[p2p-research] More on "Does the Internet Makes Kids Stupid(er)" from NY Times

[Maria Droujkova]

"Does it remind us of anything?" When the ancient Greeks were switching to
writing (from their oral tradition), many philosophers observed it
undermined the memory of their students, and cried for more stringent
measures to save the young minds.

Activities that assume filtering, cutting and pasting are different from
those that do not. Assignments that require low-level skills are made
trivial by the Internet:
http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+Digital+Taxonomy How about
changing the assignments?

For one incredibly powerful example of how this can be done, follow the work
of Michael Wesch. Check out hit YouTube videos, with millions of views, he
and his lucky students make for class, among other things:
http://ksuanth.weebly.com/wesch.html

"*It’s a question of whether we can preserve the methods through which
education at its best teaches people to think critically and originally."
*Really? Let's preserve OUR methods of thinking and tell THEM not to use
theirs. Because it works wonders for exchange of ideas, especially between
generations, especially when a big culture shift is happening.

Educators should ask themselves, diligently: "How can we help this
generation of students improve in their methods of work?" Only in the
context of this question the next one, "And how can we help them adopt those
of the past tools that still make sense?" can have any hope of being
meaningful.

Having said that, this generation writes (and composes other media)
significantly more than any past generation. Check out this video (by Wesch)
for some numbers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

Cheers,
Maria Droujkova

Make math your own, to make your own math.




On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 12:54 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>wrote:

>
>
> As a further follow-up to “Does the Internet Make Kids Stupid(er)” today’s
> NY Times had an interesting “editorial observer” article entitled
>  “Cutting and Pasting: A Senior Thesis by (Insert Name)”.  See:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/opinion/13tue4.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
>
> The gist is that cutting and pasting rather than thinking and analyzing
> starts early and is/will be hard to change and performance will be
> undermined as a result.  Unfortunately, there is no suggestion as to how
> this practice might be changed. Any thoughts from this group?  More/better
> software to catch cheaters...a scholastic police state?  More ethics?
>
> Here’s the conclusion from the NY Times:
>
> *Prof. Pritchard and his colleagues illustrated the point in a study of
> cheating behavior by M.I.T. students who used an online system to complete
> homework. The students who were found to have copied the most answers from
> others started out with the same math and physics skills as their
> harder-working classmates. But by skipping the actual work in homework, they
> fell behind in understanding and became significantly more likely to fail.
>
> The Pritchard axiom — that repetitive cheating undermines learning — has
> ominous implications for a world in which even junior high school students
> cut and paste from the Internet instead of producing their own writing.
>
> If we look closely at plagiarism as practiced by youngsters, we can see
> that they have a different relationship to the printed word than did the
> generations before them. When many young people think of writing, they don’t
> think of fashioning original sentences into a sustained thought. They think
> of making something like a collage of found passages and ideas from the
> Internet.
>
> They become like rap musicians who construct what they describe as new
> works by “sampling” (which is to say, cutting and pasting) beats and
> refrains from the works of others.
>
> This habit of mind is already pervasive in the culture and will be
> difficult to roll back. But parents, teachers and policy makers need to
> understand that this is not just a matter of personal style or generational
> expression. It’s a question of whether we can preserve the methods through
> which education at its best teaches people to think critically and original
> ly.
> *
>
>
>
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