Educational Luddites - Take 2

A professor at the University of Brighton has prohibited her students from using Google or Wikipedia. She is a professor who holds a BA, three masters and a doctorate and purports to understand technology.

She commented for the Times of London (and referenced in Inside Higher Education) - “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. “Google is filling, but it does not necessarily offer nutritional content,”

The Luddite in question (one Tara Brabazon) claims that easy access to information has dulled student's sense of curiosity and has somehow stifled debate. She comments “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."

On a bizarre twist of the availability heuristic (look it up professor) or (look it up here) she claims that they turn to Wikipedia "unquestioningly" because it is there. She cites her 18 years of teaching to suggest she has thought this out. She also argues that students need to learn interpretive skills before they learn "technology" skills.

I've had almost twice the experience of this professor. Indeed, I agree that "Students must be trained to be dynamic and critical thinkers rather than drifting to the first site returned through Google" (Her words) but that does not mean that one cannot train students to be dynamic and critical thinkers without cutting them from the technology they have grown up with. Isn't it the responsibility of a competent professor to teach those critical and analytical skills? Does Professor Brabazon actually think that all of the dusty collections in the library are of equal value simply because they were purchased by a librarian or a university purchasing committee?

The best of Wikipedia entries and search engines like Google offer a mixed bag - some very useful information and some less useful,some critically studied and some not. But look at the evidence. At least in the science area, Wikipedia seems to correct errors more quickly than other standard reference works. The value proposition of open source information is huge. The role and value of expertise in society is changing - that does not mean we should accept sloppy thinking either on the net or in the classroom. It is a shame that Ms. Brabazon wants to throw her shoe in a fit of misunderstanding. Has she not heard of a teachable moment?