[LINK] Expert: Internet is making kids lazy

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Expert: Internet is making kids lazy
By Wendy McAuliffe, ZDNet UK
15 October 2001
http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/hr/story/0,2000024989,20261149,00.htm

The drive to incorporate the Internet into education is undermining a
child's ability to retain knowledge, a leading professor in psychology has
warned.

Dr. Susan Blackmore, lecturer in psychology at the University of West
England in Bristol, claimed on Thursday that e-learning is making children
mentally lazy by encouraging them to rely on the click of a button for
information. She told the audience of academics attending the debate at the
Royal Institute that the expanse of information available on the Internet
is preventing school children from memorising and storing knowledge in
their brain.

"Traditionally, what has primarily been an issue for education has been
putting knowledge into kid's heads. But now it will be about showing them
how to navigate in that world," said Dr. Blackmore

Her argument is in direct contrast with the British government's push to
have all have all schools connected to the Internet by 2002. The Department
for Education and Skills (DfES) has set the National Grid for learning
baseline, which requires one computer for every 11 students in primary
schools, and one for every seven secondary school students by the end of
next year. It also sets the target for every school to be connected to the
Internet, with at least 20 percent of schools connected at a broadband
level.

"[The Internet] is a powerful tool--the government wants all pupils and
teachers to be fully capable in using this tool so that they can get the
best out of ITC information and communication technologies," said a DfES
spokesman. "There is a weight of evidence to show that ITC raises
standards, particularly when good ITC resources are combined with good ITC
training."

But Dr. Blackmore stated within the debate organised by the e-learning Web
site Boxmind, that teachers are "being sidelined by more efficient
knowledge manipulators in cyberspace." She concluded that the emphasis on
Internet learning is going to produce children with minds that are very
different from adults.

Last month, the renowned British scientist Stephen Hawking argued that the
increasing sophistication of computer technology is likely to outstrip
human intelligence in the future. He claimed that humans should be
genetically engineered if they are to compete with the phenomenal growth of
artificial intelligence.

-- 
Education is the process of casting false pearls before real swine.
-- Irwin Edman

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Sydney Australia
brd@dynamite.com.au
brd@austarmetro.com.au