As I was thinking about this I came across an article in today's Guardian by Baroness Susan Greenfield, explaining the debate she introduced in the House of Lords last week. I quote the central section, which discusses just this topic. As a comment (I put it here in case you don't get to the end of the article!) I would say, Read the Circe Handbook on WebQuest.
Information into knowledge
When you read a book, the author usually takes you by the hand and you travel from the beginning to the middle to the end in a continuous narrative of interconnected steps. It may not be a journey with which you agree, or one that you enjoy, but none the less, as you turn the pages, one train of thought succeeds the last in a logical fashion. We can then compare one narrative with another and, in so doing, start to build up a conceptual framework that enables us to evaluate further journeys, which, in turn, will influence our individualised framework. We can place an isolated fact in a context that gives it a significance. So traditional education has enabled us to turn information into knowledge.
Now imagine there is no robust conceptual framework. You are sitting in front of a multimedia presentation where you are unable, because you have not had the experience of many different intellectual journeys, to evaluate what is flashing up on the screen. The most immediate reaction would be to place a premium on the most obvious feature, the immediate sensory content, the "yuk" and "wow" factor.
You would be having an experience rather than learning. The sounds and sights of a fast-moving multimedia presentation displace any time for reflection, or any idiosyncratic or imaginative connections we might make as we turn the pages, and then stare at a wall to reflect upon them.
Navigation on the internet is wonderful - if you have a conceptual framework in which to embed the responses that flash up. But we should not assume that all children will be so well equipped. The UK Children Go Online investigation by Sonia Livingstone at the London School of Economics found that 92% of nine- to 19-year-olds have accessed the internet from a computer at home or school, but 30% have received no lessons at all on using the internet and only 33% of regular users have been taught how to judge the reliability of online information.
We have access to unlimited and up-to-date information at the touch of a button, but in this new, answer-rich world, surely we must ensure that we are able to pose appropriate, meaningful questions?
