Google = Unreliable for Students, According to Professors

University Professor Tara Barbazon says that Google is “the white bread of the mind,” according to The Times Online. Often, when people search, they don’t find the most accurate information. Because people can easily find whatever they feel they need on Google, there are even bigger problems: students aren’t as curious as they once were and are not looking for debate because the answers, they suppose, can be refuted easily by pulling up a search query.

She says, “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. Students live in an age of information, but what they lack is correct information. They turn to Wikipedia unquestioningly for information. Why wouldn’t they - it’s there.”

What’s next, then? Using Google and other search resources properly. Her students are banned from using Wikipedia and Google — at least in their first year of study. Instead, she provides each student 200 extracts from peer-reviewed texts. Her goal: “I want students to experience the pages and the print as much as the digitisation and the pixels - both are fine but I want students to have both – not one or the other, not a cheap solution.”

What do you think of her approach? Too traditional, or just right?