For those who might not recognize the above ancient artifact it is what is called a slide ruler rule and for those of us that do retain terrified memories of having to learn how to use this precursor to the calculator it was our constant companion as we journeyed through the halls of education.
My introduction to this mind numbing hunk of wood came at a time when calculators where almost the size of small notebooks and were being frowned upon by math and science teachers everywhere. As their size got smaller their acceptance grew from being banned in test halls to being a required item by even the earliest school grades; but that didn’t change the feeling among teachers that the widening acceptance of things like calculators were carrying a hidden cost.
It is this hidden cost that once again raising its head; as it seems to lately every couple of months, as teachers in all education levels are becoming more vocal in their feeling that Internet institutions like Google and Wikipedia also carry this hidden cost as they are being used by more and more students.
Before looking at what this hidden cost could be we have to try and remember what education is about in the first place. The argument that the education establishment has tried to push is that education’s main purpose is to ready all those young minds for the real world that is ahead of them. As much as that argument is a complete fallacy teachers themselves know that the real purpose of education is to train us to think, to be able to cognitively link ideas, to express thoughts and back up those thoughts with logical processes. Education is all about stretching one’s abilities to think, imagine and express concepts and ideas.
Sure learning multiplication tables may not seem all that important on the surface, learning the periodic tables may seem mundane and grasping the social implications held within Hamlet may seem useless but the value is not in the act of doing those things. The value comes from making us reach beyond the act and gets us to reason the process of getting to the end product.
This brings us back to the hidden cost that things like slide rulers, calculators and Google have on education. As Professor Tara Brabazon was quoted by Andy Chiles in a post today:
Professor Tara Brabazon, from the University of Brighton, said too many young people around the world were taking the easy option when asked to do research and simply repeating the first things they found on internet searches.
This of course had Robert Scoble pass along his words of wisdom on the matter:
If I were a professor and I wanted my students to go deeper than “first level Google searches” I’d just grade tougher. Really, is it any more difficult than that? Geesh.
Well gee Robert that is really insightful except that you are forgetting one basic fact about human nature - we’re lazy. If we are given the choice to use a simple answer that has been provided for us or to actually use our brains and think through to a better answer 99.999% of people will always take the easier route.
We have become lazy thinkers and this can be seen from the way we read; or watch, our news right through to how we communicate with each other. Whether it be wanting to watch 4 minute YouTube clips over Robert’s 60 minute in-depth interviews to the bastardization of the English language that we see on the Internet if there is an easier, quicker way to do something that is the path that will be taken.
Do I think that banning things like Google and Wikipedia from the halls of education is the answer - no because that is again taking the lazy way out of the problem. As much as I might agree with teachers like Professor Brabazon that:
… young people were finishing education with shallow ideas and needed to learn interpretative skills before starting to use technology.
I don’t think that Robert’s solution of “grading tougher” is the answer either because I don’t think that as much as teachers want to provide their students with a true education the system doesn’t let them. Like the rest of the world the institution of education has become just as lazy where it is easier to go with the flow than it is to challenge.
(Note: as was kindly pointed out to this old fart it should be slide rule not slide ruler - correction has been made 
)
Listening to: Mind.in.A.box - Crossroads - Amensia
