Is the web making us stupid?

by | Wednesday, August 13, 2008

… or just narrow?

I just discovered Britannica blog, a pretty lively virtual space for intelligent discussion. How I had not come across it earlier is a mystery – but again that is the beauty of the web.

Anyway, there is an ongoing discussion there about how the web influences what we do. A provocative argument (based on data) being put forth by James Evans is regarding the influence of the availability of electronic resources on the research process.

As he says:

Recent research into library usage has measured the use of print and electronic resources, database access logs, circulation records, and reshelving counts. All agree with the obvious: print use is declining as electronic use increases, and because online indexing is much richer and more efficient than print, readers are much more likely to search online.

But did faster and easier really mean better and smarter?

Based on his research, he argues that though “searching online is more efficient, and hyperlinks quickly put researchers in touch with prevailing opinion, but they may also accelerate consensus and narrow the range of findings and ideas grappled with by scholars.”

I am not sure I quite agree with this. It seems to me that as more and more journals (and more importantly journal archives) go online, accessing information that was earlier difficult to get to (information that can be contrary to the prevailing opinion) is more easily accessible. So in some sense, Evans’ findings may be a function of where we are today, where more current offerings are available online and archival materials have not yet made it to the indexes of search engines.

In any case a fascinating set of issues to probe and ponder. Check out Research + Web = More Consensus, Less Diversity (At Least, So Far)

A few randomly selected blog posts…

Game of Thrones meets Toyota meets Systems Thinking

Game of Thrones meets Toyota meets Systems Thinking

Anyone who works in the area of social design knows how important it is to develop a systems-oriented mindset and how difficult it is to do so. One one hand, we know that sustained change is possible only when we work at the level of systems not individuals and...

12 Days of Christmas, the desi version

I love mongrel culture the mashing and creative remixing elements from different cultures and traditions to construct something new and, hopefully, wonderful. A great example is something my daughter, Shreya, showed me the other day. It is the 12 Days of Christmas...

Squaring a circle on Pi day!

Squaring a circle on Pi day!

Pie upon reflection is nothing but 3.14!A new version of a design I had created a year ago.Original idea stolen from the Interwebs Since it is Pi(e) day, I thought it would be fun to share another design I had created a while ago in response to one of the...

Teaching design, some ideas

I recently received an email from a teacher in Poland, seeking advice for a curriculum outline for their Design Technology Section. They said, and I quote: Unfortunately, I have minimal experience with the subject as a teacher or as a student in my younger years,...

TPACK newsletter #34, October 2017

TPACK newsletter #34, October 2017

The latest version of the TPACK newsletter (#34) is now available and can be  found here (pdf). All previous issues are archived here. As always, thanks to Judi Harris for all the work that goes into this.

Blogging SETS: Morning session

I am trying to live blog the conference: Symposium on Education Technology in Schools: Converging for Innovation & Creativity [Full agenda here]. Let us see how far I can keep this up. August 20: Morning session: The pre-conference session has been about meeting old...

Mind(ful) Wandering & Creativity: New article

Mind(ful) Wandering & Creativity: New article

Illustration by Punya Mishra We have covered a wide range of issues related to creativity, technology and learning in our almost decade-long series that we write for the journal TechTrends. Over the past few years we have conducted almost 30+ interviews with some of...

A couple of images… (for the heck of it)

Here are two images I created recently... August is the 8th month, so here is a little design to celebrate that fact! I had no particular reason to create this... but then again why let that get in the way of doing something... anything! The next is an image based on...

1 Comment

  1. Mike D

    Hmmm, Evans’ ideas sound vaguely familiar….

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *