there is nothing worse than somebody who over estimates his knowledge on a subject- limited knowledge is more dangerous than ignorance, i think google should be used for reference purposes and not for actual learning as this will damage our education system On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 4:16 PM, Watchman <skunkingrahim@gmail.com> wrote:
@David.
Agree with you,however i'm more keen on understanding whether we are actually acquiring more information and growing, or are we retaining only bits of information instead of learning. Yes. The internet has truly transformed what we know as information retrieval. We have everything at our disposal, yet statistically, we are not as intelligent as we should be.
According to the 2008 report information Behavior of the researcher of the Future, commissioned by the British library and the joint Information Systems Committee: *" Deep log studies show that, from undergraduates to professors, people exhibit a strong tendency toward shallow, horizontal, 'flicking' behavior in digital libraries. Society is dumbing down."*
Now, their question is similar to what i am saying which is, what are we doing, are we reading and learning or are we simply referencing and leaving? granted, we do take a piece of the cake with us but unless i'm mistaken, in the yester years, it would be a matter of reading through an entire book, gain the knowledge, understanding and the context of the book before writing a thesis paper and then citing the reference. Today, i am more than certain it is a matter of understanding who wrote the paper / book, get online, read the synopsis, get a brief, get information fast and then write your paper with citations.
This is not true to 100% of people, it is an example.
Watchman.
On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 3:51 PM, David Njuguna <dnjuguna@gmail.com> wrote:
Does information gotten from watching a 20hour series from a youtube educational playlist from say Stanford channel any less useful than that gotten from reading a book?
Man has and will always learn new things to survive. The medium through which the information is received has always changed and will always change. When books were invented man shifted from smoke signals to books. Books are great but at some point man had to let go of the smoke signals.
To heat up this discussion up a little, does watching House TV series make us dumb? (As opposed to reading a sci-fi novel). Does the fact that some of these TV shows' scripts are so intensely researched that they even have panels of writers make them better than good old books?
D
On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 11:45 AM, Watchman <skunkingrahim@gmail.com>wrote:
@Jonas
"has shifted me from having to know things to be able to look for things. Being able to recite a poem or remember an exact quote does not make sense any longer as it is more important to know how to find this information than it is to know it"
Isn't that what i've just advocated against? Does this not mean that what we are doing encourages us to rely on a non-experiential lifestyle? When wanting to watch a new movie. What do you do first?
@Muoki Cryptic. But true.
@sospeter
Compelling argument however when does this stop becoming a reference and become a lifestyle or moreover a necessary human function? Should it become a human function, when does it stop becoming a reference and become an influence?
Watchman.
On Sat, Dec 4, 2010 at 9:53 AM, <sospeter@elimu.co.ke> wrote:
Dear Watchman,
The internet does all that you have mentioned. It is not necessarily bad that one no longer reads books. They still get the information, whether it is through reading or injecting it into the system.
At the moment, we still read, but not books. Some of us listen too.
Man works through information and the human race will survive through getting more information, which will make them come up with different ways of doing stuff. Remember we started with sticks and stones for tools to metal and now plastics and sand and soon graphene....see?
As for schools not having caught up, that will happen soon enough. I'm in the business of providing a paradigm shift towards IT in schools. If the government encourages this, we will get all schools online ama?
My Cents, Regards.
Tragic to some. ever heard about someone who had an accident and rather than help, people took out there phones and started recording it. It does make us feel like who we are not.
On Sat, Dec 4, 2010 at 12:26 AM, Jonas | Lamu Software < jonas@lamusoftware.com> wrote:
Can only speak for myself but the Internet has shifted me from having to know things to be able to look for things. Being able to recite a poem or remember an exact quote does not make sense any longer as it is more important to know how to find this information than it is to know it. A lot of schools have unfortunately not caught up yet.
It is not necessarily a bad thing but people who are not able to make the shift (learn how to find reliable information) will be left behind.
I grew up without television so I still read a lot but only novels not tech books.
Don't think the Internet is that much about craving tech, more about information being freely available.
On 12/03/2010 11:45 PM, Watchman wrote:
> Every time a new tech launches, Man craves it. Granted it takes a while > to implement for example the automobile transition from Horse and > Carriage. But once it picks up.. e.g. the iOS devices, Man goes GAGA! > > What's the internet doing to us? > > Open discussion here. > > Is it making us a smarter community? more knowledgeable? more > intelligent or just more flick information dependent? > > The general and most widely used internet terminology i know of today > is.. Google it! > > heck, i use it too. But question is, how many of us actually read a > book > in this glorious day of the information highway? > > And yes, i do know it's a friday night. > > Watchman. > _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
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