Comments on: Intelligence in Google world

By: Eric Nehrlich, Unrepentant Generalist || Living in the future || July || 2008

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:20:36 +0000

[...] everything in our life – “Who do I know that has the answer to my question?” Even in Google world, we still need to consult expertise. Sometimes the answer is obvious (if I have a home repair [...]

By: Eric Nehrlich, Unrepentant Generalist || Social capitalist || June || 2008

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:15:36 +0000

[...] Intelligence in Google world [...]

By: Mathias

Mathias — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:50:59 +0000

There was a pretty intriguing article in May's Wired magazine, which has some relevance, on the question on how technology can supplement intelligence. The article focuses on this guy who uses computer assistance in learning to never forget what he learns, which prompts the journalist to this remark: "As a science fiction fan, I had always assumed that when computers supplemented our intelligence, it would be because we outsourced some of our memory to them. We would ask questions, and our machines would give oracular â€” or supremely practical â€” replies. Wozniak has discovered a different route. When he entrusts his mental life to a machine, it is not to throw off the burden of thought but to make his mind more swift. Extreme knowledge is not something for which he programs a computer but for which his computer is programming him."

By: Jason Gruber

Jason Gruber — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 08:50:43 +0000

US version

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ljbI-363A2Q

By: Jason Gruber

Jason Gruber — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 08:41:55 +0000

Hi Eric

I think this needs to be watched when discussing anything to do with the change in the way we learn and how we teach learning.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QeoKQbT8BKs&NR=1

By: seppo

seppo — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:02:38 +0000

Oh, I totally agree re: HS education – it’s just that it’s even *more* broken, now. :\

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:10:14 +0000

Yeah, the question of education and teaching critical thinking is a really difficult one. I like Neil Postman's idea of presenting multiple perspectives, and making students develop arguments for or against those perspectives (he suggests Creation Science in particular as a good candidate). And I agree that high school education is broken, but I kind of feel it was broken even before Google. K-12 education in the US is designed for an industrial society where learning how to do things by rote and to learn to do as one is told are valued skills. Learning by rote doesn't work in a knowledge economy. I tend to feel that most smart people learn in spite of their education, not because of it.

By: seppo

seppo — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:04:56 +0000

“But over time, instead of adapting ourselves to the technology, we learn how to adapt the technology to suit us. Part of that is sheer familiarity – kids that grow up in Google world will adapt to it in ways that we can not even foresee yet.”

That’s the thing for me. When I think about something like MySpace, though I’m starting to “get it,” it’s clear that people who “grew up with it” use it in a much more… integrated way than I’m ever going to. Same will be of other parts of the internet, including Google.

Thing is, I’m not sure that current methods of teaching high school-aged kids really accounts for the presence of Google. Most papers and tests in HS are more about barfing back facts or segments of things that you were “fed,” and not about synthesizing those pieces into something new.

It’ll be interesting to see how you *teach* a population that has so much information readily at their fingertips.