know are completely web savvy and are working hard to bridge the gap between the library and the Internet and to take advantage of developments such as tagging and apply them to libraries.  I do a lot of research, both via the library and via the Internet.  I have to say that I’m frequently disappointed by my library research.  First, I have to figure out which database to do my search in.  Will what I need be in JSTOR or ProQuest or the MLA database?  Next, I have to figure out how to search.  Can I just put in some key words or do I need to know a special language in order to conduct a search? Then, I have to find the actual material.  Will there be a full-text version online and will I have to reconduct the search in order to find it or will there just be a link? (I have actually had to re-do a search before!)  Or will the material need to be ordered from another library or will I have to physically go pick up the material?  At any one of those points, I can get frustrated.  I end up using Google Scholar quite a bit, setting my preferences for my own library rather than try to figure out where and how to search.  Sometimes that ends up giving me a head start on an actual library searching, clueing me in to what database to use and what keywords are most likely to give me good results.  Sometimes I resort to plain old Google, hoping to find papers posted on faculty web sites or to find non-scholarly work related to my topic.  So, I see libraries and the Internet as co-existing.  Gatekeeping attitudes like the one represented by the poster only serve to turn people off to the library.  It makes me feel like I’m not good enough to set foot in one because I (gasp) use the Internet.  Libraries may need to simplify some of what they do (sometimes this is made more difficult by publishing companies) so that searching for library materials is more like searching Google, hopefully better!  And they definitely need to drop the attitude that there’s one right way to do research.  Research is a process that requires not just searching Google and searching library databases, but also knowing who to ask for suggestions, i.e. tapping into your network.  Libraries can be places where they teach this process effectively (I know many that do), and teachers need to do the same.  I’ve seen far too many students who don’t use the library resources, mostly because they find the process baffling.  Teachers need to a) help students learn this process and b) encourage them to visit the library and talk to a librarian in person (or via IM as many libraries now have this option).  The debate isn’t about *where* to find the best information but about *how* to find the best information, using the resources available to you.  Let’s have that discussion instead of pitting these two resources against each other.