Google Is Google Making U.S.

¶ … Google IS GOOGLE MAKING U.S. STUPID? The Internet and the other inventions of the digital age have revolutionized modern life. To a large extent, those changes have been extremely beneficial because they streamline communications and many business applications. In academia, computers and the Internet have become essential tools even at the primary and secondary school level (Carr, 2008). However, concerns have been raised about the over- reliance on Internet search engines like Google, particularly among students.

Likewise, educators have noticed a marked increase in plagiarism attributable to such easy availability of online information sources and the availability of copying mechanisms included in standard personal computers (Girard, 2009). Beneficial Uses and Detrimental Influences of Internet Resources: Without question, digital technology, computers, and the Internet have become essential research tools as well as providing an entirely new medium for communication among students and between students and instructors; they have also greatly improved the efficiency of remote learning systems.

Whereas previous generations of students relied on the availability of library facilities to conduct even the most basic academic research, contemporary students have millions of volumes of references and periodicals, literally, at their fingertips. Furthermore, the introduction of search engines and the expansion of Google and Wikipedia have greatly simplified the process of academic research.

Similarly, computers are an invaluable help to writers at every level, because they permit instantaneous corrections that required retyping hard copies or correction fluid in previous generations, in addition to providing virtually unlimited data storage capabilities. However, as pointed out by Nicholas Carr in his article Is Google Making Us Stupid? (Atlantic, 2008), the Internet revolution also presents potential obstacles to academic progress.

By reducing academic research to a single automated electronic process that requires no more intellectual effort than a few computer keystrokes, superficial information portals like Google and Wikipedia may completely replace more thorough research methods to the detriment of students and academic institutions. Typically, academic searches at the high school and undergraduate level no longer differ substantially, either from one another, or even from those conducted by middle school students, now consisting of little more than typing in a few keywords into the exact same search fields.

In most cases, students conduct no further research beyond the first few websites that return information that looks credible at a glance (Carr, 2008). Even worse, educators have documented tremendous increases in the incidence of academic dishonesty that are directly attributable to the digital age, computers, and catch-all internet information portals like Google. The Internet and Academic Integrity: Academic dishonesty existed long before the advent of the computer.

However, the digital age has provided much more sophisticated methods of cheating on in-class exams, including real-time Internet searches or note retrieval during closed-book exams. In many schools, administrators have even documented instances of students sending one another real-time instant messages during exams (MJS, 2004). Academic dishonesty preceded the computer and Internet age, but the new technology has increased the temptation to take shortcuts and increased the sophistication of the available methods of all forms of cheating.

The area of academic integrity most affected by the widespread availability of online information sources is plagiarism in various forms. Until recently, students could copy and paste information directly from the Internet and turn it in as their own work for credit with relatively little risk because the chance of detection was very low. The sheer volume of available Internet sources made it comparatively easy to find sources of information with which any particular instructor is likely to be familiar.

To address this problem, educators have begun relying more heavily on commercial websites created specifically to provide educators a method of verifying the authenticity of work submitted to satisfy academic assignments. Essentially, websites like Turnitin.com provide a subscription service to educational facilities and allow the user to submit excerpts of academic work for a targeted comparison of published material as well as all other samples previously submitted for a plagiarism check.

This has resulted in a virtual online arms race between educators trying to identify plagiarized work and students hoping to.